(_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]