302 THE ANTIQUITIES 



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 appropria- 

 tion of it to the college, which soon after appoints attornies 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 proceed- 

 ing, and shew the consent of the parties. 



Impropriatio Selborne, 1485. 



" Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus Dei 

 "gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &c.i ad uni- 

 "versitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c. quod corami nobis 

 " commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S". Georgii de Essher 

 "diet. Winton. dioc. 3°. die Augusti, A. D. 1485. Indictione 

 "tertia pontificat. Innocentii 8''. ann. 1"°. judicialiter comparuit 

 " venerabilis vir Jacobus Preston, S. T. P. infrascriptus, et exhibuit 

 "literas commissionis — quas quidem per magistrum Thumam 

 " Somercotes notarium publicum, &c. legi fecimus, tenorem 

 "sequentem in se continentes." The same as N°. 103, but dated 

 — " In manerio nostro de Essher, Augusti 1""°. A.D. 1485, et nostre 

 "consec. anno 39." [N°. 103 is repeated in a book containing 

 the like process in the preceding year by the same commissary, 

 in the parish church of St. Andreiv the apostle, at Farnliam, Sept. 

 6th, anno 1484.] "Post quarum literarum lecturam — dictus 

 "magister Jacohus Preston, quasdam procuratorias literas mag. 

 " Richardi Mayerve presidents, ut asseruit, collegii beate Mane 

 "Magdalene, &c. sigillo rotundo communi, &c. in cera rubea 

 "impresso sigillatas realiter exhibuit, &c. et pro eisdem dnis 

 "suis, &c. fecit se partem, ac nobis supplicavit ut juxta formam 

 " in eisdem traditam procedere dignaremur, &c." After these 

 proclamations no contradictor or objector appearing — "ad in- 

 "stantem petitionem ipsius mag. Jac. Preston, procuratoris, &c. 



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 \h& 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. 



