Ina

ON SAINT INA, KING OF THE WEST SAXONS IN BRITAIN I,

After the year 728.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Ina, King of the West Saxons in Britain (Saint)

By G. H.

Section 1. The royal lineage of Saint Ina: his holy sisters: the monasteries of Abingdon and Wimborne built by him.

[1] The Saxons, peoples of northern Germany, came to Britain, at first invited by the inhabitants to repel the incursions of barbarians; but gradually, having driven out the Britons themselves, in the British Heptarchy except for Wales, they occupied the remaining dominions, and having established a Heptarchy, distributed them among themselves. Of these, Cerdic, the great-great-grandfather of Saint Ina, and his son Cynric, Ina's great-great-great-grandfather, having landed in Britain in the year of Christ 495, after various victories over the Britons, founded the kingdom of the West Saxons, the kingdom of the West Saxons, in that part of the first Britain which in the time of the Romans was possessed by the Damnoni, Durotriges, Belgae, Atrebatii; and which later the English distributed into these provinces: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Southampton, Berkshire — nearly all situated opposite Gaul. Now this Cerdic was the son of Elesa, grandson of Esla, great-grandson of Gewis. And since Bede, in book 3 of the Ecclesiastical History of the English, is the authority that the West Saxons were anciently called "Gewisse," called Gewisse, we judge that they drew this name from Gewis, the great-grandfather of Cerdic. From this Gewis, however, to his great-grandfather Woden, the lineage is traced in the ancient Anglo-Saxon Chronology, [Cerdic, the great-great-grandfather of Saint Ina, was the founder; which was afterward held by Cynric the great-great-great-grandfather, Ceawlin the great-great-grandfather, and others of the same stock,] published with the History of Bede at Cambridge. Moreover, Bede reports in book 1, chapter 15, that the royal lineage of many provinces traces its origin from the stock of this Woden. Cerdic, having died in the year 534, his son Cynric, surviving until the year 560, reigned, and his son Ceawlin, the great-great-grandfather of Saint Ina, succeeded to the kingdom, and in the year 577 waged war against the Britons with his son Cuthwin, the great-grandfather of Saint Ina. In the year 590 Ceola, in 597 Ceolwulf, in 611 Cynegils, all from the same stock, reigned.

[2] Cynegils was the first to embrace the Christian religion, and was baptized by Saint Birinus, Bishop of Dorchester, in the year 635, Cynegils the first Christian, with Saint Oswald, King of the Northumbrians, receiving him from the sacred font. Bede treats of this baptism in book 3, chapter 7. The elder son of this Cynegils, Cuichelm, sharing the paternal kingdom with his parent, died in the year after the baptism, leaving a son Cuthred, baptized in the year 639 and dying in 661. The other son of Cynegils, however, Kenwalch, succeeded his father in the year 643, Kenwalch, and himself baptized three years later, lived until the year 672. When he died, Bede says in book 4, chapter 12, "the sub-kings received the kingdom of the nation, and, divided among themselves, held it for about ten years." How many sub-kings, however, ruled there simultaneously, he does not specify. That a trace of them still existed in the time of the reign of Saint Ina will be established below. Those who prevailed in authority among them are counted by others in the series of Kings. Thus in the Anglo-Saxon Chronology the next year after the death of King Kenwalch is assigned to Sexburga his wife; then from the year 674 Escwin, from 676 Centwin from the same stock, are reckoned as Kings. But Bede, making no mention of these, says that, Saint Ceadwalla, predecessor of Saint Ina: with the sub-kings defeated and removed, Ceadwalla assumed power: and when he had held this for two years, at last, pierced by the love of the heavenly kingdom, he relinquished it, and going to Rome, there ended his life. The same things Bede reports more distinctly in book 5, chapter 7: namely that Saint Ceadwalla, in the year 689, in the pontificate of Pope Sergius II, under Emperor Justinian Augustus, in the fourth year of his Consulship, Indiction 2, on the holy Saturday of Easter (which then fell on April 10), was baptized, and while still wearing his white garments, on the 12th day before the Kalends of May, released from the flesh, was associated in the fellowship of the Blessed in heaven: on which day we shall give these matters more carefully examined. When Ceadwalla departed for Rome (these are Bede's words), "Ina succeeded to the kingdom, of the royal stock," just as Ceadwalla also was, the great-grandfather of this one was Cuthwin, the grandfather Ceowaldus, both descended from the same great-great-grandfather, King Ceawlin. That the other son of this one, Cuthwin, was the great-grandfather of Saint Ina, we said above. To this Cuthwin another son is assigned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronology, Ceowaldus, the grandfather of Saint Ina, between whom and Cuthwin the Wigorn and Chester chroniclers interpose Cutham, omitted by the Huntingdon historian in book 4 of his Histories and by the Westminster one in the Flowers of Histories. Ina had as father Kenred, still surviving during the time of his reign, father Kenred by whose persuasion and institution he states in the preface that he bore his laws, which we shall soon treat, for his subjects.

