muft furprife the reader,, adds— that he expe&s for the future that
the facrift Ihould provide for the facrament good wine, pure and
unadulterated; and not, as had often been the practice, that which
was four, and tending to decay: — he fays farther, that it feems
quite prepofterous to omit in faered matters that attention to de-
J{i, cent cleanlinefs, the negledt of which would difgrace a common
convivial meeting 1
Item 33d fays that, though the relics of faints, the plate, holy
veftments, and books of religious houfes, are forbidden by canonical
inftitutes to be pledged or lent out upon pawn ; yet, as the
vilitor finds this to be the cafe in his feveral vifitations, he therefore
ftridtly enjoins the prior forthwith to recall thofe pledges, and
to reftore them to the convent; and orders that all the papers and
title deeds thereto belonging fhould be fafely depofited, and kept
under three locks and keys.
In the courfe of the Vifitatia Notabilis the conftitutions of Legate
Ottobonus are frequently referred to. Ottobonus was afterwards
Pope Adrian'V.znA died in 1276. His conftitutions are in Lyn'dewood’s
Provinciate, and were drawn up in the jjzd of Henry III.
In the Vifitaiio Notabilis the ufual punilhment is Jailing on bread
and beer; and in cafes of repeated delinquency on bread and water;
On thefe occafions quarta feria, et fexta feria, are mentioned often-,
and are to be underftood of the days of the week numerically-on
which fuch punilhment is to be infli&ed.
ne turpe toral, he forclida mappa
Ccrruget nares ; ne non et cantharus, et lanx
j Oftendat tibi te ----- ----
l e t t e r
L E T T ER XV.
T h o u g h bilhop Wykeham appears' fomewhat ftern and rigid in'
his vifitatorial charafter towards the Priory, of Selborne, yet he was
on the whole a liberal friend and benefaftorra that convent,which,
like every fociety or individual that fell in his way, partook of
the generality and benevolence of that munificent prelate.
tc In the year 1377 tPilliam of tVykeham, out of his mere good
“ will and liberality, dilcharged the whole debts of the prior
cc and convent of Selborne, to the amount of one hundred and ten
“ marks eleven Ihillings and fixpencem; and, a few years before
“ he died, he made a free gift of one hundred marks to the fame
“ Priory: on which account the prior and convent voluntarily
“ engaged for the celebration of two mafles a day by two canons
“ of the convent for ten years, for the bilhop’s welfare, if he
I Ihould live To long; and for his foul if he Ihould die before
“ the expiration of this term *1.”
At this diftance of time it feems matter of great wonder to us
how thefe focleties, fo nobly endowed, and whofe members were
exempt by their very inftitution from every means of perfonal and
m Y e t in ten years time we find", by tfte Notabilis Vijitatio, that all their relics, plate,,
veftments, title-deeds, &c. were in pawn*
n Lcnvtb's Life o f Wykeham.
family