THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 271 



of the hour and place of election being read, alta voce y in 

 valvis of the chapter-house ; John Wynchestre, senior, the 

 sub-prior, in his own behalf, and that of all the canons, 

 and by their mandate, " quasdam monicionem et protesta- 

 cionem in scriptis redactas fecit, legit, et interposuit " that 

 all persons disqualified, or not having right to be present, 

 should immediately withdraw ; and protesting against their 

 voting, &c. ; that then having read the constitution of the 

 general council " Quia propter," and explained the modes 

 of proceeding to election, they agreed unanimously to 

 proceed "per viam seu formam simplicis compromissi \" 

 when John Wynchestre, sub-prior, and all the others (the 

 commissaries under -named excepted) named and chose 

 brothers Richard Elstede, Thomas Haly borne y John Lemyngton, 

 the sacrist, John Stepe, chantor, and Richard Putworth> 

 canons, to be commissaries, who were sworn each to 

 nominate and elect a fit person to be prior : and empowered 

 by letters patent under the common seal, to be in force 

 only until the darkness of the night of the same day ; 

 that they, or the greater part of them, should elect for 

 the whole convent, within the limited time, from their own 

 number, or from the rest of the convent ; that one of them 

 should publish their consent in common before the clergy 

 and people: they then all promised to receive as prior 

 the person these five canons should fix on. These com- 

 missaries seceded from the chapter-house to the refectory 

 of the Priory, and were shut in with Master John Penkester, 

 bachelor of laws, and John Couke and John Lynne, perpetual 

 vicars of the parish churches of Newton and Selborne, and 

 with Sampson Maycock, a public notary ; where they treated 

 of the election ; when they unanimously agreed on John 

 Wynchestre, and appointed Thomas Halyborne to chuse him 

 in common for all, and to publish the election as customary, 

 and returned long before it was dark to the chapter-house, 

 where Thomas Halyborne read publicly the instrument of 

 election ; when all the brothers, the new prior excepted, 

 singing solemnly the hymn "Te Deum laudamus,"/*jrr**/ 

 deportari novum electum, by some of the brothers from the 