[3] According to Malmesbury in book 2 on the Deeds of the Bishops of England, at Abingdon in the Berkshire district, the monastery was founded by Cissa, father of Ina, Saint Ina co-founder of the monastery of Abingdon, and soon Ina himself, King of the West Saxons, and many Kings from the beginning. Malmesbury is transcribed by Harpsfield in century 7 of the Ecclesiastical History of England, chapter 19. "The monastery of Abingdon," he says, "was also born in this century, by the benefice of Cissa, father of Ina." Now Abingdon is an elegant and populous town on the river Isis, which, departing a little from there, receives the Tame from the Oxford area: whence by a compound name the most celebrated river Thames is named. The city of Abingdon itself, as Camden writes from an ancient Abingdon book, among the Atrebatii, was "famous, desirable in appearance, full of riches, surrounded by the most fertile fields, flourishing meadows, expansive plains, and milk-flowing flocks, formerly called Sheouesham. Here was a royal seat: hither, when the chief and arduous affairs of the kingdom were treated, there was a concourse of the people." Camden adds: "As soon as Cissa, King of the West Saxons, had built the monastery or Abbey," with Cissa, the King having gradually laid aside the more ancient name "Abbandun" and "Abbington," that is, the town of the Abbey, it began to be called. Behold, he who is called the father of Ina by others, and his father, perhaps rather his uncle or godfather, is here considered a King of the West Saxons, perhaps to be numbered among the sub-kings who, according to Bede, held the kingdom divided among themselves, and to be reckoned rather as an uncle or godfather than as the father of Ina, unless we recognize that Kenred had two names, whom, with the Saxon Chronology, the Wigorn, Chester, Westminster, Huntingdon, and other writers, Ina himself writes to be his father. This Abingdon monastery, therefore, we count as the first that Saint Ina founded after this Cissa. He had a royal hall in the southern part of Somerset at the river Pedred; which gave it the name Pedridan — in the Life of Saint Indract on February 5, number 3, Pedret — he had a hall in Somerset and Hampshire now, according to Camden among the Belgae, Pedderton, famous only for its market and fairs, which Henry Daubeny obtained from King Henry VI.

[4] Concerning the brother and sisters of this Ina, these things are reported in the Anglo-Saxon Chronology at the year 718. his brother was Ingels, his sisters Saints Quenburga and Cuthburga: "Here Ingels, brother of Ina, died; whose sisters were Cuenburga and Cutburga: this Kutburga established a monastery for the monastic life at Wimborne." She had been given in marriage to Alfrid, King of the Northumbrians: but, while he was still alive, she was separated from him out of zeal for the monastic life. The Wigorn and Westminster chronicles say the same, and call both sisters Saints. Saint Quenburga, called by others Cuenburga, Cneburgha, or Kineburga, is venerated on September 12. Saint Cuthburga, or Kutburga, on August 31.

Concerning her marriage, this is read in her Life in Capgrave: "The King of the Northumbrians, Alfrid, sent his legates to King Ina of the West Saxons, asking that he give him his sister Cuthburga as his wife. she is betrothed to Alfrid, King of the Northumbrians: The King therefore, summoning his sister, indicated to her the King's embassy. To which the Virgin responded: 'If I am permitted to live according to my own vow, certainly no King in all Britain can please me. But since Scripture says that "he who resists authority resists the ordinance of God," whatever your majesty ordains concerning me, will find me obedient to itself, although not willingly. Romans 13:2 For I trust in the Lord that He will look upon the humility of His handmaid, and will not suffer the cloister of my chastity to be violated; nor will He ever separate me from the chaste embraces of His love. The Lord and my Spouse is powerful to keep me incorrupt for Himself even under marriage, and although I may be married to someone according to the laws of men, He can nevertheless preserve me inviolate for Himself.'"

