Event: Charter-witnessing, Church/monastery/minster foundation/dedication/restoration, Grant and GiftS51 - Osric 2 granting land to Bertana 1

Scholarly Info
Description Osric 2, king, to Bertana 1, abbess; grant of 100 hides (manentes) at Bath, Somerset, for the foundation of a nunnery
Year 676
Primary Source Info
Date from Source 675

Notes:

Under the ruling and governing control of the kingdom of King Osric, in the year of the reckoning of Dionysius, that is, the six hundred and seventy-sixth from the incarnation of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the fourth indiction, in the month of the November, the sixth [day]. When the evangelic and apostolic dogmas were brought to us after the sacrament of baptism, by the grace of God, and all foolish figments of idols had been wholly razed to the ground, then for the first time, for the increase of the catholic and orthodox faith— as far as the setting up of an episcopal see in accordance with the synodal decisions— we resolved to establish [it, i.e., a see]. But now, when the higher grace had shone out more profusely far and wide, we have commanded the establishment of monastic places, here for men and there for women serving God, so that where the truculent and horrible serpent of sins used to devote himself to deceptions, now on the contrary the ecclesiastical order of those living in the clerical condition rejoices under the Lord’s protection. Wherefore, I, the aforementioned King Osric, for the salvation of my soul and the remission of my sins, had decided to grant this charter in praise of the name of our Lord, that is, bestowing on Abbess Berta, who out of Christian devotion and in the hope of eternal blessing declares herself to be a handmaiden of God, one hundred hides that adjoin the city which is called Bath to build a monastery for holy virgins. Therefore, with humble prayers I beseech that after my death no-one should obstinately presume to take or carry off anything from that legal provision of land, contrary to the prohibition of canon law. If any subsequent bishops or kings should attempt through their own criminality to presume against this record of our decision, which truly God forbid!, may he be removed from the fellowship of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ and deprived of the company of all the saints forever.

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