Page:St. Oswald and the Church of Worcester.djvu/34



Here we have the clause: et sciat quicunque hanc terram teneat cotidie elemosinam faciendam pro anima Burhredi regis et Alhuni episcopi, qui hanc terram donaverunt deo et sancte Mariae ad ecclesiam in Uueogernacestre. The clause is unlikely in itself to be genuine; and in B. C. S. 235 the 10 manses at Bengeworth are said to have been given by King Offa in 780. It is followed by the statement that the grant is made in 907 with leave of King Alfred, who, however, had been dead seven or eight years; and the signatures are not of Bishop Werfrith's time, but correspond with those of charters of 849-55 (B. C. S. 455, 490).

Older materials may perhaps have been worked up in this charter: but as it stands it is a particularly clumsy forgery.

We conclude that the ninth century offers us no more tangible evidence than the eighth century of a church of St Mary or of a community of monks at Worcester.

These two charters must be considered together, on account of the similarity in their date and attestation:

Scripta est haec cartula anno dominicae incarnationis, ac sexto regno Æþelstani regis, Christo Ihesu gubernante, renovando in melius cum senatorum signaculo confirmavit. &#x2720; Æþelstan rex sceptris fretus regalibus hanc cartam signavit cum manibus.

&#x2720; Ƿulfhelm archiepiscopus cum ceteris præsulibus.

&#x2720; Ælƿino. Ƿeodredo. Frye&#240;estano. Sigehelmo. ƿynsigio. Beornheho. Eadgaro. Ælfhæho. Odano. consignavit.

&#x2720; Osfer&#240; comes cum ducibus ac ceteris optimatibus. Ælfƿaldo (and 16 others) consignavit.

Rodepard quoque archipræsul cum Eboracensis suffraganeis. Æscber'h'to. ƿigredo. Earnulfo. Columbano. consignavit.

So in B. C. S. 665: the only difference in B. C. S. 666 is that the attestation is broken off after the word optimatibus.

We begin by noting the date. The evidence of Athelstan's charters points on the whole to the commencement of his reign on Dec. 25, 924. His sixth year, therefore, began Dec. 25, 929. If these charters are genuine, they were issued in the last week of 929. If they are