ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
249 
post debitam investigationem, &c., invenit." The only time that he 
appointed from among the canons, he made choice of Peter Berne, for 
whom he had conceived the greatest esteem and regard. 
When Prior Berne first relinquished his priorship, he returned again 
to his former condition of canon, in which he continued for some years ; 
but when he was re-chosen, and had abdicated a second time, we find 
him in a forlorn state, and in danger of being reduced to beggary, had 
not the Bishop of Winchester interposed in his favour, and with great 
humanity insisted on a provision for him for life. The reason for this 
difference seems to have been, that, in the first case, though in years, 
he might have been hale and capable of taking his share in the duty of 
the convent ; in the second, he was broken with age, and no longer 
equal to the functions of a canon. 
Impressed with this idea, the bishop very benevolently interceded 
in his favour, and laid his injunctions on the new-elected prior in the 
following manner. 
Pol. 56. In Dei nomine Amen. ISTos Willmus, &c., considerantes 
Petrum Berne," late prior, " in administratione spiritualium et tempo- 
ralium prioratus laudabiliter vixisse et rexisse ; ipsumque senio et 
corporis debilitate confractum ; ne in opprobrium religionis mendicari 
cogatur ; — eidem annuam pensionem a Domino Johanne Sharpe, alias 
Glastonbury, priore moderno," and his successors, and, from the priory 
or church, to be payed every year during his life, " de voluntate et ex 
consensu expressis" of the said John Sharp, " sub ea que sequitur forma 
verborum — assignamus :" 
1st. That the said prior and his successors, for the time being, Tioneste 
exhibebunt of the fruits and profits of the priorship, eidem esculenta 
et poculenta,"" while he remained in the priory " sub consimili portione 
eorundem prout convenientur priori," for the time being, mi7iist7^ari 
contigerit ; and in like manner uni famulo, whom he should choose to 
wait on him, as to the servientibus of the prior. 
Item. " Invenient seu exhibebunt eidem unam honestam cameram," 
in the priory, cum socalibus necessariis seu opportunis ad eundem." 
Item, We will, ordain, &c., to the said P. Berne an annual pension of 
ten marks, from the revenue of the priory, to be paid by the hands of 
the prior quarterly. 
The bishop decrees farther, that John Sharp, and his successors, 
shall take an oath to observe this injunction, and that before their 
installation. 
LEADEN TAP. 
