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OFFA

OFFA

an order which had not yet under that namebeen introduced into Britain. The southernsynod in which these acts were passed was at-tended and its acts were confirmed by Offa, arch-bishop Jaenbert, twelve bishops, four abbats,three duces, or ealdormen, and one “ comes ”

(Councils , Haddan and Stubbs, iii. 461; Wilkins,i. 151). But the report of the legates is appa-rently incomplete, and no mention is made in iteither of the division of the province or of theconsecration of Egfrith. Both these measureswere carried through the next year. We learnfurther, from a letter of pope Leo III. to Kenulf,that in this synod Offa undertook to pay anannual subvention of 365 mancuses to the popefor the support of the poor and the maintenanceof lamps at St. Peter’s (Haddan and Stubbs,Councils, iii. 445, 524). In 790 the two kings hadquarrelled; mercantile intercourse was brokenoff. and Alcuin thought it likely that he wouldbe sent to Offa on an embassy of peace (Ale. ep.14, Mon. Ale. p. 167). How this dispute endedwe are not told. The name of Offa does notoccur in connexion with the proceedings ofCharles on the question of image worship, buthe must be understood as acquiescing in thedoctrine promulgated by Alcuin in the name ofthe princes and bishops of Britain (Sim. Dun.M, H. B. p. 6H7) in 792.

It is probable that Ethelheard, the archbishopwho succeeded Jaenbert in 793, was a Mercian,and owed his promotion to Offa’s patronage; hecertainly aided with the Mercian party underKenulf against the Kentish or West Saxon partyunder Eadbert Praen. Whether or no he wasapprehensive of an alliance between the Kentishmen and their great neighbours across theChannel, Offa must have felt safer with a de-pendent of his own in the chair of Augustine.A few letters of Charles in the later years ofOffa’s reign concern England and Kent in par-ticular. In one the king of the Franks writesto Offa to urge the recall home of a Scottishpriest who has eaten flesh in Lent, and is nowresident at Cologne {Mon. Carol, p. 351). Inanother, Charles urges Ethelheard to intercedewith Offa on behalf of certain exiles, attachedto a person named Ufnhringstan, who had died inFrance, and who may have been concerned inthe East Anglian troubles which cost Ethelberthis life, or in the Northumbrian disasters con-nected with the death of Ethelred ( Councils , &c.iii. 488, 498). A letter of the year 796 isextant, in which Charles promises to Offa immu-nity for pilgrims on the way to Rome, andinforms him that he has sent presents to theepiscopal sees of Mercia in memory of popeAdrian, who died in 795 ; in another letter fromAlcuin to Offa we learn that Charles has dis-patched the gifts, but is sorely grieved to hearof the murder of Ethelred, which took place inApril 796. This is the last trace of Offa m thisdirection. He died on the 29th of July 796, leavinghis kingdom on the eve of outbreak of rebellionin several quarters, the history of which belongsto the next two reigns. The general impressionleft by these letters is that both Charles andAlcuin had confidence in the good faith of Offa,and regarded him as the great man of the island.

We turn next to Offa’s relations to thechurches cf his kingdom. A very long series ofcharters illustrates the monastic and synodical

history of his reign. The largest number fafound in the Worcester Cartularies (Kemblea I). Nos. 105, 117, 118, 123, 125, 126 127*128, 129, 131, 133, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143*145, 146, 150, 154, 156, 164, 166, 167); othersrecord gifts to Peterborough (K. C. D. 165168), Evesham (ib. 130, 134, 147), Minster (ib106, 112), Rochester (ib. Ill, 132,152,155,157)jChrist Church, Canterbury (ib. 121, 122, 153*158), St. Augustine’s (ib. 107, 108, 109, 119),Chertsey (ib. 151), the family monastery atBredon (ib. 120, 138), and to some private per-sons (ib. 137, 148). There are among themmany forgeries, chiefly, however, connected withSt. Alban’s (K. C. D. 161, 162), Crowland (ib.163), and Westminster; of the Worcester andCanterbury gifts most have been noticed in thearticles on the respective bishops. They fillnearly ninety pages in Kemble’s Codex Diplo.maticus , and comprise charters of the Kentishand South Saxon kings granted with the consentor attested with the confirmation of Offa. Ofthe St. Alban’s and Westminster foundations aword is necessary. Offa is the traditionalfounder of St. Alban’s. According to the legend,amplified and embellished by Matthew Paris(Hist. Maj. i. 356 sq.; Vit. duor. Off. ed. Wats,p. 26; Mon.Angl. ii. 214), the murder of Ethel-bert, king of the East Angles, was contrived byOffa’s queen Kinethritha, in order to place EastAnglia at Offa’s disposal. The king was bitterlygrieved at the murder, and banished his wifefrom his society. She died soon after, and Offawas left free to fulfil a vow which he had madesome time before to build a monastery. Bymiracle, the place where St. Alban’s body wasburied was revealed to him ; he went with hisbishops Ceolwulf and Unwona to Verolamium,and translated the saint. Offa then went toRome to procure privileges for his monastery,was graciously received by the pope, to whomhe promised the tribute of Peter’s pence, andon his return founded and endowed the abbey, atthe head of which he placed Willegod as thefirst abbat. The whole of this seems to befabulous: the charters which are assigned to theperiod are forged, and the journey to Rome is amere invention. It is, however, quite possiblethat Offa was the founder of St. Alban’s: suchseems to have been the belief in the eleventhcentury, and it is accepted as true by Henry ofHuntingdon and William of Malmesbury. AtWestminster he was regarded in the age of theConquest as a restorer, and some of his chartersmay be genuine (M<>n. Angl. i. 266 ; Kemble, C. D.149). His relations to Peterborough rest on alittle better authority, or at least on moreancient fabrications, and the evidence of the in-terpolations in the Chronicles. His confirmationof the possessions of Chertsey is perhaps onedegree nearer to authenticity, though still sus-picious (Mon. Angl. i. 422). But many smallMercian foundations likewise looked back tohim as patron, and it is improbable that whereso much is ascribed to him some little part ofthe tradition should not be true. A grant tothe abbey of St. Denys at Paris, dated in 790,and sealed, bestowing lands in Sussex, is printedin Birch’s Cartularium Saxonicum 9 vol. i. PP*360-362.

Offa’s laws for Mercia were in existence in thetime of Alfred, who selected, as he saySj frn®