It is of course with diffidence that any opinion is set forth which seems to run counter to so eminent an authority as Palgrave; but there does appear a plausible reason (if not a sufficient one) for the laws of Offa not being found under a separate title; viz., that the laws termed those of Alfred, independent of Ina and Ethelbert, were those of Offa! This idea is corroborated by the circumstance, that Alfred did not assume to himself so much credit as a Lawmaker as a collector and improver of laws; for in the preamble to his Code, he says that he had selected some of its laws, with the approbation and advice of his council, from those of Offa and others!
The entire improvements which Offa introduced into the legislation of his kingdom and subjected territories are, at the present day, too difficult of discovery to be clearly elucidated, unless the foregoing hypothesis be adopted: but there may be excepted from this difficulty the laws passed at the legatine council in his reign, held at Calchythe, A. D. 785, when Egfrid his son was associated with him in the government.[14]
[14] A. D. 785. Offa appointed Hibbert bishop, archbishop Lambert having resigned some part of his bishopric. Everth, or Egfert, was consecrated king. Adrian the pope sent legates to England to renew the blessings of faith and peace, which St. Gregory sent us by the mission of bishop Augustine.—Ingram’s Sax. Chron.
The following is from the letter of the legates themselves:
Concilium Calchuthense. Ex Magdeburg. Cent. VIII. c. 9. p. 575.
Proœmium ad Adrianum papam 1.
Nos faventibus sanctis orationibus vestris, hilari vultu vestris jussionibus obtemperantes pereximus; sed impedivit nos is, qui tentat, vento contrario; ille vero qui mitificat fluctus, exaudita vestrâ deprecatione, mitificavit cærulea freta, et transvexit nos ad portum salutis; ac licet multis periculis afflictos, tamen illæsos Anglorum appulit oris. Igitur suscepti primum ab archiepiscopo Iaenbarcho sanctæ Dorovernensis ecclesiæ, quæ alio vocabulo Cantia vocitatur, ubi sanctus Augustinus in corpore requiescit; inibi residentes admonuimus ea, quæ necessaria erant. Inde peragrantes pervenimus ad aulam Offæ regis Merciorum. At ille cum ingenti gaudio ob reverentiam beati Petri, et vestri apostolatus honorem suscepit tam nos, quam sacros apices a summa sede delatos.
Tunc convenerunt in unum concilium Offa, rex Merciorum, et Chuniulphus, rex West Saxonum; cui etiam tradidimus vestra syngrammata sancta; ac illi continuo promiserunt se de his vitiis corrigendos. Tunc inito concilio cum prædictis regibus, pontificibus, et senioribus terræ, perpendentes quod angulus ille longè latèq. protenditur; permisimus Theophylactum venerabilem episcopum, regem Merciorum et Britanniæ partes adire. Ego autem assumpto mecum adjutore, quem filius vester excellentissimus rex Carolus, ob reverentiam vestri apostolatus nobiscum misit, virum probatæ fidei, Wignodum, abbatem presbyterum, perrexi in regionem Northanhymbrorum ad Ælfwodum regem et archiepiscopum sanctæ ecclesiæ Eboracæ civitatis Eanbaldum. Sed quia præfatus rex longé in borealibus commorabatur, misit jam dictus archiepiscopus missos suos ad regem, qui continuo omni gaudio statuit diem concilii, ad quem convenerunt omnes principes regionis tam ecclesiastici, quam seculares. Sed audientibus nobis relatum est, quod reliqua vitia non minima ibi necessaria erant ad corrigendum. Quia, ut scitis, a tempore sancti Augustini pontificis, sacerdos Romanus nullus illuc missus est, nisi nos.
Scripsimus namq. capitulare de singulis rebus, et per ordinem cuncta disserentes, auribus illorum pertulimus; qui cum omni humilitatis subjectione, et clara voluntate tam admonitionem vestram, quam parvitatem nostram amplexantes, sposponderunt se in omnibus obedire. Tunc nos epistolas vestras eis tradidimus perlegendas, contestantes eos tam in se, quam in subditis sacrata decreta custodire. Hæc namq. sunt capitula, quæ illis pertulimus conservanda esse.
Then follow twenty articles having reference to the clergy, to the kings, and to the people generally.