[5] Meanwhile, yielding to the command, or at least the counsel, of her brother King Ina, she was given in marriage to King Alfrid (the words are those of Malmesbury in book 1 on the Deeds of the Kings of England, chapter 2), "but not long after, the marriage being dissolved, first at Barking under Abbess Hildelida, then made a nun, and soon herself as mistress of the Rule at Wimborne, she spent a life pleasing to the Lord," and, according to the Wigorn writer at the year 718 and others, she built a monastery of Virgins devoted to God. Saint Hildelida is venerated on December 22. Now Wimborne (Winburnminster to the English, from the monastery) is a large town filled with a great multitude of inhabitants, which is thought to have been the Roman Vindogladia, mentioned by Antoninus in his Itinerary, situated in the County of Dorset, on the river Stour: to which Saint Ina summoned his sister from the monastery of Barking (which, below London, not far from the river Thames, afterward Abbess, in the County of Essex, was then under the Kings of the East Saxons) to his own kingdom, and for her either built the Wimborne monastery or completed one previously begun. This we gather from the Life of Saint Lioba, Virgin and Abbess, which Rudolf, a Priest and Confessor of King Louis the Elder of Germany, wrote, provoked by the command, as he prefaces, of the venerable Father and master Rabanus, Abbot of Fulda, as was said in the Life of Blessed Rabanus, afterward Archbishop of Mainz, on February 4, section 1. Saint Lioba is venerated on September 28. he builds the monastery of Wimborne, In her Life, therefore, the following is reported: "At Wimborne two monasteries were anciently built by the Kings of that nation, surrounded by high and strong walls, and provided with every sufficiency of expenses by a reasonable arrangement: one, namely, for Clerics and the other for women. Both of which, from the beginning of their foundation, were ordered by this rule of discipline: that neither of them should be entered by the opposite sex." Behold, the Wimborne monastery was built not so much by Saint Cuthburga as by the Kings of that nation, namely Saint Ina and others, at least the sub-kings, with Cuthburga assisting. For, as the same Rudolf adds, "over this place, after some Abbesses and spiritual Mothers, was set a devout Virgin, by the name of Tetta (or Tecla, as she is called in the manuscript codices), over all the nuns who were then about five hundred present: 500 nuns among whom Lioba, when grown up, was consecrated to God by her mother, and handed over to the aforesaid Tetta to be imbued with divine studies: who, after she had flourished in the studies of the heavenly life in the monastery, was summoned to Germany by Saint Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, who sent legates with letters to Abbess Tetta, around the year of Christ 748, as will be said on February 25 in the Life of Saint Walburga, Virgin, whom it is more probable came to Germany together with Saint Lioba. This is the second monastery built through the joint work of Saint Ina. Saint Tetta is venerated on September 27.

Section 2. The Glastonbury monastery, renewed by the royal magnificence of Saint Ina, endowed, and protected by privilege.

[6] In the Anglo-Saxon Chronology the beginning of the reign of Saint Ina is described in these words: "In the year 689 Ina took up the kingdom of the West Saxons, and held it for thirty-seven years: and he built the monastery of Glastonbury." He builds anew the Glastonbury monastery, It is situated in the County of Somerset, concerning which Malmesbury in book 2 on the Deeds of the Bishops of England, when he had treated of the Bishops of Wells, writes this: "The entire tract of that bishopric lies in the sole district of Somerset, and has three abbeys of men: Glastonbury, Athelney, and Muchelney. Glastonbury is a village, situated in a certain marshy recess, which nevertheless is reached both on foot and on horse, neither delightful in site nor in pleasantness. There first King Ina, on the counsel of the most blessed Aldhelm, built a monastery, bestowing there many estates, which are named even today." Camden, the diligent investigator of British antiquity, having described the island of Glastonbury, adds this: "Here flourished the monastery of Glastonbury, which claims a very ancient origin, namely from that Joseph of Arimathea, who had committed the body of Christ to the sepulcher, which is believed to have been begun by Saint Joseph of Arimathea, whom Philip, the Apostle of the Gauls, sent to Britain to preach Christ. For both the most ancient documents of this monastery testify to this, and Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, who spent thirty years of monastic life here, revealed it in his epistle. Whence this place was called by our ancestors 'The First Land of God,' 'The First Land of the Saints in England,' 'The Origin and Font of all Religion in England,' 'The Tomb of the Saints,' 'The Mother of the Saints,' 'Built by the very disciples of the Lord.' Nor is there reason to doubt this matter, since I have previously shown that the Christian religion shone upon this our island in the first infancy of the nascent Church," etc. These documents are exhibited in the Glastonbury manuscript codex, about which we shall treat below; some of them are produced by Henry Spelman before the British Councils in the apparatus on the origins of the Christian religion in Britain, numbers 8 and following: about which matters more careful treatment will be needed in the Life of Saint Joseph of Arimathea on July 27, and of Saint Patrick on March 17. But let us return to Camden's account: "When the ancient little chapel," he says, and restored by Saint David of Menevia and others, "built by Joseph, at last yielded to antiquity, David, Bishop of Menevia (to others 'Deui,' who lived with Cerdic, the great-great-grandfather of Saint Ina, whose feast day falls on the Kalends of March), built a new one in that place; and when this was now crumbling with age, twelve men from the northern part of Britain, setting out, restored it: and finally King Ina, having demolished this, built a most magnificent temple to Christ, Peter, and Paul. In whose uppermost enclosure he had these verses inscribed:

Twin cedars from Lebanon, with their foliage flourishing: Gates of heaven, two lights of the wide world, Paul thunders with his voice, Peter flashes from the citadel. Among the Apostolic crowns radiant with light, The one is more learned in counsels, the other more lofty in rank. Through the one the hearts of men are opened, through the other the stars: Those whom the one teaches with his pen, the other receives in heaven. The one opens the way of heaven by teaching, the other by keys: Paul is the way, Peter the faithful gate. The one remains the firm Rock, the other is held as the Architect: In them the temple rises, in which the altar pleases God. England, applaud willingly; Rome sends you greetings; The Apostolic splendor illuminates Glastonbury. Against the hostile face two bulwarks arise, As many towers of faith as the city, the head of the world, has. These gifts the pious King Ina, filled with excellent love, Gave to his people, not destined to die. Wholly clinging to the affection of divine piety, He amplified the perpetual riches of the Church. Our Melchizedek, by merit both King and Priest, Completed the work of true religion. Governing public laws and maintaining the lofty palaces, He was the singular glory and norm of Bishops. Departing hence, he shines from there with the honor of his merits: Here also he will be perpetual in the praise of his deeds."

