ANTIQUITIES 
ordinis, &c. juxta piam intentionem primevi fundatoris ibi- 
dem habend, desperatur/^ 
William Wainfleet, Bishop of Winchester, founded his 
college of St. Mary Magdalen, in the university of Oxford, 
in or about the year 1459 ; but the revenues proving insuffi- 
cient for so large and noble an establishment, the college 
supplicated the founder to augment its income by putting 
it in possession of the estates belonging to the Priory of 
Selborne, now become a deserted convent, without canons 
or prior. The president and fellows state the circumstances 
of their numerous institution and scanty 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 appro- 
priation of it to the college, which soon after appoints attor- 
neys 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 proceeding, and show the consent 
of the parties. 
IMPEOPKTATIO SELBORNE, 1485. 
Universis sancte matris ecclesie filiis, &c. Ricardus 
Dei gratia prior ecclesie conventualis de Novo Loco, &c.^ 
ad universitatem vestre notitie deducimus, &c. quod coram 
nobis commissario predicto in ecclesia parochiali S^\ Georgii 
de Essher, diet. WintOn. dioc. 3°. die Augusti, a.d. 1485, 
indictione tertia pontificat. Innocentii ann. ] judi- 
cialiter comparuit venerabilis vir Jacobus Preston, S. T. P. 
^ Ecclesia Conventualis de Novo Loco was the monastery afterwards 
called tlie New Minster, or Abbey of Hyde, in the city of Winchester. 
Should any intelligent reader wonder to see that the 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.— G. W. 
