Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/168

 138 THE ML'NIMnNTS OF THE ABBEY OF WESTMINSTER. inent, ratified by the King's great seal, finally arranged matters. Three complaints were made — the dealing of the Abbot with refractory "obedients" — the provision of flesh- meat to the monks by the Abbot — and the visitation of the manors. The Abbot's power was confirmed as to the first ])articular ; he was released as regards the second ; and it ^vas agreed that once a year the chief manors were to be visite<l Ity the Cellarer, The elections of Cellarer and liosteler were settled by the same document, and the church of Fering in Essex was given to the Prior and convent in aid of their charges by the settlement. Tlici-e are many other references among the Archives to such an appropriation of property to sections of the Abbey. The great bulk of the Abbey muniments are (of course) the manorial documents. I have not attempted to make an estimate of their number, but it amounts to many thousands. Dealing, as in duty bound, in the first place, with the charters, 1 am launched upon a wide and dillicult inquiry — that of the genuineness of many of the early charters to the Abbe3 Very soon after wliat may be called the revival of a taste fur mediaeval learning, the authenticity of many of the early and curious Sa.xon charters was dul)tcil. From the time of ISir Henry »^pclman to that of Sir Frederic .Madden there have arisen authors and critics of whom each one has gone beyond his predecessor in casting doubt upon these MS.S. Tiic distinguished Henry liarton, whose momnnent is in the Abbey, hit upon the right explanation in his " Anglia Sacra," publislied in 1601. lie said that the fraudulent m(jnastLc charters had been long ago detected by learned iMOM, and that the iorged Sa.xon diarters were generally jii.idc after the Conijuest, when the Norman victors tried to ■wrong the owners of property and rights, and to al)stract them "per fas aut nefas." And the latest writer upon the .suhject, Mr. Thorpe, the editor of (he " J)i]>l(iniataiium Anglicum uKvi Sa.xonici," puitlished in ISfJ,"}, thus sums uj) the argument and tin.' facts : " Hut ei'ii those generally re- garded a.s decided forgeries may not always he false with lospect to their substanc(>. Ijeing p|-obably fabi-ications by the iiMHiks as vouclieis fiif the pos.session of lands which jiihtly belonged to them by prescription, or of which the oiiginal title had been lost or destroyed, oi- dl winch the Norm.'Ui concjuerors had de.s])oiled them. .Siu h charters aie