S 5
A.D. 604 x 616. Æthelberht, king, to Mellitus, bishop, and St Paul's minster; grant of land at Tillingham, Essex. Latin.
Archive: London, St Paul's
MSS: 1. BL Lansdowne 364, 124r (s. xvii; incomplete)
2. London, Guildhall, 25501, 38v (s. xiii)
3. London, Guildhall, 25504, 5v (s. xii)
4. London, St Paul's, D. & C., Liber B, 20r (s. xii; lost)
5. Bodleian, Dodsworth 10, 8r (s. xvii)
Printed: Mon. Angl., iii. 299; Dugdale, St Paul's, p. 181, ex MSS 2, 4; Dugdale, St Paul's (2nd edn), Appendix, p. 5, ex MSS 2, 4; K 982 ex Dugdale; Corner 1858, pp. 92-5; HS, pp. 59-60; B 8; Pierquin, Recueil, pt 3, no. 1; Morris 1995, pp. 108-9, ex B.
Comments: Corner 1858; HS, pp. 59-60, questionable or spurious; Hart 1957, pp. 29-30, on Tillingham; Hart, ECE, no. 1 (pp. 8-9), spurious but may be based on a genuine tradition; Whitelock 1975, p. 4, n. 5, forged; Scharer 1982, p. 62, spurious; Taylor 1992, p. 291 n. 20, unreliable but Tillingham probably a genuine foundation grant; Kelly, St Augustine's, p. lxxiv n. 18, fabrication incorporating a genuine witness-list of c. 670 x 676.
In Christi nomine. Æðelbertus rex deo inspirante pro anime sue remedio dedit episcopo Mellito terram que appellatur Tillincgeham ad monasterii sui solatium, scilicet monasterii sancti Pauli apostoli doctoris gentium. Et ego rex Æðelbertus ita firmiter concedo tibi presuli Mellito potestatem eius habendi et possidendi, ut in perpetuum in monasterii utilitate permaneat. Si quis uero contradicere temptauerit hanc donationem, anathema et excommunicatus sit ab omni societate Christiana usque ad satisfactionem. Qua de re ego episcopus Mellitus, una cum rege Æðelberto, Hunfredum episcopum subscribere rogaui. Signum manus Hunfredi episcopi. Signum manus Letharii episcopi. Signum manus Æbane. Signum manus Æþelwaldi. Signum manus Æscwine. Et aliorum multorum.