The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 2 (of 4)
History
The Parochial History of Cornwall, Volume 2 (of 4)
Cornwall (England : County) -- History; Geology -- England -- Cornwall (County)
In the Domesday Tax, 20th William I. (1087,) this place or parish was
rated under the jurisdiction of Tywardreth. Neither was there any
endowed church here extant at the time of the Inquisition of the
Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester (1294), unless (what can hardly be
supposed) Ecclesia _de Funum_ appropriata domui de Tywardreth, in
Decanatu de Powdre, be a corruption of Faoi, or Foy-town. In Wolsey’s
Inquisition, and Valor Beneficiorum, the Vicarage of Foye is rated
10_l._ The patronage formerly in the Prior of Tywardreth, who endowed
it, now Treffry. The incumbent Trubody. The parish and town rated to
the 4_s._ per pound Land Tax, 1696, 195_l._ 14_s._ The rectory, sheaf,
or impropriation, in ――――.
In the ancient chapel at Foy, now the minister’s chancel, was
inscribed temp. Edward III. the name of Fisart Bagga, a famous sea
commander in the then French wars, a native of this town of Foy.
[Carew’s Survey of Cornwall, p. 135.] This church and town I take to
be under the tutelary guardianship of St. Catherine, whose history is
misplaced under Lanteagles by Fowey.
[Mr. Hals’s history of St. Catherine is lost. It may, therefore, be
sufficient to give the following short statement of her legend.
In the Μηνολογιον, the _Menology_, (the Monthly Register, synonymous
with Martyrology,) of the Emperor Basil, said to be composed by
himself, but certainly written under his own inspection, St. Catherine
is stated to have sprung from one of the families which in those times
obtained a transient possession of the imperial throne.
She was probably born at Alexandria, and suffered martyrdom there
under the reign of Maximus the Second, about the year 310.
Her learning, abilities, and zeal were so great, that, having been
ordered to dispute with several of the most able philosophers, she
confuted them all, and even converted some among them to the Christian
faith. These new proselytes are said to have been instantly hurried to
the flames, but that the Saint herself was reserved for a still more
cruel fate, the persecutors of religion having contrived a wheel set
round with hooks and spikes, for the purpose of tearing and lacerating
its victim. The legends, however, go on to say that this horrible
engine was dashed in pieces by angels, just as the tormentors were
about to use it against the Saint, whom they nevertheless decapitated,
unawed by the recent miracle, and no longer interrupted by any
supernatural interference.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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