The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 1 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 1 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
Is situate in the hundred of Pider, and hath upon the north St.
George’s Channel, or the Irish Sea; west Peransabulo; east Crantock.
This new name of Cuthbert is Saxon, and compounded of Cuth-bert, id
est, knowledge, skill, wisdom, or understanding, clear or bright, and
refers to St. Cuthbert, the tutelar guardian and patron of this
church; for in Domesday Roll, 20 Will. I. 1087, this district was
taxed under the name of Chynowen, now Chynoweth. In the Inquisition of
the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, 1294, into the revenues of
Cornish benefices, Ecclesia Sancti Cuthberti in Decanatu de Pider, is
valued iiii_l._ xvii_s._ viii_d._ Vicar ibidem, x_s._ In Wolsey’s
Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, is rated 8_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._
The patronage formerly in the prior of Bodman, who endowed it; now
Prideaux. The incumbent Bradford; the rectory or sheafe in Prideaux;
and the parish rated to the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax 1696, 99_l._
9_s._ 6_d._
The history of St. Cuthbert.――He was born in Cumberland, of British
Saxon parents, about the year 600; and had his Christian education as
a monk in Bangor Monastery, in Ireland; from whence he removed to the
abbey of Landisfarne, opposite to Northumberland and North Durham,
where, after he had remained some years, he was chosen or made a
bishop of that diocese. I remember to have seen in this church,
painted against the wall, about thirty years past, the portraiture of
a bishop, attired in his episcopal robes, with mitre or crown on his
head, a crosier or shepherd’s crook or staff in his hand, and an
inscription in ancient character near it, viz. St. Cuthbertun. Which
picture, I am told, is since covered over with lime by the
churchwardens.
Now, it happened after the death of St. Cuthbert, that the island of
Landisfarne was extremely troubled with the piratical thievish Danes,
who wasted the same, without regard of secular or religious persons
and places. Whereupon the Bishop of St. Ethelwin, with his monks,
privately escaped into Northumberland, and left their houses and
estates a prey to their enemies, anno Dom. 800, carrying with them as
their chief treasure the enshrined relics or skeleton of St. Cuthbert,
with which, during the lives of twelve titular bishops of Landisfarne,
they wandered up and down Northumberland for the space of ninety
years, without any fixed place of abode or settlement, till Aldwyn,
titular bishop of that island, obtained leave of King Alfred, ann.
Dom. 890, to pitch and settle his episcopal church at Durham, where he
and his monks laid the foundation thereof; which, after it was by them
finished, was consecrated and dedicated to the honour of Almighty God
in the name of St. Cuthbert, where they again erected his shrine or
relics; thereby transferring or translating the bishopric of
Landisfarne to that place, and no more styling themselves bishops
thereof, but of Durham.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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