CHAPTER X

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_The Laws of Ethelred II., pages 94-124._

His nine laws, by Thorpe, 94, 95. Church Grith law, A.D. 1014, p. 95. Art. 6 enacts the tripartite division of tithes, 95. Bishop Stubbs’s views in his history on the tripartite division, 96, 97. His views in private letters, 97. Origin of Sir Robert Cotton’s library, 98. His death, 100. Catalogue of library, 100. First printed catalogue, 100. Library vested in trustees, 100. Second catalogue, 100. History of the “Worcester” volume, Nero, A. 1, p. 101. Lord Selborne’s object is to upset the Act of A.D. 1014, pp. 101, 102. Selden and Spelman never saw the Church Grith law, 103, 104. Lambarde, Wheelock, and John Johnson, never saw it, 104. Thorpe’s opinion of Wilkins’s “Concilia,” 106. Price’s evidence is worthless, 107, 108. Freeman’s history, like Stubbs’s, is in favour of the genuineness of Church Grith law, but contradicts himself in his private letters on same subject, 108, 109, 110, 111. Old Latin Translators of the Anglo-Saxon laws omit fifteen Anglo-Saxon laws, 112. Dr. Lingard accepts this law as genuine, 116. Contents of Worcester volume, Nero, A. 1 stated, 117. Brewer, supported, but Dibden denies, the tripartite division, 119, 120. Mr. Thorpe in favour of the genuineness of this law, 121. Canute’s laws in three branches, 121. He modelled his laws on Edgar’s and Ethelred’s, 121. Thirty-six of the forty-four articles in the Church Grith law are incorporated in Canute’s, 121. How Lord Selborne disposes of the other eight, 121. When Poor Law Act was passed, why did not Parliament claim a portion of the tithe for the poor? This is answered, 123.

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