OF SELBORNE 279 



In Item 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are given 

 to wander out of the precincts of the convent without leave ; and 

 that others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence of 

 inspecting the concerns of the society, when they please, and stay 

 as long as they please. But they are enjoined never to stir either 

 about their own private concerns or the business of the convent 

 without leave from the prior : and no canon is to go alone, but 

 to have a grave brother to accompany him. 



The injunction in Item 10th, at this distance of time, appears 

 rather ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very serious on the 

 occasion, and says that it has been evidently proved to him that 

 some of the canons, living dissolutely after the flesh, and not after 

 the spirit, sleep naked in their beds without their breeches and 

 shirts, " absque femoralibus et camisiis "^ He enjoins that these 

 culprits shall be punished by severe fasting, especially if they 

 shall be found to be faulty a third time ; and threatens the prior 

 and sub-prior with suspension if they do not correct this enormity. 



In Item 1 1 th the good bishop is very wroth with some of the 

 canons, whom he finds to be professed hunters and sportsmen, 

 keeping hounds, and publicly attending hunting-matches. These 

 pursuits, he says, occasion much dissipation, danger to the soul 

 and body, and frequent expense ; he, therefore, wishing to extir- 

 pate this vice wholly from the convent, " radicibus extirpare" does 

 absolutely enjoin the canons never intentionally to be present at 

 any public noisy tumultuous huntings ; or to keep any hounds, 

 by themselves or by others, openly or by stealth, within the 

 convent, or without. 2 



In Item 1 2th he forbids the canons in office to make their busi- 

 ness a plea for not attending the service of the choir ; since by 

 these means either divine worship is neglected or their brother- 

 canons are over-burdened. 



By Item 14th we are informed that the original number of 

 canons at the Priory of Selborne was jourteen ; but that at this 

 visitation they were found to be let down to eleven. The visitor 



1 The rule alluded to in Item xoth, of not sleeping naked, was enjoined the 

 Knights Templars, who also were subject to the rules of St. Augustine. 



See Gurtleri Hist. Templariorum. 



2 Considering the strong propensity in human nature towards the pleasures of 

 the chase, it is not to be wondered that the canons of Selborne should languish after 

 hunting, when, from their situation so near the precincts of Wolmer-forest, the kirg's 

 hounds must have been often in hearing, and sometimes in sight from their windows. 



If the bishop was so offended at these sporting canons, what would he have said 



to our modern fox-hunting divines ? 