A full century before Saint Ina took up the kingdom, taken from Fortunatus: Bishop Venantius Fortunatus had died in Gaul among the Pictones, the eminent Poet of his time, from whose poems these verses, with a few alterations, were transcribed, and the first six couplets are read thus in full in book 3 of the Poems, number 7: then, with two omitted, the following read thus:

"Gaul, applaud willingly; Rome sends you greetings: The Apostolic splendor visits the Allobroges."

But the following couplet is appended with alterations. Fortunatus was treating there of the Church of Nantes. The remaining verses are taken from the poem on the Church of Paris, book 2, chapter 11: only where King Childebert was read in the first verse, here "King Ina" is substituted.

[8] he nourishes holy men at royal expense: But Camden continues: "In these first times the most holy men here kept vigil for God, and especially the Irish, who were nourished by royal stipends, and instructed young men in piety and liberal arts. They also embraced the solitary life, so that with greater tranquility they might devote themselves to sacred letters, and by a severe manner of life exercise themselves for bearing the cross." These things Camden writes, to whom should be joined Stow, the author of the English Annals, who in the Life of Saint Ina the King, having most diligently inspected the public archives, excerpted much, published in Latin by Clement Reyner in the Apostolate of the Benedictines in England, treatise 1, section 1, paragraph 12: but we give the same from the primary text, from the Glastonbury manuscript, where they appear under this title: "Concerning the Silver Chapel that Ina made there with its vessels." "The same King also had a certain chapel built of gold and silver, he builds a chapel with golden and silver furnishings: with ornaments and vessels likewise of gold and silver, and placed it within the aforesaid ancient church. For building that chapel, therefore, he gave two thousand six hundred and forty pounds of silver. And the altar was of two hundred and sixty-four pounds of gold. A chalice with a paten of ten pounds of gold. A censer of eight pounds and twenty mancuses of gold. A candelabrum of twelve and a half pounds of silver: the covers of the Gospel books of twenty pounds and forty mancuses of gold: water vessels and other altar vessels of seventeen pounds of gold. Basins of eight pounds of gold: a vessel for holy water of twenty pounds of silver: an image of the Lord, and of Blessed Mary, and of the Twelve Apostles, of one hundred and seventy-five pounds of silver and twenty-eight pounds of gold: altar cloths and priestly vestments everywhere subtly woven with gold and precious stones." This treasure, therefore, out of love for the holy Mother of God and the Virgin Mary, the said King most devoutly conferred upon the monastery of Glastonbury. Moreover, by royal writ he confirmed the lands, possessions, and liberties of the same Church. There are listed therein pounds or weights of silver, 2,847 and a half, and of gold 755 with 60 mancuses or marks, about which we shall treat below at number 20.

[9] There survive several privileges of King Ina, granted to this monastery, by his own diploma in the ancient manuscript codex of the same monastery, collected by Walter de Monitoun, formerly Abbot there, in which are said to be contained all the copies of the documents of the Church of Glastonbury, and it is called the "Secret of the Abbot." Of these, the first privilege we have not yet seen printed; Ussher produces some words excerpted from it in his book on the Beginnings of the British Churches, chapter 6. We therefore give it here in full, whose title is this: "The First Charter of King Ina." "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I, Ina the King, by the decree and counsel of our Bishop Aldhelm, and at the same time by the suggestion of all the Priests of God, and the petition of the monks who dwell in the diocese of the West Saxons, bestow this liberty upon the monks he frees the monastery from all tributes who serve Almighty God in the Church of the blessed Mother of God, Mary, and of Blessed Patrick, under Abbot Hemgisl, in the ancient city called Glastingay, and I place this dignity of privilege upon the altar, so that without impediment of secular affairs and without tribute of fiscal business, with free minds they may serve God alone, and may regularly exercise monastic discipline, with Christ bestowing His support, and may deign to pour forth prayers before the sight of the divine majesty for the stability and prosperity of our kingdom and the indulgence of crimes committed, and, frequenting the offices of prayers in the churches, may strive to intercede for our frailty. But if anyone shall attempt to go against the document of this decree, let him know that he will render an account before Christ and the nine orders of Angels in the dreadful examination. And for a greater testament of firmness, we have had the Princes and Senators, Judges and Patricians subscribe. Done publicly and confirmed in the wooden basilica, in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 704." "I, Aldhelm, subscribed." The remaining subscriptions are lacking. In the diploma of King Cnut, by which the donations of Saint Ina and other Kings are confirmed, in the said manuscript codex and in Malmesbury, book 2 on the Deeds of the Kings of England, chapter 11, a similar clause is employed: "The donation of this privilege was written and promulgated in the wooden basilica in the presence of King Cnut, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1032." Concerning this wooden basilica, this is written in the same Glastonbury manuscript codex and in the aforementioned Ussher: "In the year of the Lord 625, Saint Paulinus, Archbishop of the Northumbrians, came to Glastonbury for a stay. He had the walls of the ancient church built with a wooden tabernacle, and had it covered outside with lead on all sides from the top down to the ground: and so that sacred oratory endured in that same construction until the burning of the same church." Saint Paulinus is venerated on October 10: and Saint Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, on May 25. Concerning him we shall treat more often below.

