r 
363 
ANTIQUITIES OF SELBORNE. 
In the course of the Visitatio NotabiUs the constitutions of 
liCgate Ottobonus are frequently referred to. Ottobonus was 
afterwards Pope Adrian V. and died in 1276. His constitutions 
are in Lyndewood's Provinciale, and were drawn up in the 52d 
of Henry HI. 
In the Visitatio NotabiHs the usual punishment is fasting on 
bread and beer ; and in cases of repeated delinquency on bread 
and water. On these occasions quarta feria, et sexta feria, are 
mentioned often, and are to be understood of the days of the 
week numerically on which such punishment is to be inflicted. 
LE^ITER XV. 
Though bishop Wykeham appears somewhat stern and rigid in 
his visitatorial character towards the Priory of Selborne, yet he 
was on the whole a liberal friend and benefactor to that convent, 
which, like every society or individual that fell in his way, par- 
took of the generosity and benevolence of that munificent prelate. 
^*In the year 1377 William of Wykeham, out of his mere 
good will and liberality, discharged the whole debts of the prior 
and convent of Selborne, to the amount of one hundred and ten 
marks eleven shillings and sixpence ;* and, a few years before 
he died, he made a free gift of one hundred marks to the same 
Priory : on which account the Prior and convent voluntarily en- 
gaged for the celebration of two masses a day by two canons oi 
the convent for ten years, for the bishop's welfare, if he should 
live so long ; and for his soul if he should die before the expira- 
tion of this term.^'f 
At this distance of time it seems matter of great wonder to us 
how these societies, so nobly endowed, and whose members were 
exempt by their very institution from every means of personal 
and family expense, could possibly run in debt without squan- 
dering their revenues in a manner incompatible with their 
function. 
Religious houses might sometimes be distressed in their re- 
venues by fires among their buildings, or large dilapidations 
from storms, &c. ; but no such accident appears to have befallen 
the Priory at Selborne. Those situate on public roads, or in great 
• Yet in ten years time we find, by the Notabilis Visitatio, that all their rehcs, piaie, vest 
ments, title-deeds, &c. were in pawn, 
t Lowth^s Life of Wykeham. 
