It is important to observe that we have no trustworthy record of any single event of English history previous to the arrival of Augustine. We have tradition, but nothing more. No great power of writing existed up to that period. But Augustine and his companions did more than introduce Christianity among the Saxons. They also introduced writing, annals, and other forms of Roman civilization. The first Anglo-Saxon charter is dated April 28, A.D. 604, by which Ethelbert, king of Kent, granted to the Cathedral church of Rochester, lands at Southgate. This charter was granted by the advice of Bishop Laurence and of all the king’s princes.[169] There are no signatures, but ends with “Amen.” The second charter, dated A.D. 605, granting land in Canterbury to found an abbey, is signed by King Ethelbert, Archbishop Augustine, Edbald the King’s son, Duke Hamigisil, Angemund referendarius, Hocca comes, Grafio comes (count or comites of the King), Tangilisil regis optimas, Pinca, and Geddi. The first charter is remarkable, in which Laurence is styled “bishop.” Augustine had not died until the 26th May, 605,[170] so he must have consecrated Laurence as Archbishop more than thirteen months before his death. Augustine signed the Charter dated 9th January, 605, as a member of the Witenagemót.
Population.
Mr. Walter de Gray Birch, of the MSS. Department of the British Museum, had discovered in 1883, in the British Museum, a MS. in Anglo-Saxon of the late tenth or early eleventh century. It is the only extant Anglo-Saxon copy. It is the oldest and best text. There is internal evidence that the MS. is a copy of an older one now lost. It is in the Harley Collection of MSS. 3271 f. 6B. It is the earliest census return of the Anglo-Saxon population.[171] There are thirty-four divisions or territorial names which are very ancient. The total is 243,600 hides, which mean families, throughout England. Allowing five to each family, the population of England in A.D. 1066 was 1,218,000. As the sanitary arrangements and medical science were little known among the Anglo-Saxons, I take 10 per 1,000 as the excess of births over deaths. From these data I conclude that in A.D. 597, when Augustine landed in England, the population was 80,000; in A.D. 700, the population was 160,000; in A.D. 800, population 300,000; in A.D. 900, population 600,000; in A.D. 1,000, population 900,000. The population of Kent in A.D. 597 was about 5,500. There is a statement in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History that the population of Kent was 10,000 when Augustine landed, but this was an exaggeration. There were then 21 monasteries in England. Between A.D. 600 and 700, 100 monasteries were built and endowed. Therefore in A.D. 700 there were 121 monasteries for a population of 160,000. Only 29 monasteries were built between 700 and 800, 22 between 800 and 900, 38 between 900 and 1000, and 43 between 1000 and 1066, or 253, but one-half of them were in ruins through Danish invasions, at the time of the Conquest.
I shall now give the population of the country at the periods when tithes were ordered to be paid by civil or ecclesiastical law.
In 787, when the Pope’s two legates came to England, the population was about 260,000. The Injunctions read to the Northern Synod were attested by the King of Northumberland, Archbishop of York, Bishops of Hexham, Lindisfarne, Whitherne, Mayo in Ireland, Ethelwin of Bangor, two dukes, two abbots, some presbyters, deacons and thanes.
In the Southern Synod they were attested by the King of Mercia, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishops of Lichfield, Lindsey, Leicester, Elmham, London, Winchester, Dunwich, Hereford, Selsey, Rochester, Sherborne, Worcester (13 bishops); 3 abbots, 3 dukes, and 1 comes, i.e. 16 ecclesiastics and 5 laymen.
It will be seen from these facts that not only was the population small, but ecclesiastics formed the majority in the synods or councils who framed laws and canons for the payment of tithes to the Church. King Athelstan’s law made in 927 for the payment of tithes runs thus:—
“Athelstan, king, with the council of Wulfhelm Archbishop, and of my other bishops, make known to the reeves, etc.” Here is the King with a council of bishops making a law for the payment of tithes to bishops themselves and to their clergy. And this is considered the first general law in England for setting forth the payment of predial and mixed tithes. The population then was about 700,000.