Letter CDXVIII. To Hugh, Archbishop of Rouen

[A new letter, from the Archives of Savigny (Circa A. D. 1152)].

He requests that a donation made to the Abbey of Savigny may be confirmed by the Archbishop.

To his dear father and lord, Hugh, by the grace of God, Archbishop of Rouen, and to the whole Church in that place, Brother Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, health and the assurance of his prayers.

I wish your Benignity to be credibly and certainly assured, that Philip,¹ * * Lord Bishop of Bayeux, has at my request gi anted a tilled field, ^ situated before the farmhouse ^ of Ecurie, and containing four acres² of land, to your sons, my brethren at Savigny, in my presence, and in that of the Reverend Father Lord Henry,³ now Archbishop of York, Guy, Lord Abbot of Charlieu, and others of your brethren. Wherefore I beg and earnestly entreat your Piety, being very dear to me as you are in the Lord, to take measures as regards them, your sons before mentioned, in your fatherly care and kindness, that they be not disturbed or troubled henceforward, in their possession of this field. If anyone, now or at any time, shall attempt to impugn their title to this field, or to eject them from it: let it be the task of your charity to interpose in their defence and on behalf of the Abbey which is yours, and so to defend their right, that they may possess it without molestation: for the facts, as I have written them to you, are true and without question.

Footnotes

1. Philip Harcurius (Harcourt?) Cultura. The word is only used in this sense in very late Latin.. The classical and proper meaning is Culture. (E.) Grangia; only found m low Latin: ‘ dicuntur a grants quce ibi reponuntur’ (Lyndwood). (E.) ↩

2. Acra: not a promontory or headland, which is the classical sense, but £ cert a terrce portio mensurata! The amount of it varied extremely in different countries, and even in the same country at different times. Cowell says: ‘ apud Anglos acram esse quantitatem terra? sexdecim perticas in longitudine continentem et totidem latitudme.’ The Roman per tic a or decempeda was a measuring rod ten feet in length, however: while the English ‘rod, pole, or perch’ is 1 6 ’ha feet. Spelman derives Acra no doubt rightly, from Ager. (E.) ↩

3. This must have been Henry Murdach, previously Abbot of Fountains. He died in 1153. See letter 106, and note. (E.) ↩