Section 3. Other privileges given by Saint Ina to the same Glastonbury monastery.

[10] Another and chief privilege of Saint Ina was published by Clement Reyner at the place indicated before, and by Spelman among the British Councils at the year of Christ 725, which, collated with the manuscript codex, we give here: by another diploma to which Spelman prefixes this title: "Charter of Ina, King of the West Saxons, conferred upon the monks of Glastonbury, in which estates, immunities, and exemptions from the Bishop are granted." And it thus begins: "Help us, O God of our salvation. Whatever things are determined by salutary counsel according to the decrees of the Canons and ecclesiastical institutions, although speech alone without a written text would suffice, yet since very often in our times the storms and whirlwinds of secular affairs batter even the gates of the Church, therefore we have judged it worthwhile, for the caution of future generations, to annex to the pages of writings those things that have been determined, lest, consigned to oblivion in the future, they be unknown. Wherefore I, Ina, relying on the royal dignity from the Lord, with the counsel of Queen Ethelburga, and the permission of Berhtwald, Bishop of the Church of Canterbury, he praises the holy antiquity of the place, and of all his suffragans, and also at the exhortation of the sub-kings Baldred and Athelard, to the ancient church which is in the place called Glasteie (which the great Priest and supreme Bishop of the Angels, Christ, made known that He had long ago sanctified for Himself and the perpetual Virgin Mary and Blessed David by many and unheard-of miracles), from those things that I possess by paternal inheritance and hold in personal dominion, in continuous and suitable locations, I grant for the support of the regular life and for the uses of the monks, he grants estates, at Brent ten hides, at Sowy twelve hides, at Poulton twenty hides, at Dulting twenty hides, at Bleadney one hide, together with all those things that my predecessors conferred upon the same Church: Kenwalch, who, and confirms what was previously given, with the intervention of Saint Theodore the Archbishop, gave Ferlingmere, Beckery, Godney, Martinsey, Edredsey: King Kentwin, who was accustomed to call Glastonbury the 'Mother of the Saints,' and established it as immune from all secular and ecclesiastical service, and granted this dignity of privilege, that the Brethren of the same place should have the power of electing and appointing for themselves a Superior according to the Rule of Saint Benedict: Bishop Hedde, who, with Ceadwalla consenting, and confirming with his own hand, although a Pagan, gave Lantocai,

that is, Leigh; Baldred who gave Pennard, six hides; Athelard, who gave Polden, sixty hides, with my consent and confirmation. To whose devotion and kind petition I assent, and against the snares of malicious men and barking dogs, I keep vigilant watch with the defense of royal letters: so that the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ and the perpetual Virgin Mary, just as it is in the kingdom of Britain the first and the fount and origin of all religion, so also may it obtain the preeminent dignity of privilege, and may do no servile service to any man whatsoever on earth, she who rules over the choirs of Angels in heaven.

[11] "Therefore, with the assent of the supreme Pontiff Gregory, and receiving me, although unworthy, together with the Church itself, into the bosom and protection of the holy Roman Church as the Mother of his Lord; with the consent also of all the Kings of Britain, and grants privileges: Archbishops, Bishops, Dukes, and Abbots, I establish and confirm: that all the lands and places and possessions of Blessed Mary of Glastonbury shall be free and from all royal exactions and works that are customarily imposed, namely military service, and the building of bridge or fortress, and from all the promulgations and disturbances of Archbishops and Bishops, as it is found to be confirmed in the ancient charters of the same Church; and as it is known to have been confirmed by my predecessors Kenwalch, Kentwin, Ceadwalla, and Baldred, may they remain unshaken and inviolate: and whatever cases may have arisen concerning homicides, sacrileges, poisonings, thefts, robberies, in the disposition and description of churches, in the ordination of Clerics, in synodal assemblies, and in all judicial examinations, without the prejudice of any man, shall be determined by the disposition of the Abbot and the convent. But upon all the Kings of my realm, Archbishops, Bishops, Dukes, and Princes, upon their honor and my love I command, and upon all of them as well as their ministers upon the salvation of their bodies I command, that none of them dare to enter the island of our Lord Jesus Christ and the perpetual Virgin Mary of Glastonbury, nor the possessions of the same Church, for the purpose of pleading, searching, plundering, commanding, interdicting, or doing anything that could be a scandal to those serving God there.

