CHAPTER VII

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_KING ETHELWULF’S ALLEGED GRANT OF TITHES._

“But this establishment,” says Prideaux, “reached no further than the kingdom of Mercia, over which Offa reigned, till Ethelwulf, about sixty years after, enlarged it for the whole realm of England. And because hereon the civil right of tithes in this land had its main foundation, and this matter hath been much perplexed by those who have wrote of it, both _pro_ and _con_, I shall for the clearing of it from all objections and difficulties raised about it, here give a thorough and full account of the whole matter,” etc.[92] This erroneous view has been long exploded.

It is amusing to read what Prideaux calls Selden’s able and learned history of tithes: “Mr. Selden’s wild chimera,” and again, “his wild conceit”; but nothing could be wilder than his own _conceit_ on the Divine origin of tithes in the Church of England. Another Dean—Comber—also wrote strongly against Mr. Selden’s “Tithes.”[93]

Mr. Selden had taken Ethelwulf’s charter passed in a Witenagemót, A.D. 844, as the first legal title-deed of granting tithes to the clergy. In this view he was followed by Prideaux, Hume, Collier, Rapin, Milman, Echard, and others.

Sir Henry Spelman had taken another view, and supposed the grant to have been the origin of the glebe-lands of the Church; but this opinion was wrong, because churches had been endowed with glebe lands prior to these grants.

The great question at issue is, “Did Ethelwulf’s charters grant a tithe of yearly increase?” They did not.

I have consulted the following chronicles on this matter:—

(_a_) The Saxon Chronicle under the year A.D. 855 writes: “In this year Ethelwulf, inscribing in a book the tenth part of the land and also of his whole kingdom, dedicated it to God’s praise, and thereby seeking also his own eternal salvation.” [“Decimam terræ suæ et regni quoque totius partem libro inscribens, in laudem Dei, suæque etiam æternal saluti consulens, dicavit.”]

(_b_) Simeon has under A.D. 855: “At this time King Ethelwulf tithed all the empire of his kingdom for the redemption of his own soul and the souls of his ancestors.” [“Quo tempore rex Ethelwulfus decimavit totum regni sui imperium, pro redemptione animæ suæ et antecessorum suorum.”]

(_c_) Huntingdon, under A.D. 854, writes: “Ethelwulf in the nineteenth year of his reign tithed all his land to the uses of the Churches for God’s love and his own redemption.” [“Ethelwulfus decimo nono anno regni sui totam terram suam adopus ecclesiarum decimavit, propter amorem Dei et redemptionem sui.”]

(_d_) Wendover, A.D. 854: “In this same year the magnificent King Ethelwulf conferred upon God and the blessed Mary and all the saints the tenth part of his kingdom free from all secular services, exactions, and tributes.” [“Eodem anno rex magnificus Athelwulfus decimam regni sui partem Deo et Beatæ Mariæ et omnibus sanctis contulit, liberam ab omnibus servitiis sæcularibus exactionibus et tributis.”]

(_e_) Malmesbury says: “Ethelwulf granted to Christ’s servants the tenth part of all the ploughlands within his kingdom, free from all duties, and discharged from all liability to disturbance.” [“Ethelwulfus decimam omnium hidarum infra regnum suum Christi famulis concessit, liberam ab omnibus functionibus absolutam ab omnibus inquietudinibus.”]

(_f_) Asser, surnamed Menavensis, from the place of his birth, writes, under A.D. 855: “In the same year Ethelwulf released the tenth part of his whole kingdom from all royal service and tribute, and by a perpetual inscription offered it as a sacrifice on the cross of Christ to the Trinity for the redemption of his own soul and the souls of his ancestors.” [“Eodem anno Æthelwulfus decimam totius regni sui partem ab omni regali servitio et tributo liberavit, in sempiternoque graphio in cruce Christi pro redemptione animæ suæ et antecessorum suorum, uni et trino Deo immolavit.”]

Asser was well acquainted with the traditions of the king’s house, having been tutor and biographer of Alfred, Ethelwulf’s son.

