OF SELBOENE 297 



Waynflete Reg. fol. 55. 

 Resignatio Prioris de Seleborae. 



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 destitu- 

 " turn 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 instrument. 



"In Dei nomine Amen," &c. A.D. l478, 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 spiritu sancto," and having called a 

 chapter by tolling a bell, ut maris est ; in the presence of a notary 

 and witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas Ashford, 

 Stephen Clydegrove, and John Ashton, presbyters, and Henry Can- 

 mood,'^ in chapter assembled ; and after singing the hymn " Feni 

 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 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. sub- 

 scribed by the notary. 



After the visitor had fully deliberated on the matter, he pro- 

 ceeded to the choice of a prior, and elected, by the following 

 instrument, John Sharp, alias Glastenhury. 



Fol. 56. Provisio Prioris per Epm. 



Willmus, &c. to our beloved brother in Christ John Sharp, alias 

 Glastenhury, Ecclesie conventualis de Bruton, of the order of St. 



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, Clydegrove, Ashton, and Can- 

 wood, all new men, who were soon gone in their turn off the stage, and are heard 

 &i no naore. F<3r, in six years after, there seem to .have been no canons at all. 