[12] "But that thing I absolutely forbid, by the intercession of Almighty God and the perpetual Virgin Mary and the Blessed Peter and Paul and all the Saints, with an interdict, in the Glastonbury Church itself, he exempts it from the jurisdiction of the Bishop, nor in the churches subject to it, namely Sowy, Brent, Merlinge, Shapwick, Street, Butleigh, Poulton, nor in their chapels; but also not on the islands, on any intervening occasion: the Bishop shall not presume to establish an episcopal chair for himself, nor to celebrate solemn Masses, nor to consecrate altars, nor to dedicate churches, nor to confer orders, nor to dispose of anything at all, unless he shall have been invited by the Abbot or the Brethren. But if he shall have been invited for these things,

[16] We therefore present the third privilege of Ina given to the Glastonians from the same manuscript codex, to which this title is prefixed: "Charter of King Ina concerning the manor of Sowy given to the Church." Other charters of Saint Ina given to the Glastonians "Since we are instructed by salutary sayings that we must make friends for ourselves of the Mammon of iniquity, who will receive us into eternal tabernacles. Wherefore I, Ina, King of the West Saxons, together with my wife Ethelburga, have decreed to consign a small portion of land, which has been conferred upon us by dispensation, to the uses of the servants of God, so that a more ample portion may be granted to us in the inheritance of the just; namely the land which is so called, Sowy, of twelve manses, conferred with liberal munificence upon the household of Christ which in Glastonbury renders the service of voluntary devotion to the Almighty Lord, with the knowledge and consent of the venerable Bishop Forthhere, we have given with an irrevocable conferral to be possessed, and, so that the aforesaid grant may be strengthened by more certain documents, we confirm the title of this donation with our own subscriptions... This little charter was written in the year of the Incarnation of the Lord 725, Indiction 8... I, Ina, subscribed. I, Forthhere, Bishop, consented and subscribed."

Another charter of the same Ina exists concerning Brent given to the Glastonians, in which the year of Christ is annotated with a great error as 663, which should be corrected to 693, leaving the Indiction 6, which agrees with both. Bishop Hedda, then Bishop, subscribed, as did King Baldred, King Athelbald, both sub-kings, of whom the latter is perhaps called Athelard above: and finally the donation was made to Hemgisl, then Abbot of Glastonbury. And so that charter was the first of all to be granted.

Section 4. Bishoprics erected in the time of Saint Ina. The South Saxons with the Isle of Wight subjected. Laws enacted.

[17] The first Bishop of the entire kingdom of the West Saxons was Saint Birinus, Under King Ina by whom we said above that King Cynegils had been taught the mysteries of the Christian faith and washed with sacred baptism. He had placed his See at Dorchester (or as Bede has it, Dorcinia), a city situated in the County of Oxford on the river Thames. Bishop of the West Saxons, Saint Hedda: Then, when that city was transferred to the kingdom of Mercia, the See of the Bishops of the West Saxons was placed at Winchester, the most famous city of the Britannic Belgae, in the County of Hampshire, which was called Venta Belgarum by Ptolemy and Antoninus. Here the fifth Bishop of that kingdom was Saint Hedda when Ina began his rule: who subscribed to his last-mentioned privilege: but in the other one given to the same Glastonians, this Bishop, with King Ceadwalla confirming, granted a certain estate to the same monastery: of which donation a special charter exists in the Glastonbury manuscript codex, made in the year 680 on the day before the Nones of July. Ina says he used his counsel in establishing his laws. Saint Hedda is venerated on July 7.

[21] Saint Willibald, Bishop of Eichstatt in Germany, in the Life of Saint Boniface, Archbishop of Mainz, on June 5, reports a Synod held under King Ina in chapter 4 with these words: Saint Ina is present at an Ecclesiastical Synod of his kingdom: "Under the reign of Ina, King of the West Saxons, a certain sudden necessity had pressed in, with a certain new sedition having arisen, and immediately a synodal Council of the servants of God was held by the primates of the Churches, with the counsel of the aforesaid King: and soon, with all coming together as one, a most salutary inquiry of counsel concerning this recent dissension wisely arose among the priestly grades of the ecclesiastical order, and having entered upon a more prudent deliberation, they appointed faithful legates in the Lord to be sent to the Archbishop of the city of Canterbury, by the name of Berhtwald, lest it should be ascribed to their presumption or rashness, if they should do anything without the counsel of so great a Bishop. he sends Saint Boniface to the Archbishop of Canterbury: And when the entire Senate, and the whole order of Clerics consented after so provident a conference was concluded, immediately the King addressed all the servants of Christ, and inquired upon whom they would impose the commission of this aforesaid embassy. Then suddenly the supreme Archimandrite in Christ, who presided over the aforesaid monastery, by the name of Wynberch; and Wintra, who presided over the monastery called Dissesburg; and Beorwald, who governed by divine governance the monastery called by the name of the ancients Glestingaburg; and also many other Fathers of this holy resolution, brought this holy man summoned before the King, and the King imposed upon him the commission and the knowledge of the embassy, and with companions assigned to him, directed him in peace. Who also, with the commission imposed upon him according to the mandate of the Elders, arrived by a prosperous journey at Kent, and wisely revealed to the Archbishop, endowed with the mitre of the supreme pontificate, all things, just as he had been taught by the King, in order: he receives a response and thus, having received a voluntary response, after not many days he returned to his homeland, and with the aforesaid King and the aforesaid servants of God assisting with him, he knowingly brought back from the venerable Archbishop the voluntary response, and conferred great joy upon all." These things Saint Willibald, ordained Bishop by Saint Boniface, born under King Ina, with his brother Saint Wunibald, Abbot of Heidenheim, and his sister Saint Walburga, Virgin, as we shall say in the Life of Saint Richard, their parent, on February 7. Beorwald succeeded as Abbot of Glastonbury the above-mentioned Hemgisl. But Abbot Wynbert presided over the new, or Nursling, monastery in Hampshire, and perhaps the city of Winchester, in which this Synod was held, and which was the other royal seat of Saint Ina. From that monastery, the above-mentioned Saint Daniel, Bishop of Winchester, gave commendatory letters to Saint Boniface as he was about to depart for Rome to Pope Gregory II; who, when Wynbert died, placed Abbot Stephen over the monks; and at that time had only Hampshire from the provinces of this Saxon kingdom in his diocese.

