THE ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 295 



debitam investigationem, &c., invenit." So that he de- 

 spaired with all his care "statum ejusdem reparare vel 

 restaurare ; et considerata temporis malicia, et preteritis 

 timendo et conjecturando futura, de aliqua bona et sancta 

 religione ejusdem ordinis, &c., juxta piam intentionem 

 primevi fundatoris ibidem habend, desperatur." 



William Wainfleet, bishop of Winchester, founded his 

 college of Saint Mary Magdalene in the university of Oxford, 

 in or about the year 1459 ; but the revenues proving in- 

 sufficient for so large and noble an establishment, the 

 college supplicated the founder to augment it's income by 

 putting it in possession of the estates belonging to the 

 Priory of Selborne, now become a deserted convent, without 

 canons or prior. The president and fellows state the cir- 

 cumstances of their numerous institution and scanty pro- 

 vision and the ruinous and perverted condition of the 

 Priory. The bishop appoints commissaries to inquire into 

 the state of the said monastery ; and, if found expedient, 

 to confirm the appropriation of it to the college, which 

 soon after appoints attornies to take possession, September 

 24, 1484. But the way to give the reader a thorough 

 insight respecting this transaction, will be to transcribe a 

 farther proportion of the process of the impropriation from 

 the beginning, which will lay open the manner of proceed- 

 ing, and show the consent of the parties. 



IMPROPRIATIO SELBORNE, 1485. 



" Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus 

 gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &C., 1 ad 

 universitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c., quod coram 

 nobis commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S li . Georgii 



1 Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards called the 

 New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. Should any intel- 

 ligent reader wonder to see that the prior of Hyde Abbey was commissary to the 

 bishop of Winton, and should conclude that there was a mistake in titles, and 

 that the abbot must have been here meant ; he will be pleased to recollect that this 

 person was the second in rank ; for, " next under the abbot, in every abbey, was 

 the prior." Pref. to Notit. Monast., p. 29. Besides, abbots were great person- 

 ages, and too high in station to submit to any office under the bishop. [G. W.] 



