XVllI.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
523 
Among my documents I find a curious paper of the things put 
into the custody of Peter Bernes the sacrist, and especially some 
relics : the title of this evidence is " No. 50. Indentura prioris 
de Selborne quorundam tradit. Petro Bernes sacristse, ibidem, 
ann. Hen. Vl. , . . una cum confiss. ejusdem Petri script." The 
occasion of this catalogue, or list of effects, being drawn between 
the prior and sacrist does not appear, nor the date when ; only 
that it happened in the reign of Henry VI. This transaction 
probably took place when Bernes entered on his office ; and 
there is the more reason to suppose that to be the case, because 
the list consists of vestments and implements, and relics such as 
belonged to the church of the Priory, and fell under the care of 
the sacrist. I shall just mention the relics, although they are 
not all specified ; and the state of the live stock of the monastery 
at that juncture. 
" Item 2. oscillator, argent. 
"Item 1. osculatormm cum ossc diqiti auricular, — Johan- 
nis Baptistae.^ 
" Item 1. parvam cruccni cum V. reliquiis. 
" Item 1. anulum argent, et deauratum St. Edmundi.'' 
" Item 2. osculat. de coper. 
Item 1. junctormm St. Eicardi.^ 
Item 1. loecten St. Eicardi." ^ 
^ How the convent came by the bone of the little finger of St. John the 
Baptist does not appear ; probably the founder, while in Palestine, pur- 
chased it among the Asiatics, who were at that time great traders in relics. 
We know from the best authority that as soon as Herod had cruelly be- 
headed that holy man, "his disciples came and took up the body and 
buried it, and went and told Jesus." — Matt. iv. 12. — Farther it would be 
difficult to say. 
^ November 20, in the calendar, Edmund, king and martyr, in the ninth 
century. — See also a Sanctus Edmundus in Godwin, among the arch- 
bishops of Canterbury, in the thirteenth century ; his surname Rich, in 
1234. 
^ April 3, ibid, llichard. Bishop of Chicester, in the thirteenth century ; 
his surname De la Wich, in 1245. 
Jiinctorium, perhaps a joint or limb of St. Richard ; but what particular 
joint the religious were not such osteologists as to specify. This barbarous 
word was not to be found in any dictionary consulted by the author. 
^ " Pecten inter ministeria sacra recensetur, quo scil. sacerdotes ac clerici, 
