470 ANTIQUITIES 



consent, appointed the 12th of November, ad horam ejusdem 

 diei capitularem, for the business: when they met in the 

 chapter-house, post missam de sancto Spiritu, solemnly 

 celebrated in the church ; to wit, Richard Elstede ; Thomas 

 Halyborne; John Lemyngton, sacrista; John Stepe, cantor; 

 Walter Ffarnham ; Richard Putworth, celerarius ; Hugh 

 London; Henry Brampton, alias Brompton; John Wyn- 

 chestre, senior ; John Wynchestre, junior ; then " pro- 

 posito primitus verbo Dei," and then ' ' ympno Veni 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 valvis 

 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 

 scriptis redactas fecit, legit, et interposuit" that all persons 

 disqualified, or not having right to be present, should im- 

 mediately withdraw; and protesting against their voting, 

 &c. that then having read the constitution of the general 

 council " Quia propter/' and explained the modes of pro- 

 ceeding to election, they agreed unanimously to proceed 

 " per viam seu formam simplicis compromissi ;" when John 

 Wynchestre, sub-prior, and all the others (the commissaries 

 under-named 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 dark- 

 ness 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 con- 

 sent in common before the clergy and people : they then 

 all promised to receive as prior the person these five canons 

 should fix on. The 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 