(_g_) Ingulphus, A.D. 855: “It added to the prosperity of the old age (of Guthlæ, Abbot of Crowland) that Ethelwulf, the famous king of the West Saxons, when he recently returned from Rome (where, with his younger son Alfred, he had visited abroad the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul and the most holy Pope Leo), with the free consent of all his prelates and princes who ruled under him, the various provinces of all England, then first endowed the whole English Church throughout his kingdom with the tithes of the lands and other goods and chattels, by a writing under his own hand in this form,” then follows the charter. [“Accessit ad prosperitatem senii sui, quod inclytus rex west saxonum Ethelwulphus cum de Roma, ubi limina Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, ac sanctissimum Papam Leonem, multa devotione una cum juniore filio suo Alfredo peregre visitaverat, noviter revertisset, omnium Prælatorum ac principum suorum, qui sub ipso variis provinciis totius Angliæ præerat, gratuito consensu, tunc primo cum decimis omnium terrarum, ac bonorum aliorum sive catallorum, universam dotaverat ecclesiam Anglicanam per suum regium chirographum confectum inde in hunc modum.”][94]

(_a_) Refers to grant of lands, and not tithes; (_b_, _c_) use the word decimavit; (_d_, _e_, _f_) refer to a grant of lands freed from secular services, exactions, and tributes; (_g_) refers to tithes.

The word _decimare_ had been often used as regards gifts in tenths quite apart from the idea of tithes. The whole difficulty in reference to Ethelwulf’s grants, turns upon his use of the word tenth as a convenient measure for ecclesiastical and other benefactions. This fact testifies to another fact; namely, the growing recognition of the tithe as the clerical portion.[95]

In order to get a correct idea of the application of the charters, it is essentially necessary to make oneself familiar with the proper meanings of “Folcland” and “Bocland.”

FOLCLAND AND BOCLAND.

_Folcland_ was the general property of the community—_i.e._, Anglo-Saxon national property—_terra fiscalis_, and its possessors were bound to assist in repairing royal vills and in other public works; and were also liable to have travellers quartered upon them for subsistence. They were required to give hospitality to kings and great men in their progresses through the country; to furnish them with carriages and relays of horses, and to extend the same assistance to their messengers, followers, and servants, and even to persons who had charge of their hawks, horses, and hounds. Such are the burdens from which lands were liberated when converted by charter into bocland. For breach of these conditions they were liable to forfeiture or witeraeden; that is, fines. Freemen of all ranks and conditions, as well as common people, held folcland. The possessor had only a life-interest in it. On his demise the king could dispose of it to another. The holder may also possess bocland. Every one was desirous of having grants of folcland, and to convert as much as possible of it into bocland.

_Bocland_ was land held by book or charter. It had been land severed by an act of the government from the folcland, and, by a written instrument was converted into an estate of perpetual inheritance. The possessors of bocland were released from all services to the public except the _trinoda necessitas_; that is, contributing to military expeditions, repairs of castles and bridges. The Church contrived in some cases to obtain exemption from them, but in general its lands, like those of others, were subject to them. The greater part of the charters granting exemptions to the Church, are forgeries. The estates of the higher nobility consisted chiefly of bocland. Bishops and abbots had bocland of their own in addition to what they held in right of the Church. _The Anglo-Saxon kings had private estates of bocland, and these estates did not merge in the crown, but were devisable by will, gift, or sale, and transmissible by inheritance in the same manner as bocland held by a subject._ Among the Anglo-Saxons royalty was elective. It sometimes happened that on the demise of the king his nearest blood did not succeed to the throne. The former king’s private estate did not then pass to his successor, but to his own children. Hence the advantage of a private estate in addition to the demesne or crown lands. The folcland could not be converted into bocland without the consent of the king by and with the advice of his Witenagemót, an expression of the national will in its distribution. There is hardly a Saxon charter creating bocland, which is not said to have been granted by the king with the consent and leave of his nobles and great men. “Cum consilio, consensu et licentia procerum,” or similar expressions. If that consent were withheld, the king’s grant would be invalid. There was a case of this sort. Baldred, king of Kent, had given to Christ Church, Canterbury, the manor of Malling, in the county of Sussex; but the king having offended his nobles, they refused to ratify his grant, and therefore the grant had not taken effect until King Egbert, in 838, with his counsel assembled at Kingston-upon-Thames, restored the manor to the Church through the action of Archbishop Ceolnoth.[96]

If the king himself received a grant of folcland, he had first to receive the consent of his Witan. Ethelwulf booked twenty hides of folcland to himself in his private capacity, but he had the consent of his Witan;[97] Offa did the same.

