I. Monastic Foundation Charters of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries

Abstract

The draughtsman of a foundation charter in the century after the Norman Conquest had the choice of two distinct diplomatic forms, each of which was a legacy from earlier times. He might cast it in the shape of a letter, authenticated by the seal of the donor, informing the superior lord or the relevant bishop of what had been done: or he might use the more ancient, solemn and pretentious form of the diploma, authenticated not by the seal but by the sign of the cross made by the hands of the witnesses. In either case he would be careful to include a list of witnesses who could prove the grant; and the most obvious difference between them would lie in this—that the letter referred to the act as already past ( sciatis me dedisse…) , while the diploma described the actual moment of gift ( do —or trado — deo et abbati… ). To the latter an exact date was appropriate—hence the elaborate dating of the Anglo-Saxon landbocs: for the letter, on the other hand, a date was superfluous, since the act was recorded as a thing of the past. Whichever form he chose, his purpose was the same, viz. to supply evidence for the remote future of a grant made verbally. There is no question about this so far as letters or writ charters are concerned: for not only are they often addressed to all men present and future , but they sometimes include preambles which leave us in no doubt as to the current conception of the written word.