232 ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOENE. 



some notice, and make some remarks on the most singular items as 

 they occur. 



In the preamble the visitor says " Considering the charge lying 

 upon us, that your blood may not be required at our hands, we 

 came down to visit your priory, as our office required : and every 

 time we repeated our visitation we found something still not only 

 contrary to regular rules but also repugnant to religion and good 

 reputation." 



In the first article after the preamble " he commands them on their 

 obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunication, to see that the 

 canonical hours by night and by day be sung in their choir, and the 

 masses of the Blessed Mary, and other accustomed masses, be celebrated 

 at the proper hours with devotion, and at moderate pauses ; and that it 

 be not allowed to any to absent themselves from the hours and masses, 

 or to withdraw before they are finished." 



Item 2nd. He enjoins them to observe that silence to which they are 

 so strictly bound by the rule of Saint Augustine at stated times, and 

 wholly to abstain from frivolous conversation. 



Item 4th. " Not to permit such frequent passing of secular people 

 of both sexes through their convent, as if a thoroughfare, from whence 

 many disorders may and have arisen." 



Item 5th. " To take care that the doors of their church and priory 

 be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly females, * suspectae 

 et aliae inhonestse,' pass through their choir and cloister in the dark ;" 

 and to see that the doors of their church between the nave and the 

 choir, and the gates of their cloister opening into the fields, be 

 constantly kept shut until their first choir service is over in the 

 morning, at dinner time, and when they meet at their evening 

 collation.* 



Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to be very 

 ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see that they be better 

 instructed by a proper master. 



Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to accept of their 

 statutable clothing year by year, and of demanding a certain specified 

 sum of money, as if it were their annual rent and due. This the bishop 

 forbids, and orders that the canons shall be clothed out of the revenue 

 of the priory, and the old garments be laid by in a chamber and given 

 to the poor according to the rule of Saint Augustine. 



In Item 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are given to 

 wander out of the precincts of the convent without leave ; and that 

 others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence of inspecting 

 the concerns of the society, when they please, and stay as long as they 

 please. But they are enjoined never to stir either about their own 

 private concerns or the business of the convent without leave from 

 the prior : and no canon is to go alone, but to have a grave brother to 

 accompany him. 



The injunction in Item 10th, at this distance of time appears rather 

 ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very serious on the occasion, 

 and says that it has been evidently proved to him that some of the 



* A collation was a meal or repast on a fast-day in lieu ot a supper. 



