488 ANTIQUITIES 



maintain Ms station ; as old age was then coming fast upon 

 him, and the increasing anarchy and misrule of that declining 

 institution required unusual vigour and resolution to stem 

 that torrent of profligacy which was hurrying it on to its 

 dissolution. We find, accordingly, that in 1478 he re- 

 signed his dignity again into the hands of the bishop. 



REG. WAYNFLETE. FOL. 55. 



May 14, 1478. Peter Berne resigned the priorship. 

 May 16, the bishop admitted his resignation "in manerio 

 suo de Waltham," and declared the priorship void ; " et 

 priorat. solacio destituturn esse;" and granted his letters 

 for proceeding to a new election : when all the religious, 

 assembled in the chapter-house, did transfer their power 

 under their seal to the bishop by the following public in- 

 strument. 



" In Dei nomine Amen," &c. A.D. 1478, Maii 19. In 

 the chapter-house for the election of a prior for that day, 

 on the free resignation of Peter Berne, having celebrated 

 in the first place mass at the high altar " De spirit u sancto," 

 and having called a chapter by tolling a bell, ut moris est ; 

 in the presence of a notary and witnesses appeared person- 

 ally Peter Berne, Thomas Ashford, Stephen Clydgrove and 

 John Ashton, presbyters, and Henry Canwood, 1 in chapter 

 assembled ; and after singing the hymn " Veni Creator 

 Spiritus," ' ' cum versiculo et oratione ' Deus qui corda ; ' 

 declarataque licentia Fundatoris et patroni futurum priorem 

 eligendi concessa, et constitutione consilii generalis que 

 incipit ' Quia propter ' declaratis ; viisque per quas possent 

 ad hanc electionem procedere," by the decretorum doctorem, 

 whom the canons had taken to direct them they all and 

 every one (< dixerunt et affirmarunt se nolle ad aliquam 

 viam procedere : " but, for this turn only, renounced their 



1 Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years ; and 

 that there was quite a new chapter, Berne excepted, between 1472 and 

 1478 ; for, instead of Wyndesor, London, and Stratfeld, we find Ashford, 

 Clydgrove, Ashton, and Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in 

 their turn off the stage, and are heard of no more. For, in six years 

 after, there seem to have been no canons at all. G. W. 



