468 ANTIQUITIES 



constitutions are in Lyndewood's Provincial, and were 

 drawn up in the 52nd of Henry III. 



In the Visitatio N otabilis the usual punishment is fasting 

 on bread and beer; and in cases of repeated delinquency 

 on bread and water. On these occasions quarto, feria, et 

 sexta feria, are mentioned often, and are to be understood 

 of the days of the week numerically on which such punish- 

 ment is to be inflicted. 



LETTER XV. 



HOUGH Bishop Wykeham appears somewhat 

 stern and rigid in his visitatorial character 

 towards the Priory of Selborne, yet he was 

 on the whole a liberal friend and benefactor 

 to that convent, which, like every society or 

 individual that fell in his way, partook of the generosity 

 and benevolence of that munificent prelate. 



In the year 1377, William of Wykeham, out of his 

 mere good will and liberality, discharged the whole debts 

 of the prior and convent of Selborne, to the amount of one 

 hundred and ten marks eleven shillings and sixpence ; 1 and, 

 a few years before he died, he made a free gift of one hun- 

 dred marks to the same priory : on which account the prior 

 and convent voluntarily engaged for the celebration of two 

 masses a day by two canons of the convent for ten years, 

 for the bishop's welfare, if he should live so long ; and for 

 his soul if he should die before the expiration of this term. 2 

 At this distance of time it seems matter of great wonder 

 to us how these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose 

 members were exempt by their very institution from every 

 means of personal and family expense, could possibly run 

 in debt without squandering their revenues in a manner 

 incompatible with their function. 



1 Yet in ten years' time we find, by the Xotabilis Visitatio, that all 

 their relics, plate, vestments, title deeds, &c., were in pawn. G. \V. 

 5 Lowth's " Life of Wykehain." G. W. 



