in parte renitens tanti reverendi patris se confirmans,” obeyed, and signified his consent oraculo vive vocis. Then was there a mandate citing any one who would gainsay the said election to appear before the bishop or his commissary in his chapel at Farnham on the second day of May next. The dean of the deanery of Aulton then appeared before the chancellor, his commissary, and returned the citation or mandate dated April 22nd, 1468, with signification, in writing, of his having published it as required, dated Newton Valence, May ist, 1468. This certificate being read, the four canons of Selborne appeared and required the election to be confirmed; et ex super abundanti appointed William Long their proctor to solicit in their name that he might be canonically confirmed. John Morton also appeared, and proclamation was made; and no one appearing against him, the commissary pronounced all absentees contumacious, and precluded them from objecting at any other time; and, at the instance of John Morton and the proctor, confirmed the election by his decree, and directed his mandate to the rector of Hedley and the vicar of Newton Valence to instal him in the usual form.
Thus, for the first time, was a person, a stranger to the convent of Selborne, and never canon of that monastery, elected prior; though the style of the petitions in former elections used to run thus, “Vos - — - - rogamus quatinus eligendum ex nobis unum confratrem de gremio nostro,—licentiam vestram—nobis concedere dignemini.”
LETTER XX.
Prior Morton dying in 1401, two canons, by themselves, proceeded to election, and chose a prior; but two more (one of them Berne) complaining of not being summoned, objected to the proceedings as informal; till at last the matter was compromised that the bishop should again, for that turn, nominate as he had before. But the circumstances of this election will be best explained by the following extract:—
