S 1

A.D. 604 (28 April). Æthelberht, king, to St Andrew and his church at Rochester; grant of land at Rochester. Latin with English bounds.

Archive: Rochester

MSS: 1. BL Harley 1866, 9rv (s. xviii)
2. Maidstone, Kent Archives Office, DRc/R1 (Textus Roffensis), 119rv (s. xii1; facsimile)
3. Maidstone, Kent Archives Office, DRb/Ar2 (Liber Temporalium), 3v (s. xiv)

Printed: Mon. Angl., i. 27; Hearne, Textus Roffensis, pp. 62-3; Thorpe, Reg. Roff., pp. 13-14; K 1 ex MS 2; Mon. Angl. (rev. edn), i. 162 (no. 3); HS, p. 52; B 3 ex HS, Hearne, K, and Mon. Angl.; Earle, pp. 3-4 ex K and Hearne; Pierquin, Recueil, pt 1, no. 1; Pierquin, Conciles, p. 43; Campbell, Rochester, no. 1, ex MS 2; Morris 1995, pp. 101-2, ex B.

Comments: Wallenberg, KPN, p. 3, on place-names and bounds; Deanesly 1941, pp. 101-4; Deanesly 1941/1, pp. 53-69; Deanesly 1942, p. 110, authentic; Levison 1946, pp. 174, 223-5, suspicious features; Ward 1949, on topography; Campbell, Rochester, pp. xv, xxii, fabricated, partly based on S 266; Brooks 1974, p. 217, possibly some authentic basis; Tatton-Brown 1984, p. 14, cited in discussion of topography; Scharer 1982, pp. 59-60, spurious; Morris 1995, pp. 89-98, authentic.

Regnante in perpetuum domino nostro Iesu Christo saluatore . mense Aprilio . sub die iiii . kalendas Maias . indictione vii . ego Æthelberhtus rex filio meo Eadbaldo admonitionem catholice fidei optabilem . Nobis est aptum semper inquirere . qualiter per loca sanctorum pro anime remedio uel stabilitate salutis nostre aliquid de portione terre nostre in subsidiis seruorum dei deuotissimam uoluntatem debeamus offerre . Ideoque tibi Sancte Andrea tueque ecclesiae que est constituta in ciuitate Hrofibreui ubi preesse uidetur Iustus episcopus . trado aliquantulum telluris mei .

Hic est terminus mei doni . Fram suðgeate west andlanges wealles oð norðlanan to stræte . 7 swa east fram st'r'æte oð Doddinghyrnan ongean bradgeat .

Siquis uero augere uoluerit hanc ipsam donationem; augeat illi dominus dies bonos . Et si presumpserit minuere aut contradicere; in conspectu dei sit damnatus et sanctorum eius hic et in eterna secula . nisi emendauerit ante eius transitum quod inique gessit contra Christianitatem nostram . Hoc cum consilio Laurentii episcopi et omnium principum meorum signo sancte crucis confirmaui . eosque iussi ut mecum idem facerent . Amen .