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.”