ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOKNE. 237 



sancto Spiritu, solemnly celebrated in the church ; to wit, Kichard 

 Elstede, Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyngton, sacrista ; John Stepe, 

 cantor; Walter Ffarnham, Richard Putworth, celerarius; Hugh London, 

 Henry Brampton, alias Brompton; John Wynchestre, senior, John 

 Wynchestre, junior ; then " Proposito primitis verbo Dei/' and then 

 ympuo " Yeni Creator Spiritus" being solemnly sung, cum "versiculo 

 et oratione," as usual, and his letter of license, with the appointment of 

 the hour and place of election being read, alta voce, in yalvis of the 

 chapter-house; John Wynchestre, senior, the sub-prior, in his own 

 behalf and that of all the canons, and by their mandate, " quasdam 

 monicionem et protestacionem in seriptis redactas fecit, legit, inter- 

 posuit " that all persons disqualified, or not having right to be present, 

 should immediately withdraw, and protesting against their voting, &c. ; 

 that then having read the constitution of the general council " Quia 

 propter," and explained the modes of proceeding to election, they 

 agreed unanimously to proceed "per viam seu formam simplicis 

 compromissi ; " when John Wynchestre, sub-prior, and all the others 

 (the commissaries undernamed excepted) named and chose brothers 

 Richard Elstede, Thomas Halyborne, John Lemyngton, the sacrist, 

 John Stepe, chantor, and Richard Putworth, canons, to be commissaries, 

 who were sworn each to nominate and elect a fit person to be prior, 

 and empowered by letters patent under the common seal, to be in 

 force only until the darkness of the night of the same day ; that they, 

 or the greater part of them, should elect for the whole convent, within 

 the limited time from their own number, or from the rest of the 

 convent ; that one of them should publish their consent in common 

 before the clergy and people : they then all promised to receive as 

 prior the person these five canons should fix on. These commissaries 

 seceded from the chapter-house to the refectory of the Priory, and were 

 shut in with Master John Penkester, bachelor of laws, and John Couke 

 and John Lynne, perpetual vicars of the parish churches of Newton 

 and Selborne, and with Sampson Maycock, a public notary, where 

 they treated of the election ; when they unanimously agreed on 

 John Wynchestre, and appointed Thomas Halyborne to choose him 

 in common for all, and to publish the election as customary, and 

 returned long before it was dark to the chapter-house, where 

 Thomas Halyborne read publicly the instrument of election ; when 

 all the brothers, the new prior excepted, singing solemnly the hymn 

 " Te Deum laudamus," fecerunt deportari novum electum, by some of 

 the brothers from the chapter- house to the high altar of the church ; * 

 and the hymn being sung, dictisque versiculo et oratione consuetis in 

 hac parte, Thomas Halyborne, mox tune ibidem, before the clergy and 

 people of both sexes solemnly published the election in vulgari. Then 

 Richard Elstede, and the whole convent by their proctors and nuncios 

 appointed for the purposes; Thomas Halyborne and John Stepe, 

 required several times the assent of the elected; "et tandem post 



* It seems here as if the canons used to chair their new elected prior from the 

 chapter-house to the high altar of their Convent Church. In Letter XXI., on 

 the same occasion it is said "et sic canentes dictum electum ad majus altare 

 ecclesie deduximus, ut apud nos moris est." 



