ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 363 



Visitatio de Seleburne, held at the Priory of that place, by 

 Wykeham in person, in the year 1387. 



This evidence, in the original, is written on two skins of 

 parchment ; the one large, and the other smaller, and consists of 

 a preamble, thirty-six items, and a conclusion, which altogether 

 evince the patient investigation of the visitor, for which he had 

 always been so remarkable in all matters of moment, and how 

 much he had at heart the regularity of those institutions, of 

 whose efficacy in their prayers for the dead he was so firmly 

 persuaded. As the bishop was so much in earnest, we may be 

 assured that he had nothing in view but to correct and reform 

 what he found amiss ; and was under no bias to blacken, or 

 misrepresent, as the commissioners of Thomas Lord Cromwell 

 seem in part to have done at the time of the reformation.* We 

 may therefore with reason suppose that the bishop gives us ah 

 exact delineation of the morals and manners of the canons of 

 Selborne at that juncture ; and that what he found they had 

 omitted he enjoins them ; and for what they had done amiss, 

 and contrary to their rules and statutes, he reproves them; and 

 threatens them with punishment suitable to their irregularities. 



This visitatio is of considerable length, and cannot be intro- 

 duced into this work ; we shall therefore only take some notice, 

 and make some remarks, on the most singular items as they 

 occur. 



In the preamble the visitor says " Considering the charge 

 lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our hands, 

 we came down to visit your Priory, as our office required : and 

 every time we repeated our visitation we found something still 

 not only contrary to regular rules, but also repugnant to religion 

 and good reputation/' 



In the first article after the preamble " he commands them 

 on their obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunication, 

 to see that the canonical hours by night and by day be sung in 

 their choir, and the masses of the Blessed Mary, and other 

 accustomed masses, be celebrated at the proper hours with de- 

 votion, and at moderate pauses ; and that it be not allowed to 

 any to absent themselves from the hours and masses, or to 

 withdraw before they are finished." 



ITEM 2d. " He enjoins them to observe that silence to which 

 they are so strictly bound by the rule of Saint Augustine at 



* Letters of this sort from Dr. Layton to Thomas Lord Cromwell are still extant. 



