LETTER XXIV 



BISHOP WAYNEFLETE'S efforts to continue the Priory still 

 proved unsuccessful ; and the convent, without any canons, 

 and for some time without a prior, was tending swiftly 

 to it's dissolution. 



When Sharp's alias Glastonbury 's priorship ended does 

 not appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged 

 to remove some priors for male-administration : but it is 

 not well explained how that could be the case with any 

 unless with Sharp, because all the others chosen during his 

 episcopate died in their office, viz. t Morton and Fairwise ; 

 Berne only excepted, who relinquished twice voluntarily, 

 and was, moreover, approved of by Wayneflete as a person 

 of integrity. But the way to show what ineffectual pains 

 the bishop took, and what difficulties he met with, will be 

 to quote the words of the libel of his proctor, Radolphus 

 Langley, who appeared for the bishop in the process of 

 the impropriation of the Priory of Selborne. The extract 

 is taken from an attested copy. 



" Item that the said bishop dicto prioratui et personis 

 ejusdem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, 

 et diligentias gravissimas quam plurimas, tarn per se quam 

 per suos, pro reformatione premissorum impendebat ; et 

 aliquando illius loci prioribus, propter malam et inutilem 

 administrationem, et dispensationem bonorum predict! 

 prioratus, suis demeritis exigentibus, amotis ; alios priores 

 in quorum circumspectione et diligentia confidebat, pre- 

 fecit ; quos tamen male se habuisse ac inutiliter adminis- 



trare, et administrasse, usque ad presentia tempora post 



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