602 ANTIQUITIES 



of wonder that, when rechosen in 1472, he should not 

 long maintain his station ; as old age was then coming 

 fast upon him, and the increasing anarchy and misrule 

 of that declining institution required unusual vigour 

 and resolution to stem that torrent of profligacy which 

 was hurrying it on to its dissolution. We find, accord- 

 ingly, that in 1478 he resigned his dignity again into the 

 hands of the bishop. 



REG. WAYNFLETE. Fol. 55. 



Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne. 



May 14, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. 

 May 16, the bishop admitted his resignation " in mane- 

 rio suo de Waltham," and declared the priorship void ; 

 " et priorat. solacio destitutum esse ;" and granted his 

 letters for proceeding to a new election : when all the 

 religious, assembled in the chapter-house, did transfer 

 their power under their seal to the bishop by the follow- 

 ing public instrument. 



" In Dei nomine Amen," &c. A. D. 1478, Maii 19. In 

 the chapter-house for the election of a prior for that 

 day, on the free resignation of Peter Berne, having 

 celebrated in the first place mass at the high altar " De 

 spiritu sancto," and having called a chapter by tolling 

 a bell, ut moris est; in the presence of a notary and wit- 

 nesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas Ash- 

 ford, Stephen Clydgrove and John Ashton, presbyters, 

 and Henry Canwood l , in chapter assembled ; and after 

 singing the hymn " Veni Creator Spiritus," " cum versi- 

 culo et oratione 'Deus qui cor da;' declarataque licentia 

 Fundatoris et patroni futurum priorem eligendi con- 

 cessa, et constitutione consilii generalis que incipit 



1 Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years; and that 

 there was quite a new chapter, Berne excepted, between 1472 and 1478; 

 for, instead of Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, we find Ashford, Clyd- 

 grove, Ashton, and Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in their 

 turn off the stage, and are heard of no more. For, in six years after, 

 there seem to have been no canons at all. 