When folcland was appropriated to the king’s subsistence, that is, to the maintenance of his household, court, etc., it was said to be held _in demesne_, or let out to farm; afterwards called Terra Regis, or crownland. A great part of the “Terra Regis” of Domesday was folcland, or public property of the State, and the king was only the usufructuary possessor. We have an important definition of Terra Regis at page 75 of the “Exon Domesday,” viz., “The demesne land of the king _belonging to the kingdom_,” and we find a similar definition in the “Exchequer Domesday.”[98]

In dealing with Ethelwulf’s charters, it is essentially necessary to state Mr. Kemble’s six canons of tests by which the Saxon charter may not only be distinguished from a will or the record of a synodal decree, but whether it is spurious.

These canons are (1) The Invocation; (2) The Proem; (3) The Grant; (4) The Sanction; (5) The Date; (6) The Teste.

(1) The Invocation is a short ejaculation which usually forms the first member of the document. (2) The Proem is a general observation on the virtue of charity to the Church, the nothingness of earthly possessions, and the advantage of purchasing with them heavenly treasures. (3) The Grant, which is the important part of every charter. (4) The Sanction, by which is meant the punishment attached to the violation of the premises. It is called the “Si quis” clause. (5) The Date. (6) The Teste or Subscriptions. In almost all ecclesiastical documents the witnesses subscribed with their own hands.[99]

ETHELWULF’S CHARTERS.

In Ethelwulf’s Charters we have all these points. I shall omit 1, 2, and 4, and give here 3, 5, and 6.

(3) Charter A.—“Wherefore I Ethelwulf, king of the West-Saxons, with the consent of my bishops and princes, have resolved on a salutary council and uniform remedy and have determined to make a gift of a certain hereditary portion of land to all ranks _already in possession_ of it, whether monks or nuns serving God, or laypeople, always the tenth hide, where it may be the least yet the tenth part perpetually enfranchised so as to be free and protected from all secular services, royal dues, tributes, greater and lesser taxes, which we call ‘Witereden’ and that it be free from all things for the deliverance of our souls and sins, for serving God only, without military expedition and bridge-building and castle fortification, so that they may more diligently without ceasing pour forth their prayers to God for us, for which we in some degree lighten their secular services,” etc.

(5) “Now this Charter of donation was written in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 844, in the seventh Indiction, on the day of the nones of November, in the city of Winchester, in the church of St. Peter, before the high altar.”

(6) It was signed by King Ethelwulf, by bishops Elmstan and Aelstan, 6 dukes, 3 abbots, and 16 thanes.

(3) Charter A.—“Quamobrem ego Ethelwulfus, rex Occidentalium Saxonum cum consilio episcoporum ac principum meorum, consilium salubre atque uniforme remedium affirmavi, ut aliquam porcionem terrarum hereditarium antea possidentibus gradibus omnibus, sive famulis et famulabus Dei Deo servientibus, sive laicis, semper decimam mansionem ubi minimum sit tum decimam partem in libertatem perpetuam perdonare dijudicavi ut sit tutus atque munitus ab omnibus secularibus servitutis, fiscis, regalibus tributis majoribus et minoribus, sive taxationibus quod nos dicimus Witereden; sitque liber omnium rerum pro remissione animarum et peccatorum nostrorum Deo soli ad serviendum, sine expeditione, et pontis instructione, et arcis municione, ut eo diligencius pro nobis ad Deum preces sine cessacione fundant, quo eorum servitutem secularem in aliqua parte levigamus pro honore Sancti Michaelis Archangeli et Sancte Marie Regine gloriose Dei genetricis.”

(5) “Scripta est autem hæc donacionis cartula anno Dominicæ Incarnacionis DCCCXLIIII., Indictione vii., die quoque nonas Novembris. In civitate Wentana in ecclesia, Sancti Petri ante altare capitale, et hoc fecerunt.”

