Rochester, Kingdom of Kent, 855 AD
Rochester, Kingdom of Kent, 855 ADAmong the early signs of King Aethelwulf’s spiritual rebirth was donating money for a shrine to contain Saint Aldhelm’s relics. He also became the first Wessex king to appoint royal priests and was a notable benefactor of Malmesbury Abbey. His 855 declaration that he would give a tenth of his lands to the Church and his thegns most amazed his subjects. In an earlier charter, Æthelwulf referred in the preface to the perilous state of his kingdom as the result of the assaults of pagans and barbarians. For the sake of his soul and in return for masses recited for the king and ealdormen each Wednesday, he had inscribed on vellum: I have decided to give in perpetual liberty some portion of hereditary lands to all those ranks
