604 ANTIQUITIES 



made choice of Peter Berne, for whom he had conceived 

 the greatest esteem and regard. 



When prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he 

 returned again to his former condition of canon, in 

 which he continued for some years : but when he was 

 rechosen, and had abdicated a second time, we find him 

 in a forlorn state, and in danger of being reduced to 

 beggary, had not the Bishop of Winchester interposed 

 in his favour, and with great humanity insisted on a 

 provision for him for life. The reason for this differ- 

 ence seems to have been, that, in the first case, though 

 in years, he might have been hale and capable of taking 

 his share in the duty of the convent; in the second, he 

 was broken with age, and no longer equal to the func- 

 tions of a canon. 



Impressed with this idea the bishop very benevo- 

 lently interceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions 

 on the new elected prior in the following manner. 



Fol. 56. " In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c. 

 considerantes Petruni Berne," late prior " in adminis- 

 tratione spiritualium et temporalium prioratus lauda- 

 biliter vixisse et rexisse; ipsumque senio et corporis 

 debilitate confractum ; ne in opprobrium religionis men- 

 dicari cogatur ; eidem annuam pensionem a Domino 

 Johanne Sharp, alias Glastonbury, priore moderno," 

 and his successors, and, from the Priory or church, to 

 be paid every year during his life, " de voluntate et ex 

 consensu expressis " of the said John Sharp, " sub ea 

 que sequitur forma verborum assignamus :" 



1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the 

 time being, honeste exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of 

 the priorship, " eidem esculenta et potulenta," while he 

 remained in the Priory, " sub consimili portione eorun- 

 dem prout convenienter priori," for the time being, 

 ministrari contigerit ; and in like manner uni famulo, 

 whom he should choose to wait on him, as to the servi- 

 entibus of the prior. 



