232 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBOENE. 
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 o£Q.ce 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 the 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 devotion, and at moderate pauses ; and that it 
be not allowed to any to absent themselves from the hours and masses, 
or to withdraw before they are finished." 
Item 2nd. He enjoins them to observe that silence to which they are 
so strictly bound by the rule of Saint Augustine at stated times, and 
wholly to abstain from frivolous conversation. 
Item 4th. " l^ot to permit such frequent passing of secular people 
of both sexes through their convent, as if a thoroughfare, from whence 
many disorders may and have arisen." 
Item 5th. " To take care that the doors of their church and priory 
be so attended to that no suspected and disorderly females, ' suspectae 
et aliee inhonestae,' pass through their choir and cloister in the dark ; " 
and to see that the doors of their church between the nave and the 
choir, and the gates of their cloister opening into the fields, be 
constantly kept shut until their first choir service is over in the 
morning, at dinner time, and when they meet at their evening 
collation."^ 
Item 6th mentions that several of the canons are found to be very 
ignorant and illiterate, and enjoins the prior to see that they be better 
instructed by a proper master. 
Item 8th. The canons are here accused of refusing to accept of their 
statutable clothing year by year, and of demanding a certain specified 
sum of money, as if it were their annual rent and due. This the bishop 
forbids, and orders that the canons shall be clothed out of the revenue 
of the priory, and the old garments be laid by in a chamber and given 
to the poor according to the rule of Saint Augustine. 
In Item 9th is a complaint that some of the canons are given to 
wander out of the precincts of the convent v/ithout leave ; and that 
others ride to their manors and farms, under pretence of inspecting 
the concerns of the society, when they please, and stay as long as they 
please. But they are enjoined never to stir either about their own 
private concerns or the business of the convent without leave from 
the prior : and no canon is to go alone, but to have a grave brother to 
accompany him. 
The injunction in Item 10th, at this distance of time appears rather 
ludicrous ; but the visitor seems to be very serious on the occasion, 
and says that it has been evidently proved to him that some of the 
* A collation was a meal or repast on a fast-day in lieu of a supper. 
