into contact with Wilfrid: but it is possible that his confirmation was obtained later.
Our charter is probably that which is mentioned in the list of charters still preserved in 1247 (J. of G., p. 375):
Hedde episcopus de Lantokay et Ferremere. Hemgillo abbati.
Here we have the same combination of properties. When we look at the map we see that Leigh in Street is two miles south of Glastonbury, whereas Meare is nearly four miles to the north-west. It is possible that two grants are here combined in one charter: this would account for the different designations ('tres cassatos' and 'duas manentes') occurring in the same charter.
Nevertheless our charter presents very primitive features. Its first eight words are, as we shall see, identical with those of K. Coenwalch's charter (B. C. S. 25), and are such as we might expect. The addition of the year of the Incarnation may have been made when the charter was remodelled, say in the tenth century; or it may have been inserted by the compiler of the fourteenth-century Secretum. It agrees neither with William of Malmesbury's date (681), nor with the indiction, which points to 677. The brevity of the proem (Nichil intulimus, &c.) is in its favour, and the closer examination of it which we shall presently make will suggest that it retains its original form. This again is a point which links this charter to the charter of K. Coenwalch. There are other parallels of language between the two charters—such as 'libenter largior' and 'hoc donativum', though K. Coenwalch's charter is elaborate and fanciful where Bishop Haeddi's is brief and plain. But it is time to read what claims to be the earlier document.
B. C. S. 25.
K. Coenwalch grants to Abbot Beorhtwald Ferramere and two islands: 670 (for 671).
✠ Regnante ac gubernante nos domino nostro Jhesu Christo.
Nichil intulimus in nunc mundum, verum nee auferre quid possumus: ideo terrenis caelestia et caducis aeterna mercanda sunt.
Quapropter ego Ceduualla terrain quae dicitur Ferramere, unum cassatum, Beorhtuualdo abbati libenter largior; nee non duas parvas insulas; hoc est cum captura piscium in utraque parte stagni, cum paludibus, silvis, pascuis apium, et omnibus ad se pertinentibus dabo ei, ut habeat diebus vitae suae et post obitum suum cuicumque voluerit derelinquat.
Corroboravimus nunc crucisque signo confirmato hoc donativum stabili jure gratum et ratum decerno durare quamdiu vixero poli terras atque aequora circa aethera siderum jusso moderamine volvet. Si quis autem nisus fuerit hujus meae donacionis testamentum confringere aut adimere conatur, ipse acrius multatus sit infernalis ergastuli poena demersus, quern eo daemon vel diis dampnatorum paravit.
✠ Ego Coenuualla basilleos Westsaxonum propriae manus subscripcione sanctae crucis designavi effigiem, ut nemo qui se regeneratum in Christo noverit hujus largicionis donum mutare praesumat.
✠ Signum manus Theodori archiepiscopi.
✠ Signum manus Leuteri episcopi.
