OF SELBOBNE. 



493 



LETTER XXIV. 



ISHOP WAYNFLETE'S efforts to continue 

 the Priory still proved unsuccessful ; and the 

 convent, without any canons, and for some 

 time without a prior, was tending swiftly to 

 its dissolution. 

 When Sharp's, alias Glastonbury's, priorship ended does 

 not appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged to 

 remove some priors for maladministration; but it is not 

 well explained how that could be the case with any, unless 

 with Sharp ; because all the others, chosen during his epis- 

 copate, died in their office, viz. Morton and Fairwise ; Berne 

 only excepted, who relinquished twice voluntarily, and was 

 moreover approved of by Waynflete as a person of integrity. 

 But the way to show what ineffectual pains the bishop took, 

 and what difficulties he met with, will be to quote the 

 words of the libel of his proctor Radulphus Langley, who 

 appeared for the bishop in the process of the impropriation 

 of the Priory of Selborne. The extract is taken from an 

 attested copy. 



" Item that the said bishop dicto prioratui et personis 

 ejusdem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, et 

 diligentias gravissimas quam plurimas, tarn per se quam per 

 suos, pro reformatione premissorum impendebat; et ali- 

 quando illius loci prioribus, propter malam et inutilem admi- 

 nistrationem, et dispensationem bonorum predicti prioratus, 

 suis demeritis exigentibus, amotis ; alios priores in quorum 

 circumspectione et diligentia confidebat, prefecit ; quos 

 tamen male se habuisse ac inutiliter adrninistrare, et admi- 

 nistrasse, usque ad presentia tempora post debitam inves- 

 tigationem, &c. invenit." So that he despaired, with all his 

 care, " statum ejusdem reparare vel restaurare; et con- 

 siderata temporis malicia, et preteritis timendo, et conjectu- 

 rando futura de aliqua bona et sancta religione ejusdem 