This Charter is printed by Kemble in the “Codex Diplomaticus,” vol. v. p. 93, No. 1048, from a Malmesbury cartulary of the 14th century, Lansd., 417, f. 6, which Haddan and Stubbs collated with a Malmesbury cartulary in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Wood., donat. 5, of the thirteenth century, see “Councils,” iii. p. 630, etc. The rubric in the Bodleian cartulary stands thus: “Quomodo Æthelwulfus Rex decimavit terram suam Deo et sanctæ Ecclesiæ; et quota parte hujus decimæ Meldunensem Ecclesiam ditaverit,” etc. [“In what way King Ethelwulf decimated his land to God and Holy Church, and with what part of that tenth he enriched the Church of Malmesbury, for the honour of St. Michael the Archangel and St. Mary.”] I have taken the orthography of the charter from Mr. Birch’s “Cartularium Saxonicum,” ii. No. 447, p. 26.

I have translated _decimam mansionem_ as the tenth hide.

It appears from this Malmesbury cartulary that annexed to it was a statement of particular lands already in possession (_antea possidentibus_) of the monastery which by this charter were enfranchised. But in the copies of this charter the schedule of enfranchised land is omitted except in this particular case of Malmesbury.

As regards the date of this charter, Helmstan, whose name appears in it, was bishop of Winchester from 838 to 852. Swithun succeeded him in 852. If, therefore, the charter be dated 854 with Helmstan’s name in it, the date is spurious. I have taken the episcopal dates from Bishop Stubbs’s “Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum,” ed. 1858.

Wilkins gives the general provisions of this grant with the date A.D. 844, Indiction iv., but makes a serious blot by inserting Swithun’s name instead of Helmstan’s.[100]

Selden says, “In Malmesbury the date of the first charter is DCCCXLIV, Indict. iv., v. Nonas Novembris; plainly it is false, neither could that Indiction be in the charter of the year DCCCXLIV, which fell in the seventh Indiction.”[101]

ETHELWULF’S SECOND CHARTER OF GRANTS.

Recital of the grant of Ethelwulf, king of the West-Saxons, to the Church of England, of a tenth of lands, etc. Grant by the same to Huntsige, the thane of land at Worthy, _county of Hants_, Easter, 22 April, 854.

Charter B.—“Wherefore I, Ethelwulf, by the grace of God, king of the West-Saxons, in the holy and most solemn feast of Easter, for the health of my soul and prosperity of my kingdom and of all the people by Almighty God committed to my care, with my bishops, earls and all my nobles, have resolved on a salutary counsel, that I have not only given the tenth part of the lands through our kingdom to Holy Church, but also have granted to our ministers placed in the same to enjoy them in perpetual liberty; so that such grant shall remain firm and immutable, freed from all royal services, and from all other secular services whatsoever.”

Here follows a statement that it had pleased Ælthstan, bishop of Sherborne, and Swithun, bishop of Winchester, with all those serving God, to agree that on every Saturday in each church five psalms shall be sung, and every presbyter shall sing two masses—one for King Ethelwulf and the other for the bishops and nobles, etc.

Then follows the date. “This charter was written in the year of the incarnation of our Lord 854, in the second Indiction, on Easter Day, in our Palace at Wilton.”

Charter B.—“Quapropter ego Æthelwulf gratia Dei Occidentalium Saxonum rex, in sancta ac celeberrima Paschale sollempnitate, pro meæ remedio animæ et regni prosperitate et populi ab omnipotente Deo michi conlati consilium salubre cum episcopis, comitibus, et cunctis optimatibus meis perfeci ut decimam partem terrarum per regnum nostrum non solum sanctis æcclesiis darem verum etiam et ministris nostris in eodem constitutis in perpetuam libertatem habere concessimus. Ita ut talis donatio fixa incommutabilisque permaneat ab omni regali servitio et omnium sæcularium absoluta servitute.”

“Scripta est autem hæc cartula, Anno Dominicæ incarnationis DCCCLIIII.; Indictione ii. die vero Paschali in palatio nostro quod dicitur Wiltun.”

Then follow the names of the king, two of the king’s sons, bishops Alhstan and Swithun, six dukes, two abbots, sixteen thanes.

