OF SELBOKNE 297 



WAYNFLETE REG. fol. 55. 



Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne. 



May 14, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. May 16 

 the bishop admitted his resignation " in manerio suo de Waltham," 

 and declared the priorship void ; " et priorat. solacio destitu- 

 " turn 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 

 following 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 witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas Ashford, 

 Stephen Clydegrove, and John Ashton, presbyters, and Henry Can- 

 wood, 1 in chapter assembled ; and after singing the hymn " Veni 

 Creator Spiritus," " cum versiculo et oratione ' Deus qui corda ' ; 

 " declarataque licentia Fundatoris et Patroni ; futurum priorem 

 " eligendi concessa, et constitutione consilii generalis que incipit 

 " ' 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, 

 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. sub- 

 scribed by the notary. 



After the visitor had fully deliberated on the matter, he pro- 

 ceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the following 

 instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastenbury. 



Fol. 56. PROVISIO PRIORIS per EPM. 



Willtnus, &c. to our beloved brother in CHRIST John Sharp, alias 

 Glastenbury, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, of the order of St. 



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, Clydegrove, Ashton, and Can- 

 wood, all new men, who were soon gone in their turn o'ff the stage, and are heard 

 of no more. For, in six years after, there seem to have been no canons at all. 



