OF SELBORNE. 603 



c Quia propter' declaratis ; viisque per quas possent ad 

 hanc electionem procedere," by the decretorum doctorem, 

 whom the canons had taken to direct them they all 

 and every one " dixerunt et affirmarunt se nolle ad 

 aliquam viam procedere:" but, for this turn only, 

 renounced their right, and unanimously transferred their 

 power to the bishop, the ordinary of the place, pro- 

 mising to receive whom he should provide; and ap- 

 pointed a proctor to present the instrument to the 

 bishop under their seal; and required their notary to 

 draw it up in due form, &c. subscribed by the notary. 



After the visitor had fully deliberated on the matter, 

 he proceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by 

 the following instrument, John Sharp, alias Glasten- 

 bury. 



Fol. 56. Provisio Prioris per Epm. 



Willmus, &c. to our beloved brother in CHRIST, 

 John Sharp, alias Glastenbury, Ecclesie conventualis 

 de Bruton, of the order of St. Austin, in the diocese of 

 Bath and Wells, canon-regular, salutem, &c. " De tue 

 circumspectionis industria plurimum confidentes, te 

 virum providum et discretum, literarum scientia, et 

 moribus merito commendandum, &c. do appoint you 

 prior under our seal. " Dat. in manerio nostro de 

 Suthwaltham, May 20, 1478, et nostre Consec. 31." 



Thus did the bishop, three times out of the four that 

 he was at liberty to nominate, appoint a prior from a 

 distance, a stranger to the place, to govern the convent 

 of Selborne, hoping by this method to have broken the 

 cabal, and to have interrupted that habit of mismanage- 

 ment that had pervaded the society: but he acknow- 

 ledges, in an evidence lying before us, that he never 

 did succeed to his wishes with respect to those late 

 governors, " quos tamen male se habuisse, et inutiliter 

 administrare, et administrasse usque ad presentia tem- 

 pora post debitam investigationem, &c. invenit." The 

 only time that he appointed from among the canons, he 



