[901] K. 137 (i. 164); B. M. Facs. i. 10. A few words are illegible, but the land is given ‘in ius ecclesiasticae liberalitatis in perpetuum possid[endam].’
[902] Æthelwulf makes a grant to a thegn, K. 269 (ii. 48), ‘pro expiatione piaculorum meorum et absolutione criminum meorum.’ In course of time the piety of the recitals becomes more and more perfunctory. It becomes a philosophic reflection on the transitoriness of earthly affairs and finally evaporates, leaving behind some commonplace about the superiority of written over unwritten testimony.
[903] Bede (ed. Plummer, i. 415): ‘ipsas quoque litteras privilegiorum suorum.’
[904] Vinogradoff, Folkland, Eng. Hist. Rev. viii. 1.
[905] Edw. I. 2.
[906] Schmid, p. 575.
[907] K. 281 (ii. 64); B. M. Facs. ii. 33.
[908] K. 317 (ii. 120); T. 480; B. ii. 195.
[909] K. 260 (ii. 28); B. ii. 33; B. M. Facs. ii. 30.
[910] In K. 1019 (v. 58) there is talk of Offa having booked land to himself, and in K. 1245 (vi. 58) Edgar seems to perform a similar feat without mentioning the consent of the witan, though they attest the deed. See Stubbs, Const. Hist. i. 145.