352 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 



Fundatoris et patroni ; futurum priorem eligendi concessa, et con- 

 stitutione consilii generalis que incipit ' Quia propterj declaratis : 

 viisque per quas possent ad hanc electionem procedere," by the 

 decretotum 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, promising to receive whom he should provide ; and 

 appointed 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 Glastenbury. 



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 mis- 

 management that had pervaded the society ; but he acknowledges, 

 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 pre- 

 sentia tempora post debitam investigationem, &c., invenit." The 

 only time that he appointed from among the canons, he 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 re-chosen, and had abdicated a 

 second time, we find him in a forlorn state, and in danger of being 



