490 ANTIQUITIES 



The reason for this difference seems to have been, that, in 

 the first case, though in years, he might have been hale and 

 capable of taking his share in the duty of the convent; in 

 the second, he was broken with age, and no longer equal to 

 the functions of a canon. 



Impressed with this idea the bishop very benevolently 

 interceded in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the new 

 elected prior in the following manner. 



Fol. 56. " In Dei nomine Amen. Nos Willmus, &c. 

 i<jonsiderantes Petrum Berne," late prior " in administratione 

 spiritualium et temporalium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et 

 rexisse; ipsumque senio et corporis debilitate confractum; 

 ne in opprobrium religionis mendicari cogatur ; eidem 

 annuam pensionem a Domino Johanne Sharp, alias Glaston- 

 bury, priore moderno," and his successors, and, from the 

 Priory or church, to be paid every year during his life, " de 

 voluntate et ex consensu expressis " of the said John Sharp, 

 " sub ea que sequitur forma verborum assignamus : " 



1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time 

 being, honeste exliibebunt of the fruits and profits of the 

 priorship, " eidem esculenta et potulenta," while he re- 

 mained in the Priory, " sub consimili portione eorundem 

 prout convenienter priori," for the time being, ministrari 

 contigerit ; and in like manner uni famulo, whom he should 

 choose to wait on him, as to the servientibus of the prior. 



Item. " Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam 

 cameram " in the Priory, ' ' cum focalibus necessariis seu 

 opportunis ad eundem." 



Item. We will, ordain, &c. to the said P. Berne an 

 annual pension of ten marks, from the revenue of the Priory, 

 to be paid by the hands of the prior quarterly. 



The bishop decrees farther, that John Sharp, and hi 

 successors, shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and 

 that before their installation. 



" Lecta et facta sunt hsec in quodam alto oratorio," be- 

 longing to the bishop at Suthwaltham, May 25, 1478, in the 

 presence of John Sharp, who gave his assent, and then 

 took the oath before witnesses, with the other oaths before 

 the chancellor, who decreed he should be inducted and in- 

 stalled ; as was done that same day. 



