OF SELBORNE. 
*' of the rules of their refpeftive orders. Many of thefe injunc- 
** tions are ftill extant, and are evident monuments of the care 
" and attention with which he difcharged this part of his epifcopal 
" duty^" 
Some of thefe injunftions I fhall here produce ; and they are 
fuch as will not fail, I think, to give fatisfadion to the antiquary, 
both as never having been publiflied before, and as they are a 
curious picture of monaftic irregularities at that time. 
The documents that I allude to are contained in the NotabUis 
Fifilatio de Seleburney held at the Priory of that place, by IVykeham 
in perfon, in the year 1387. 
This evidence, in the original, is written on two fkins of parch- 
ment; the one large, and the other fmaller, and confifts of a pre- 
ambk, 36 items, and a conclufion, which altogether evince the 
patient inveftigation of the viiitor, for which he had always been 
fo remarkable in all matters of moment, and how much he had 
at heart the regularity of thofe inftitutions, of whofe efficacy in 
their prayers for the dead he was fo firmly perfuaded. As the 
bifhop was fo much in earneft, we may be alfured that he had 
nothing in view but to corre(fl and reform what he found amifs ; 
and was under no bias to blacken, or mifreprefent, as the com- 
miffioners of tbomas Lord Cromwell feem in part to have done at 
the time of the reformation We may therefore with reafon 
fuppofe that the bifnop gives us an exaft delineation of the 
morals and manners of the canons oiSelborne at that jumflure ; and 
that what he found they had omitted he enjoins them ; and for 
what they have done amifs, and contrary to their rules and 
^ See Lovjtlis Life of Wykeham. 
» Letters of this fort from Dr. Layton to Thomas Lord Cromnjodl are ftill extant.. 
ftatutes. 