This is found in Kemble’s “Codex Diplomaticus,” No. 1054, and he takes his text from the Codex Wintoniensis, MS. Brit. Mus., Add. 15,350, fol. 89.

Mr. Kemble marks this charter as doubtful, but Haddan and Stubbs remark: “This doubt lies on a very large portion of the charters contained in the Codex Wintoniensis. The above is, however, the best specimen of the class of charters which it represents.”[102]

Mr. Kemble thinks that Ethelwulf’s first grant in 844 does not refer to tithing in the legal sense of the term. The passages found in the ancient chronicles, as quoted above, refer, in his opinion, to two several transactions; one which took place in 854 (844?) before the king’s visit to Rome; the second in the year 857, after his return to England. “Ethelwulf,” Mr. Kemble says, “being humbled and terrified by the distress of wars and the ravages of barbarous and pagan invaders, devised as a useful remedy thus: he determined to liberate from all those various exactions and services, which went by the general name of ‘Witereden,’ the tenth part of the estates which, though hereditary tenure had grown up in them, were still subject to the general obligations of folcland, whether they were in the hands of laics or clergy; that when the estate amounted to ten hides, one was to be free; when it was a very small quantity, at all events a tenth was to be enfranchised; and as the greater part of this land was either in the hands of the clergy, or was very likely ultimately to come there, he granted this act of enfranchisement that on these estates the holders might be the better able to devote themselves to the services of God, all other services being discharged except indeed the inevitable three.”[103]

Mr. Kemble further adds, “Ethelwulf did three distinct things at different times:—

“(1) He first released from all payments, except the inevitable three, a tenth part of the folclands or unenfranchised lands, whether in the tenancy of the Church or of his thanes. In this tenth part of the lands, so burdened in his favour, he annihilated the royal rights, regnum or imperium, and as the lands receiving this privilege were secured by charter, the chronicle can justly say that the king booked them to the honour of God.[104]

(2) “The second thing he did was his giving a tenth part of his own private estates of book-land to various thanes or clerical establishments.[105]

(3) “And, lastly, upon every ten hides of his own land, he commanded that one poor man, whether native born or stranger, that is, whether of Wessex or some other kingdom, should be maintained in food or clothing.”[106] This is remarkable as the beginning of secular provision for the poor, a proof that there were poor in Anglo-Saxon times, which some deny, in order to show there was no need of a provision for them out of the tithes!

“Mr. Kemble’s views,” say Haddan and Stubbs, “of the several cartularies, and his interpretation of them, may be regarded as provisionally satisfactory.”[107]

Charter C.—Here is an abridgment of the charter given by William of Malmesbury, with altered date A.D. 855, November 5th, written at Winchester. I give only the grant, so that it may be compared with Charters A and B.

“Wherefore I, Ethelwulf, king of the West Saxons, with the consent of my bishops and princes, resolved on a salutary counsel and also a uniform remedy; viz., to give _a certain portion of my land_ to God, the blessed Mary and all the saints, possessing it by a perpetual right; viz., the _tenth part of my land_, so as to be safe, protected and free from all secular services, and also from royal tributes, the greater and less, or from the taxes which we call ‘Witereden,’”[108] etc. Attention is drawn to the words in italics.

SELDEN’S CONCLUSION ON ETHELWULF’S CHARTER.

“If we well consider the words of the chiefest of these ancients, that is, Ingulphus, we may conjecture that the purpose of the charter was to make a general grant of tithes payable freely and discharged from all kind of exactions used in that time.”[109] Selden is not correct in this conclusion; for if we take the collateral evidence of the chronicles, we shall find that the king’s grant referred to land and not to tithe of increase.

Selden says, “In Matthew of Westminster no other _decima_ is mentioned in it than _decima terræ meæ_. Out of the corrupted language [of the charter] it is hard to collect what the exact meaning of it was.”[110] Here Selden unquestionably expresses a doubt as to the interpretation of the charter. And we are therefore bound to give him credit as having been the first to doubt Ingulph’s interpretation of the charter; namely, that “Ethelwulf first endowed the whole English Church throughout his kingdom with the tithes of the lands.” Therefore I agree with Lord Selborne that Haddan and Stubbs have not done justice to Selden in not having taken this doubtful statement into consideration.[111]

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