494 ANTIQUITIES 



ordinis, &c. juxta piam intentionem primevi fundatoris ibi- 

 dem habend, desperatur." 



William Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, founded his 

 college of St. Mary Magdalen, in the university of Oxford, 

 in or about the year 1459 ; but the revenues proving insuffi- 

 cient for so large and noble an establishment, the college 

 supplicated the founder to augment its income by putting 

 it in possession of the estates belonging to the Priory of 

 Selborne, now become a deserted convent, without canons 

 or prior. The president and fellows state the circumstances 

 of their numerous institution and scanty provision, and the 

 ruinous and perverted condition of the Priory. The bishop 

 appoints commissaries to inquire into the state of the said 

 monastery ; and, if found expedient, to confirm the appro- 

 priation of it to the college, which soon after appoints attor- 

 neys to take possession, September 24, 1484. But the 

 way to give the reader a thorough insight respecting this 

 transaction will be to transcribe a farther proportion of the 

 process of the impropriation from the beginning, which will 

 lay open the manner of proceeding, and show the consent 

 of the parties. 



IMPROPRTATIO SELBORNE, 1485. 



" Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus 

 Dei gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &C. 1 

 ad universitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c. quod coram 

 nobis commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S ta . Georgii 

 de Essher, diet. Winton. dioc. 3. die Augusti, A.D. 1485, 

 indictione tertia pontificat. Innocentii 8 vi . ann. ] mo . judi- 

 cialiter comparuit venerabilis vir Jacobus Preston, S. T. P. 



1 Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards 

 called the New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. 

 Should any intelligent reader wonder to see that the prior of Hyde 

 Abbey was commissary to the Bishop of Winton, and should conclude 

 that there was a mistake in titles, and that the abbot must have been 

 here meant ; he will be pleased to recollect that this person was the 

 second in rank ; for, " next under the abbot, in every abbey, was the 

 prior." Pref. to Notit. Monast., p. xxix. Besides, abbots were great 

 personages, and too high in station to submit to any office under the 

 bishop. G. W. 



