The position of these instruments in the classification of Diplomatic Documents will be apparent from the arrangement of the specimens printed below. Their general character will be sufficiently explained in the several headings which immediately follow. From these it will be seen that a distinction between the Charter of donation and its Confirmation was essential. The issue of the latter in the form of Letters Patent was an alternative practice which is described elsewhere (Nos. 60—63).

(a) General Forms

35. Old English ‘Confirmation’.—The official practice of confirming earlier charters, both royal and private, though not necessarily improbable, cannot be exemplified by original charters. In the existing forms which occur in various cartularies we have either an alleged re-issue of the original charter, fortified by additional subscriptions, or a grant de novo, referring to the former grant, somewhat in the style of the later Anglo-Norman confirmations. The essential words in the specimen printed below are ‘eadem’—‘qua.’ The question of the authenticity of this charter which is from a cartulary of the highest repute need not be discussed here.

36—38. Royal Charters of Confirmation (Anglo-Norman period).—Three forms of confirmation or renewal of a Charter were in general use during the 12th century. In one of these (No. 36) a grant is made in the usual form but omitting the word ‘dedisse,’ with a Final Clause, also in the usual form, but including some conventional condition (‘ita bene,’—‘sicut melius,’ etc., ‘tenuit aliquo tempore’).