OF SELBORNE. 489 



right, and unanimously transferred their power to the 

 bishop, the ordinary of the place, promising to receive 

 whom he should provide; and appointed a proctor to 

 present the instrument to the bishop under their seal ; 

 and required their notary to draw it up in due form, &c., 

 subscribed by the notary. 



After the visiter had fully deliberated on the matter, he 

 proceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the fol- 

 lowing instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastenbury. 



Fol. 56. Provisio Prioris per Eprn. 



Willmus, &c. to our beloved brother in CHRIST, John 

 Sharp, alias Glastenbmy, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, 

 of the order of St. Austin, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, 

 canon-regular, salutem, &c. " De tue circumspectionis 

 industria plurimum confidentes, te virum providum et dis- 

 cretum, literarum scientia, et moribus merito commendan- 

 dum, &c." do appoint you prior under our seal. (f Dat. 

 in manerio nostro de Suthwaltham, May 20, 1478, et nostre 

 Consec. 31." 



Thus did the bishop, three times out of the four that he 

 was at liberty to nominate, appoint a prior from a distance, 

 a stranger to the place, to govern the convent of Selborne, 

 hoping by this method to have broken the cabal, and to 

 have interrupted that habit of mismanagement that had 

 pervaded the society : but he acknowledges, in an evidence 

 lying before us, that he never did succeed to his wishes with 

 respect to those late governors, " quos tamen male se 

 habuisse, et inutiliter administrare, et administrasse usque 

 ad presentia tempora post debitam investigationem, &c. 

 invenit." The only time that he appointed from among 

 the canons, he made choice of Peter Berne, for whom he 

 had conceived the greatest esteem and regard. 



When prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he 

 returned again to his former condition of canon, in which 

 he continued for some years ; but when he was re-chosen, 

 and had abdicated a second time, we find him in a forlorn 

 state, and in danger of being reduced to beggary, had nob 

 the Bishop of Winchester interposed in his favour, and with 

 great humanity insisted on a provision for him for life 



