510 
THE ANTIQUITIES 
[LETT. 
and how much he had at heart the regularity of those institu- 
tions, of whose efficacy in their prayers for the dead he was 
so firmly persuaded. As the bishop was so much in earnest, 
we may be assured that he had nothing in view but to correct 
and reform what he found amiss ; and was under no bias to 
blacken, or misrepresent, as the commissioners of Thomas Lord 
Cromwell seem in part to have done at the time of the Reforma- 
tion.^ We may therefore with reason suppose that the bishop 
gives us an exact delineation of the morals and manners of the 
canons of Selborne at that juncture ; and that what he found 
they had omitted he enjoins them; and for what they had done 
amiss, and contrary to their rules and statutes, he reproves 
them ; and threatens them with punishment suitable to their 
irregularities. 
This visitatio is of considerable lengtli, and cannot be intro- 
duced into the body of this work ; we shall therefore take some 
notice, and make some remarks, on the most singular items as 
they occur. 
In the preamble the visitor says — " Considering the charge 
lying upon us, that your blood may not be required at our 
hands, we came down to visit your Priory, as our office 
required : and every time we repeated our visitation we found 
something still not only contrary to regular rules, but also 
repugnant to religion and good reputation." 
In the first article after tlie preamble — " he commands them 
on their obedience, and on pain of the greater excommunication, 
to see that the canonical hours by night and by day be sung in 
their choir, and the masses of the Blessed Mary, and other 
accustomed masses, be celebrated at the proper hours with 
ievotion, and at moderate pauses ; and that it be not allowed to 
my to absent themselves from the hours and masses, or to 
withdraw befure they are finished." 
Item 2d. He enjoins them to obserA^e that silence to which 
they are so strictly bound by the rule of St. Augustine at stated 
times, and wholly to abstain from frivolous conversation. 
Item 4th. " ]^ot to permit such frequent passing of secular 
Letters of this sort from Dr. Layton to Thomas Lord Cromwell are still 
extant. 