[26] Hence, first, Geoffrey of Monmouth is to be rejected, who in book 12, chapter 18, reports that Ina was descended from the Britons: "Then Alan," he says, "suggested to Cadwallader that he should obey the divine dispensation, and, setting Britain aside, accomplish what the angelic admonition had commanded him. and is falsely invented as descended from them, He should direct his son Ivor, and his nephew Ina, to rule the remnants of the Britons on the island, lest the nation, born of their ancient race, should lose its liberty by a barbaric invasion. Then Cadwallader, having cast aside worldly things, the nephew of Cadwallader confused with Saint Ceadwalla: for the sake of God and the perpetual kingdom, came to Rome and was confirmed by Pope Sergius; also seized by an unexpected illness, on the twelfth day before the Kalends of May, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 689, released from the contagion of the flesh, he entered the hall of the heavenly kingdom." These same things Bede narrates in book 5, chapter 7, about Saint Ceadwalla, the predecessor of Saint Ina, who departed this life holily at Rome under Pope Sergius, on the day, month, and year indicated. But Geoffrey continues in chapter 19: "When Ivor and Ina had gathered ships for themselves, and that the King of Wales warred against the English: they associated with themselves whomever they could and landed on the island, and for forty-nine years afflicted the English nation with the most savage harassment: but it did not avail much... Also with the barbarian invasion, they were no longer called Britons but Welsh, drawing the name either from Gualon, their leader, or from Wales, their Queen, or from barbarism."

[27] This Queen of Wales is said to be the wife of Saint Ina in the supplement to the laws of King Edward, canon 35: where these equally fabulous things are added: he did not receive Cambria with his wife Wallia: "King Ina took as his wife one named Guala, on account of whom that land, which was formerly called Cambria, was called Wallia: for he was a bigamist. He took, moreover, with his last wife, Cambria and Cornwall, and the blessed crown of Britain, which had belonged to the last Cadwallader, King of Britain. And all the English, who existed at that time, took their wives from the race of the Britons, and the Britons took their wives from the illustrious blood and race of the English, nor did he command mutual marriages of the English, Britons, and Scots: that is, from the race of the Saxons. For this was done by the common counsel and assent of all the Bishops, and Princes, Nobles, Counts, and all the wise, elders, and peoples of the whole kingdom, and by the precept of the aforesaid King Ina. Many English indeed took their wives from the blood and race of the Scots. The nobles of the Scots, and nearly all the Scots, took their wives from the best race and blood of the English of Germany, and thus at that time throughout the whole kingdom of Britain they were two in one flesh. And so he established lawful marriage (and abolished fornication and uncleanness from the kingdom) and righteous judgments for the stability of the kingdom and the confirmation of the peoples, with kindly diligence: and in such a manner they became one race and one people throughout the whole kingdom of Britain by divine mercy. Then all called the kingdom the kingdom of the English, which had previously been called the kingdom of Britain. nor attacked by the Danes and Norwegians, All the aforesaid always thereafter for the common benefit of the crown of the kingdom stood together and as one against the Danes and Norwegians, and fought with the most fierce and unanimous will against the enemies, and waged the most fierce wars. For the aforesaid King Ina was the best, generous, wise, prudent, moderate, vigorous, just, spirited, and warlike for the place and time, he defended the kingdom and in divine laws and in secular institutions, writings, and exhibitions of good works he shone gloriously, and he ruled the kingdom, confederated and consolidated it, and pacified it as one with great wisdom and prudence, and where the occasion arose, by force and armed hand." These things are given there: which, since they are contrary to those things we produce from ancient and excellent historians of proven faith and authority, anyone will dismiss them as futile. Among fables we also reckon the second marriage of Saint Ina with Guala, or Wallia, the daughter of Cadwallader, King of the Britons, of whom there is no mention among others. He had as wife Ethelburga, occasionally called Sexburga in the manuscript codex by error, descended from the West Saxons, as he himself was, sister of Adelard the sub-king: whom we shall say below left the kingdom with him.

