Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/383

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B'S efforts to continue the Priory still proved unsuccessful; and the convent, without any canons, and for some time without a prior, was tending swiftly to its dissolution.

When Sharp's alias Glastonbury's priorship ended does not appear. The bishop says that he had been obliged to remove some priors for mal-administration; but it is not well explained how that could be the case with any unless with Sharp, because all the others chosen during his episcopate died in their office,—viz., Morton and Fairwise; Berne only excepted, who relinquished twice voluntarily, and was, moreover, approved of by Waynflete as a person of integrity. But the way to show what ineffectual pains the bishop took, and what difficulties he met with, will be to quote the words of the libel of his proctor, Rudolphus Langley, who appeared for the bishop in the process of the impropriation of the Priory of Selborne. The extract is taken from an attested copy.

"Item—that the said bishop, dicto prioratui et personis ejusdem pie compatiens, sollicitudines pastorales, labores, et diligentias gravissimas quam plurimas, tam per se quam per suos, pro reformatione premissorum impendebat; et aliquando illius loci prioribus, propter malam et inutilem administrationem, et dispensationem bonorum predicti prioratus, suis demeritis exigentibus, amotis; alios priores in quorum circumspectione et diligentia confidebat, prefecit; quos tamen male se habuisse ac inutiliter administrare, et administrasse, usque ad presentia tempora post