2
S 1166

Cenfrith, comes of the Mercians, grants ten hides (cassati) at Wootton [? Bassett], Wiltshire, to Abbot Aldhelm. A.D. 680

Archive: Malmesbury

TEXT

Fortuna fallentis seculi procax, non lacteo immarcescibilium liliorum candore amabilis, sed fellita eiuland= corruptionis amaritudine odibilis, filios in ualle lacrimarum fetentis carnis rictibus uenenosis mordaciter dilacerat; qu= quamuis arridendo sit infelicibus attrectabilis, Acherontici tamen ad ima Cociti, ni satus alti subueniat boantis, impudenter est decliuis. Et ideo quia ipsa ruinosa tanaliter dilabitur, summopere festinandum est ad amena indicibilis letiti= arua, ubi angelica himnidic= iubilationis organa mellifluaque rosarum odoramina a bonis beatisque naribus inestimabiliter dulcia capiuntur sineque calce auribus felitium hauriuntur.
Cuius amore felicitatis illectus, ego Cenfrithus, comes Mertiorum, quandam telluris particulam uenerabili abbati Aldhelmo, sub estimatione .x. cassatorum, in loco qui dicitur Wdetun ad seruiendum Deo et sancto Petro in perpetuum ius largitus sum cum consensu domini mei Ethelredi regis. Anno ab incarnatione Domini .dclxxx., indictione .viii.

Edition: Charters of Malmesbury Abbey, ed. S. E. Kelly, Anglo-Saxon Charters 11 (Oxford: Published for The British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 132 (no. 2). For apparatus criticus see ibid., p. 132, and for a detailed commentary see ibid., pp. 132-3.

The insolent fortune of this deceiving age, not worthy of love because of the milky whiteness of unfading lilies but hateful because of the bitterness steeped in the gall of corruption that is to be lamented, bitingly tears to pieces the sons of stinking flesh in the vale of tears with its poisonous jaws, which, although it may be attractive to the unfortunate by its pleasing manner, yet shamelessly is it declining downwards to the depths of Acherontic Cocytus [i.e., Hell], unless the Seed of the One Who Roars on High [i.e., Jesus, the Son of God] should assist. And so because that ruined thing [i.e., fortune] is going mortally into decay, one must hasten with the utmost effort to the pleasant fields of indescribable happiness, where the angelic tongues of hymn-singing jubilation and the scents of roses flowing with honey of incalculable sweetness is captured by the good and blessed nostrils and drunk in by the ears of the blessed without end.
Enticed by a love of this happiness, I, Cenfrith, comes of the Mercians, have bestowed a certain parcel of land on the venerable abbot, Aldhelm, with an assessment of 10 hides in the place that is called Wootton (?Bassett) for the service of God and St Peter by perpetual right with the agreement of my lord, King Æthelred. In the year from the incarnation of the Lord 680, in indiction 8.

Translation: David A. E. Pelteret.