OF SELBORNE. 475 



And there slial come a king, 1 and confess you religious ; 

 And beate you, as the bible telleth, for breaking your rule, 

 And amend monials, and monks, and chanons, 

 And put hem to her penaunce adpristinum statum ire." 



LETTER XVIII. 



ILLIAM of Waynflete became Bishop of 

 Winchester in the year 1447, and seems to 

 have pursued the generous plan of Wykeham 

 in endeavouring to reform the priory of Sel- 

 borne. 



When Waynflete came to the see he found prior Stype, 

 alias Stepe, still living, who had been elected as long ago 

 as the year 1411. 



Among my documents I find a curious paper of the 

 things put into the custody of Peter Bernes the sacrist, and 

 especially some relics : the title of this evidence is " No. 

 50. Indentura prioris de Selborne quorundam tradit. 

 Petro Bernes sacristae, ibidem, ann. Hen. VI. . . . una cum 

 confiss. ejusdem Petri script." 2 The occasion of this cata- 



1 F. 1. a. " This prediction, although a probable conclusion concern- 

 ing a king who after a time would suppress the religious houses, is re- 

 markable. I imagined it was foisted into the copies in the reign of 

 king Henry VIII., but it is in MSS. of this poem, older than the year 

 1400" 



"Again, fol. Ixxxv. a. where he, Piers Plowman, alludes to the 

 Knights Templars, lately suppressed, he says, 



" Men of holie kirk 



Shall turne as Templars did ; the tyme approacheth nere" 



" This, I suppose, was a favourite doctrine in Wickliffe's discourses." 

 Warton's Hist, of English Poetry, vol. i. p. 282. G. W. 



2 (Appendix No. 50.) 



INDENTURA PRIORIS de SELBORNE quorundam tradit. Petro Barnes sa- 



cristce ibidem ann. Hen. 6. ... una cum confiss. ejusdem Petri script. 

 HEC indentura facta die lune proximo post ffestum natalium Dni anno 

 regis Hcnrici sexti post conquestum anglie v inter ffratrem 



