Mr. Kemble thinks that Ethelwulf’s first grant in 844 does not refer to tithing in the legal sense of the term. The passages found in the ancient chronicles, as quoted above, refer, in his opinion, to two several transactions; one which took place in 854 (844?) before the king’s visit to Rome; the second in the year 857, after his return to England. “Ethelwulf,” Mr. Kemble says, “being humbled and terrified by the distress of wars and the ravages of barbarous and pagan invaders, devised as a useful remedy thus: he determined to liberate from all those various exactions and services, which went by the general name of ‘Witereden,’ the tenth part of the estates which, though hereditary tenure had grown up in them, were still subject to the general obligations of folcland, whether they were in the hands of laics or clergy; that when the estate amounted to ten hides, one was to be free; when it was a very small quantity, at all events a tenth was to be enfranchised; and as the greater part of this land was either in the hands of the clergy, or was very likely ultimately to come there, he granted this act of enfranchisement that on these estates the holders might be the better able to devote themselves to the services of God, all other services being discharged except indeed the inevitable three.”[103] Mr. Kemble further adds, “Ethelwulf did three distinct things at different times:— “(1) He first released from all payments, except the inevitable three, a tenth part of the folclands or unenfranchised lands, whether in the tenancy of the Church or of his thanes. In this tenth part of the lands, so burdened in his favour, he annihilated the royal rights, regnum or imperium, and as the lands receiving this privilege were secured by charter, the chronicle can justly say that the king booked them to the honour of God.[104] (2) “The second thing he did was his giving a tenth part of his own private estates of book-land to various thanes or clerical establishments.[105] (3) “And, lastly, upon every ten hides of his own land, he commanded that one poor man, whether native born or stranger, that is, whether of Wessex or some other kingdom, should be maintained in food or clothing.”[106] This is remarkable as the beginning of secular provision for the poor, a proof that there were poor in Anglo-Saxon times, which some deny, in order to show there was no need of a provision for them out of the tithes! “Mr. Kemble’s views,” say Haddan and Stubbs, “of the several cartularies, and his interpretation of them, may be regarded as provisionally satisfactory.”[107] Charter C.—Here is an abridgment of the charter given by William of Malmesbury, with altered date A.D. 855, November 5th, written at Winchester. I give only the grant, so that it may be compared with Charters A and B.