OF SELBORNE. 589 



LETTER XVIII. 



WILLIAM OF WAYNFLETE became Bishop of Win- 

 chester in the year 1447, and seems to have pursued 

 the generous plan of Wykeham, in endeavouring to 

 reform the priory of Selborne. 



When Waynflete came to the see he found prior 

 Stype, alias Stepe, still living, who had been elected as 

 long ago as the year 1411. 



Among my documents I find a curious paper of the 

 things put into the custody of Peter Bernes the sacrist, 

 and especially some relics : the title of this evidence is 

 " No. 50. Indentura prioris de Selborne quorundam 

 tradit. Petro Bernes sacristae, ibidem, ann. Hen. VI. . . . 

 una cum confiss. ejusdem Petri script." The occasion 

 of this catalogue, or list of effects, being drawn between 

 the prior and sacrist does not appear, nor the date when ; 

 only that it happened in the reign of Hen. VI. This 

 transaction probably took place when Bernes entered 

 on his office ; and there is the more reason to suppose 

 that to be the case, because the list consists of vest 

 inents and implements, and relics, such as belonged to 

 the church of the Priory, and fell under the care of the 

 sacrist. I shall just mention the relics, although they 

 are not all specified ; and the state of the live stock of 

 the monastery at that juncture. 



" Item 2 osculator. argent. 



"Item 1 osculatorium cum osse digiti auricular. 

 S u . Johannis Baptistae 1 . 



" Men of holie kirk 



Shall turne as Templars did ; the tyme approacheth nere". 



" This, I suppose, was a favourite doctrine in Wickliffe's discourses." 

 Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 282. 



1 How the convent came by the bone of the little finger of St. John 

 the Baptist does not appear ; probably the founder, while in Palestine, 

 purchased it among the Asiatics, who were at that time great traders in 



