RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



For sixty years Sele enjoyed an independent 

 existence, but in 1459 Waynflete, bishop of 

 Winchester, acquired the patronage of the priory 

 from John duke of Norfolk, 181 and obtained the 

 leave of the pope and the bishop of Chichester to 

 appropriate it to his newly founded college of 

 St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford. The appropriation 

 was to take effect upon the cession of the monks, 

 and it was not until 1480 that the last survivor 

 was pensioned off and the priory finally con- 

 firmed to the college. For thirteen years the 

 buildings lay unoccupied, and then, in 1493, 

 they were granted to the Carmelite Friars of 

 Shoreham, whose original house was threatened 

 with destruction by the inroads of the sea. 



Many records remain of lawsuits and con- 

 troversies between the monks and the neighbour- 

 ing clergy, both regular and secular, chiefly on 

 the subject of tithes, but of the internal history 

 of the priory little can be said previous to the 

 fifteenth century. In 1256 there is notice of 

 the bestowal of a corrody and the office of gate- 

 keeper upon an old servant, 182 and the reversion of 

 another corrody was granted by Prior Gilbert in 

 I 343- 133 Archbishop Peckham appears to have 

 been there in I282, 184 and Edward I stayed here 

 in September, 1302, on his way from Arundel 

 to Patching. 185 In 1308 the bishop of Enagh- 

 dun, acting as a suffragan, dedicated the priory 

 church, which is on this occasion called the 

 church of St. Peter and St. Paul, though in most 

 cases the invocation is given as St. Peter only. 

 Besides the high altar two others, those of St. 

 Mary and St. John, were consecrated at this 

 time, and indulgence promised to all who would 

 visit and enrich the church. 186 This church served 

 the parish as well as the priory, and by a decree 

 of 1283 the parishioners were made responsible 

 for the repairs of the nave, belfry, bells, and 

 bell-ropes. 187 



A full inventory of the goods of the priory 

 taken in 1412, during the long rule of Stephen 

 de Sauz, seems eloquent of careful poverty. 188 

 The furniture is sufficient but of the plainest 

 description ; with the exception of three silver 

 chalices in the church and a piece of silver and six 

 silver spoons in the buttery no article was of 

 more precious material than copper, save that the 

 image of the Blessed Virgin in the chapel at the 

 bridge had three silver rings and six necklaces. 

 Under Stephen's successors the poverty persisted 

 but the care ceased, and the house fell into great 

 disorder, spiritual as well as material. 



Bishop Praty visited Sele in October, I44I, 189 



181 Cartwright, op. cit. xxxv. 



181 Suit. Arch. Coll. x, 125. 



185 Pat. 17 Edw. IV, pt. i, m. 18. 



184 Reg. Epist. J. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), iii, 1058. 



185 Pat. 30 Edw. I, m 15. 



186 Cartwright, xxv. 



187 Ibid. xix. 188 Ibid. xxix. 

 189 Chich. Epis. Reg. Praty, fol. 72. 



and again in the following January. 190 John 

 Lewis was then prior, and there were three other 

 brethren. The prior was found guilty of having 

 obtained his office by simony, and of gross im- 

 morality ; he was seldom present at mattins, 

 allowed the daily mass of the Blessed Virgin 

 to be omitted, and often left the church 

 without bread and wine, so that the Eucharist 

 could not be celebrated ; nor was he more 

 careful in temporal matters, for he wasted the 

 property of the house and had involved it deeply 

 in debt, retaining the common seal in his own 

 hands and making grants without consulting his 

 brethren. As a result of this visitation Prior 

 Lewis was removed from office ; but matters 

 were little improved, and when John Grigge, who 

 was prior for fourteen years, was forced to resign 

 in 1463 the house had almost been crushed out 

 of existence by debt and mismanagement. In 

 November, 1462, the duke of Norfolk wrote to 

 the dean of South Mailing, certain gentry, and 

 all other persons having fees or pensions from the 

 priory of Sele, that, as the house had fallen into 

 such great poverty that divine service was like 

 soon to be omitted, therefore they should refrain 

 from taking the fees which they claimed, on 

 pain of his displeasure. An attempt seems to 

 have been made to improve the administration of 

 the priory by putting its temporalities into the 

 possession of John Lamport, clerk, Edmund 

 Fitzwilliam, Thomas Toftes and Robert Dai- 

 ling, esqs., who granted a lease in 1462 as 

 ' ministers for the house and priory of Sele.' 

 During his period of office Prior Grigge had 

 alienated more than a hundred cattle and eighty 

 swine, all the carts and the furniture of the 

 house, a quantity of plate, including three silver 

 chalices and a gilt box for the Sacrament, and 

 had compiled a debt of over 300 marks, reducing 

 the income of the house to j8. m 



On John Grigge 's resignation Richard Alleyne, 

 cellarer of Battle, bribed one Thomas Tofts to use 

 his influence with the bishop for his election, and 

 was accordingly appointed prior of Sele. He 

 then agreed, for a payment of 20, to resign his 

 office to Ralph Alleyne, a monk, who at once, 

 without obtaining episcopal confirmation, acted 

 as prior and caused a seal to be engraved for his 

 use, with which he made grants of the priory 

 lands. The bishop caused a letter to be read in 

 all the churches of the diocese denouncing this 

 seal as a forgery. Ralph however continued to 

 exercise the office of prior until March, 1467, 

 when Richard Alleyne again bribed Thomas 

 Tofts to secure his re-election, and was at once 

 constituted prior by the bishop although the right 

 of election lay with the monks, of whom there 

 were then four. 193 Prior Ralph's grants of bonds 

 under a forged seal, and other matters, promised 



190 Ibid. fol. 8 1. 



191 Cartwright, xxxvi. 

 191 Ibid. xliv. 



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