THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 281 



1468. This certificate being read, the four canons of 

 Selborne appeared and required the election to be con- 

 firmed ; et ex super abundanti appointed William Long their 

 proctor to solicit in their name that he might be canoni- 

 cally confirmed. John Morton also appeared, and proclama- 

 tion was made; and no one appearing against him, the 

 commissary pronounced all absentees contumacious, and 

 precluded them from objecting at any other time ; and, 

 at the instance of John Morton and the proctor, con- 

 firmed the election by his decree, and directed his mandate 

 to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton Valence 

 to install him in the usual form. 



Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the 

 convent of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, 

 elected prior ; though the style of the petitions in former 

 elections used to run thus, " Vos - - - - rogamus quatinus 

 eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, 

 licentiam vestram nobis concedere dignemini." 



VOL. II. 2 N 



