OF SELBORNE. 577 



stock " sicut antiquitus fieri consueverat ; " and have 

 also the use of the rooms of the infirmary : yet such is 

 the tenor of this item. It appears as though some one 

 had claimed for himself a property in the infirmary, to 

 the exclusion of the others.] 



[Item 22nd. Since negligence or remissness towards 

 offenders is in itself detestable, and since facility of 

 pardon operates as an incentive to delinquency ; orders 

 that, without exception of persons, correction shall be 

 used according to the amount of the delinquency ; and 

 that the regular observances shall be duly kept.] 



Item 23d. He bids them distribute their pittances, 

 "pitancias 9 ," regularly on obits, anniversaries, festi- 

 vals, &c. 



[Item 24th. Prohibits the sale of wood, the farming 

 out of manors or of churches, or the transaction of 

 any other important business, without consultation and 

 consent of the whole convent, or of the larger and dis- 

 creeter portion of it : otherwise there is no validity in 

 the proceeding. " Ilia quoque que omnes tangunt ab 

 omnibus merito debeant approbari."] 



Item 25th. All and every one of the canons are 

 hereby inhibited from standing godfather to any boy 

 for the future, " ne compatres alicujus pueri de cetero 

 fieri presumatis," unless by express license from the 

 bishop obtained ; because from such relationship favour 

 and affection, nepotism, and undue influence, arise, to 

 the injury and detriment of religious institutions 10 . 



9 " Pitancia, an allowance of bread and beer, or other provision to any 

 pious use, especially to the religious in a monastery, &c. for augmenta- 

 tion of their commons." Gloss, to Rennet's Par. Antiq. 



10 The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who 

 were called spiritual sons and daughters, was formerly esteemed much 

 more sacred than at present. The presents at christenings were some- 

 times very considerable: the connexion lasted through life, and was 

 closed with a legacy. This last mark of attention seems to have been 

 thought almost indispensable : for, in a will, from whence no extracts 

 have been given, the testator left every one of his god-children a bushel 

 of barley." Sir John Cu Hum's Hist, of Hawsted. 



" D. Margarets filiae Regis primogenitae, quam filiolam, quia ejus in 



P P 



