582 ANTIQUITIES 



tarily engaged for the celebration of two masses a day 

 by two canons of the convent for ten years, for the 

 bishop's welfare, if he should live so long ; and for his 

 soul if he should die before the expiration of this 

 term 2 . 



At this distance of time it seems matter of great 

 wonder to us how these societies, so nobly endowed, 

 and whose members were exempt by their very institu- 

 tion from every means of personal and family expense, 

 could possibly run in debt without squandering their 

 revenues in a manner incompatible with their function. 



Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in 

 their revenues by fires among their buildings, or large 

 dilapidations from storms, &c. ; but no such accident 

 appears to have befallen the Priory of Selborne. Those 

 situate on public roads, or in great towns, where there 

 were shiines of saints, were liable to be intruded on by 

 travellers, devotees, and pilgrims ; and were subject to 

 the importunity of the poor, who swarmed at their 

 gates to partake of doles and broken victuals. Of 

 these disadvantages some convents used to complain, 

 and especially those at Canterbury; but this Priory, 

 from its sequestered situation, could seldom be subject 

 to either of these inconveniences, and therefore we 

 must attribute its frequent debts and embarrassments, 

 well endowed as it was, to the bad conduct of its 

 members, and a general inattention to the interests of 

 the institution. 



LETTER XVI. 



BEAUFORT was Bishop of Winchester from 1405 to 

 1447; and yet, notwithstanding this long episcopate, 

 only torn. i. of Beaufort's Register is to be found. This 

 loss is much to be regretted, as it must unavoidably 



3 Lowth's Life of Wykeham. 



