464 
ANTIQUITIES 
[Item 22nd. Since negligence or remissness towards 
offenders is in itself detestable, and since facility of pardon 
operates as an incentive to delinquency ; orders that, with- 
out exception of persons, correction shall be used according 
to the amount of the delinquency ; and that the regular 
observances shall be duly kept.] 
Item 23d. He bids them distribute their pittances, 
pitancias/'^ regularly on obits, anniversaries, festivals, &c. 
[Item 24th. Prohibits the sale of wood, the farming out 
of manors or of churches, or the transaction of any other 
important business, without consultation and consent of 
the whole convent, or of the larger and discreeter portion 
of it : otherwise there is no validity in the proceeding. 
" Ilia quoque que omnes tangunt ab omnibus merito debeant 
approbari.^^] 
Item 25th. All and every one of the canons are hereby 
inhibited from standing godfather to any boy for the future, 
" ne comi'atres alicujus 'pueri de cetero fieri presumatis,'' 
unless by express license from the bishop obtained ; because 
from such relationship favour and affection, nepotism, and 
undue inflaence, arise, to the injury and detriment of reli- 
gious institutions.*^ 
Item 26th. The visitor herein severely reprimands the 
canons for appearing publicly in what would be called in 
the universities an unstatutable manner ^ and for wearing of 
* " Pitancia, an allowance of bread and beer, or other provision to 
any pious use, especially to the religious in a monastery, &c., for aug- 
mentation of their commons." — " Gloss, to Kennet's Par. Antiq." — G. W. 
^ " The relationship between sponsors and their god-children, who 
were called spiritual sons and daughters, was formerly esteemed much 
more sacred than at present. The presents at christenings were some- 
times very considerable : the connexion lasted through life, and was closed 
with a legacy. This last mark of attention seems to have been thought 
almost indispensable : for, in a will, from whence no extracts have been 
given, the testator left every one of his god-children a bushel of barley ." 
—Sir John Cullum's " Hist, of Hawsted." — G. W. 
" D. Margaretas filiae Regis primogenitae, quam Jiliolam., quia ejus in 
baptismo compater fuit, appellat, cyphum anreum et quadraginta libras, 
Icgavit." — Archbishop Parker " de Antiquitate Eccles. Brit." speaking 
of Archbishop Morton. — G. W 
