386 ANTIQUITIES OP SELBORNE. 



to have been, that, in the first case, though in years, he might 

 have been hale and capable of taking his share in the duty of the 

 convent ; in the second, he was broken with age, and no longer 

 equal to the functions of a canon. 



Impressed with this idea the bishop very benevolently in- 

 terceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the new- 

 elected prior in the following manner. 



Fol. 56. "In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c. consi- 

 derantes Petrum Berne/' late prior "in administratione spiri- 

 tualium et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et rexisse ; 

 ipsumque senio et corporis debilitate confractum ; ne in oppro- 

 brium religionis mendicari cogatur ; eidem annuam pensionem 

 a Domino Johanne Sharp, alias Glastonbury, priore moderno," 

 and his successors, and, from the Priory or church, to be paid 

 every year during his life, "de voluntate et ex consensu ex- 

 pressis" of the said John Sharp, " sub ea que sequitur forma 

 verborum assignamus :" 



1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time 

 being, honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of the prior- 

 ship, "eidem esculenta et poculenta," while he remained in the 

 Priory " sub consimili portione eorundem prout convenienter 

 priori," for the time being, ministrari contigerit; and in like 

 manner uni famulo, whom he should choose to wait on him, 

 as to the servientibus of the prior. 



Item. "Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam 

 cameram," in the Priory, " cum focalibus necessariis seu oppor- 

 tunis ad eundem." 



Item. We will, ordain, &c.~ to the said P. Berne an annual 

 pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the Priory, to be paid 

 by the hands of the prior quarterly. 



The bishop decrees further, that John Sharp, and his succes- 

 sors, shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and that 

 before their installation. 



" Lecta et facta sunt haec in quodam alto oratorio," belonging 

 to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25, 1478, in the presence of 

 John Sharp, who gave his assent, and then took the oath before 

 witnesses, with the other oaths before the chancellor, who 

 decreed he should be inducted and installed ; as was done that 

 same day. 



How John Sharp, alias Glastonbury, acquitted himself in his 

 priorship, and in what manner he made a vacancy, whether by 



