Page:St. Oswald and the Church of Worcester.djvu/28

 the giver, but also of domini mei piissimi regis Merciorum. For in usus aecclesiasticae libertatis he says in usus ecclesiasticae necessitudinis; and for in mensam eorum he says ad propriam mensurae participationem mensae illorum. In the attestation we find vexillum sacratissimae crucis Christi and signum mirabile beatae crucis, elaborate phrases which by themselves suffice to raise grave suspicion at this period.

The grant is of land iiarum mansionum iugera continentem (a strange phrase) quae iacet iuxta fluvium qui dicitur Stur, ad vadum nomine Scepesuuasce.

In Domesday Book the church holds two hides at Scepwestun.

This charter is no. 3 in the codicellus referred to above.

The grant is made ad aecclesiam beatae semper virginis dei genetricis Mariae quae sita est in Uuegerna civitate, ubi corpora patrum meorum digne condiuntur. Compare B. C. S. 183, the doubtful charter of his brother Eanberht, which speaks of St Peter's as the church ubi corpora parentum nostrorum quiescunt. (That is a grant of Tredingctun &hellip; iuxta fluvium qui dicitur Stuur.)

This charter Mr. Stevenson classifies among those in which he sees ' some definite reason for believing the document to be genuine'. It still existed at Worcester when Hickes was dean : see his Thesaurus I. 170 f., where a transcript of it is given. It is primarily a charter of King Offa, granting Sedgebarrow to his subregulus Aldred. After the signatures is added a grant by Aldred regulus to St Mary's. We need not question Mr. Stevenson's acceptance of King Offa's charter. We are only concerned with Aldred's postscript, as to which he has expressed no separate judgement.

1. This postscript begins: Nunc ergo ego Aldredus domino dispensante Huicciorum regulus. But Aldred regularly styles himself subregulus, as indeed Offa calls him in this very charter. The only other place in which he describes himself as regulus is in B. C. S. 232, where we find Ego Aldredus meam munificentiam corroborans, &c. But this is a grant by Uhtred, not by Aldred; and Aldredus is a mere scribal error for Uhtredus in the attestation.

2. At the end we read: et hoc cum subscriptione principum meorum muniendo munio. But the three witnesses are praefecti, not principes; and the duplication muniendo munio seems to have no parallel in such a connexion in charters of the period.