OF SELBOENE. 483 



also appeared, and proclamation was made ; and no one ap' 

 pearing against him, the commissary pronounced all ab- 

 sentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting 

 at any other time ; and, at the instance of John Morton 

 and the proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and 

 directed his mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar 

 of Newton Valence to install him in the usual form. 



Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the 

 convent of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, 

 elected prior : though the style of the petitions in former 

 elections used to run thus, " Vos .... rogamus quatinus 

 eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro, 

 licentiam vestram nobis concedere dignernini." 



LETTER XX. 



EIOE MORTON dying in 1471, two canons, 

 by themselves, proceeded to election, and 

 chose a prior; but two more (one of them 

 Berne) complaining of not being summoned, 

 objected to the proceedings as informal ; till 

 at last the matter was compromised that the bishop should 

 again, for that turn, nominate as he had before. But the 

 circumstances of this election will be best explained by the 

 following extract : 



KEG. WAYNFLETE, torn. ii. pars l ma , fol. 7. 



Memorandum. A.D. 1471. August 22. 



William Wyndesor, a canon-regular of the Priory of 

 Selborne, having been elected prior on the death of brother 

 John, appeared in person before the bishop in his chapel 

 at South Waltham. He was attended on this occasion by 

 Thomas London and John Bromesgrove, canons, who had 

 elected him. Peter Berne and William Stratfeld, canons, 

 also presented themselves at the same time, complaining 

 that in this business they had been overlooked, and not 



