264 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 



their business 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 14 we are informed that the original number 

 of canons at the Priory of Selborne was fourteen ; but that 

 at this visitation they were found to be let down to eleven. 

 The visitor therefore strongly and earnestly enjoins them 

 that, with all due speed and diligence, they should proceed 

 to the election of proper persons to fill up the vacancies, 

 under pain of the greater excommunication. 



In Item zyth the prior and canons are accused of 

 suffering, through neglect, notorious dilapidations to take 

 place among their manerial houses and tenements, and in 

 the walls and enclosures of the convent itself, to the shame 

 and scandal of the institution ; they are therefore enjoined, 

 under pain of suspension, to repair all defects within the 

 space of six months. 



Item i8th charges them with grievously burthening the 

 said Priory by means of sales, and grants of liveries^ and 

 corrodies? 



The bishop, in item i9th, accuses the canons of neglect 

 and omission with respect to their perpetual chantry-services. 



Item 2oth. The visitor here conjures the prior and 

 canons not to withhold their original alms, " eleemosynas" ; 

 nor those that they were enjoined to distribute for the 

 good of the souls of founders and benefactors : he also 

 strictly orders that the fragments and broken victuals, both 

 from the hall of their prior and their common refectory, 

 should be carefully collected together by their eleemosynarius, 

 and given to the poor without any diminution ; the officer 

 to be suspended for neglect or omission. 



1 Liberationes ', or liberaturce, allowances of corn, &c. , to servants, delivered at 

 certain times and in certain quantities, as clothes were among the allowances from 

 religious houses to their dependants. See the corrodies granted by Croyland 

 abbey. Hist, of Croyland, Appendix No. XXXIV. [G. W.] 



"It is not improbable that the word in after-ages came to be confined to the 

 uniform of the retainers or servants of the great, who were hence called livery 

 servants" Sir John Callum's Hist, of Hawsted. [G. W.] 



2 A corrody is an allowance to a servant living in an abbey or priory. [G. W.] 



