384 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE 
LETTER XXIL 
As prior Berne, when chosen in 1454, held his priorship only 
to 1468, and then made a voluntary resignation, wearied and 
disgusted, as we may conclude, by the disorder that prevailed 
in his convent ; it is no matter of wonder that, when re-chosen 
in 1472, he should not long maintain his station ; as old age was 
then coming fast upon him, and the increasing anarchy and mis- 
rule of that declining institution required unusual vigour and 
resolution to stem that torrent of profligacy which was hurrying 
it on to its dissolution. We find, accordingly, that in 1478 he 
resigned his dignity again into the hands of the bishop. 
Waynflete Reg. fol. 55. 
Resignatio Prioris de Seleborne. 
May 14, 1478.* Peter Berne resigned the priorship. May 16 
the bishop admitted his resignation *'in manerio suo de Waltham, 
and declared the priorship void ; et priorat. solacio destitutum 
esse and granted his letters for proceeding to a new election : 
when all the religious, assembled in the chapter-house, did 
transfer their power under their seal to the bishop, by the follow- 
ing public instrument. 
"In Dei nomine Amen,'' &c. A. D. 1478, Maii 19. In the 
chapter-house for the election a prior for that day, on the free 
resignation of Peter Berne, having celebrated in the first place 
mass at the high altar " De spiritu sancto," and having called a 
chapter by tolling a bell, ut moris est; in the presence of a 
notary and witnesses appeared personally Peter Berne, Thomas 
Ashford, Stephen Clydgrove, and John Ashton, presbyters, and 
Henry Canwood,* in chapter assembled ; and after singing the 
hymn ** Veni Creator Spiritus/' cum versiculo et oratione 
^ Deus qui corda declai^taque licentia Fundatoris et patroni ; 
futurum priorem eligendi concessa, et constitutione consilii 
generalis que incipit * Quia propter' declaratis ; viisque per quas 
possent ad banc electionem procedere," by the decretorum docto- 
* Here we see that all the canons were changed in six years ; and that there was quite a new 
chapter, Berne excepted, between 14/2 and 14/8; for, instead of Wyndesor, London, and Strat- 
feld, we find Ashford, Clydgrove, Ashton, and Canwood, all new men, who were soon gone in 
their turn otf the stage, and are heard of no more. For, in six years afterj there seem to have 
been no canons at all. 