[28] In the British Heptarchy the kingdom of Mercia was illustrious, about which we shall treat on February 13 in the Life of Saint Ermenilda, Queen and wife of King Wulfhere: to him succeeded Saint Ethelred, his brother (whose feast day falls on May 4), then Cenred, and when he departed for Rome in the year 709, Ceolred came to power, he fights with the King of Mercia in the year 715: "heir," says Huntingdon, "of his native and ancestral valor." "Ina, in the twenty-sixth year of his reign, fought against Ceolred, King of the Mercians, son of King Ethelred, at Wonebirih: and it was fought so horribly on both sides that it is not known to whom the more detestable disaster befell." Thus Huntingdon. The same battle is referred to the year of Christ 715 by the Anglo-Saxon Chronologer, the Wigorn and Chester chroniclers, and to the following year by the Westminster chronicler. The place of the battle is called by them Wodnesburh, Wodnesbirch, Wodnesbeorh, Wodemobirgh. Malmesbury passes over this war in silence, and in its place reports that the East Anglians received the hereditary hatred, with all their nobility first driven out, then also scattered in war. Toward the end of this century, with King Saint Ethelbert killed, who is venerated on May 20, the East Anglians were subjected to the Kings of Mercia. Ethelwerd also treats of these wars in book 2, chapter 12.

[29] "In the year 721 Ina killed Cynewulf." Thus the Anglo-Saxon Chronologer and the Wigorn writer, who calls him Cynewulf the Clito: by which, Spelman observes, it is indicated that he was a King's son. The Chronologer continues: "In the year 722 Queen Ethelburga destroyed the castle of Taunton, which Ina had previously built; and Aldbriht perished as an exile in Surrey and Sussex. And Ina fought against the South Saxons." The Wigorn writer briefly summarizes these things. More copiously the Westminster writer: "Ina," and with the South Saxons he says, "advanced a great army into Sussex, and in the same battle killed Eadbert, whom he had previously put to flight from the castle called Taunton: because Ina had built the aforesaid castle." The Anglo-Saxon Historian refers his death to the year 725. "And Ina," he says, "fought against the South Saxons, and there routed Aldbrith." Huntingdon sheds some light: "Ina," he says, "in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, advanced an army into Sussex, and fought powerfully and victoriously against the South Saxons, and killed in the same battle Ealdbrith, whom he had previously put to flight from the castle called Taunton, which indeed King Ina had built; but because the aforesaid young man Ealdbrith had entered the castle, who was a royal enemy, Queen Ethelburga, wife of Ina, took the castle by arms, and, once taken, destroyed it, and compelled him to flee into Surrey." Polydore Vergil calls this Eadbert Aldinus, King of the South Saxons. Taunton is an elegant town at this time in the County of Somerset, on the river Thone, which gave it its name.

* Supply "volentes" (wishing).

Section 6. Various pious works of Ina at home and in Rome.

[30] When the bodies of Saints Indract and his companion Martyrs, about whom we treated on February 5, had been hidden in a certain deep pit by robbers, [he finds the bodies of Saints Indract and his companion Martyrs by divine revelation,] "King Ina," says the author of the Life, "on a certain night, looking into the sky, saw a column like a visible fire, extending from the place where the holy bodies were hidden into the sky, whose splendor followed his eyes wherever he turned them. And when he had perceived the same vision for three nights, taking certain persons with him, he came to the place, and finding the bodies of the Martyrs, had them buried with great honor at Glastonbury." and transfers them: These things are given there.

[31] "Ina, a man of great counsel and virtue" (these are the words of Polydore Vergil, Archdeacon of Wells), "famous at home and abroad, devoted to good arts and a lover of justice and equity in all things, when he perceived that through the administration of public affairs he was not permitted to be at peace, took up his Cross and followed Christ Himself. But, before he did this, he wished to assist religion with his fortune: for that most wise man considered it the basest and most foolish thing to entrust to another's faith riches to be distributed for various uses, which he who had acquired them could himself bestow." "Therefore at Wells he built a church with magnificent apparatus, he builds the church of Saint Andrew at Wells, and dedicated it to the Apostle Saint Andrew: in which he had an Episcopal See placed, and afterward enriched it with many possessions." "Wells is a city in that part of the island which looks toward the western sun, situated at the foot of the mountain which they call Mendip." These are the words of Polydore. But what he reports about the Episcopal See does not rest on sufficiently firm and solid authority. Certainly Malmesbury thinks otherwise in book 2 on the Deeds of the Bishops of England: "The third Bishopric of the West Saxons," he says, "was at Wells, a village in the Somerset district. There, from the time of the elder King Edward, there were Bishops." Harpsfield adds in century 8, chapter 8, that it is certain that before the times of Edward the Elder, no Bishop had sat there. Camden, among the Belgae, and a college says that it has a church and College founded by King Ina in honor of Saint Andrew. Then in the year 766, Cynewulf, King of the West Saxons, as is read in his charter in Godwin, "with the consent of the Bishops and Satraps, humbly gave by assignment a certain portion of land to the Apostle of God and His minister Saint Andrew, for the increase of the monastery or monastery which is situated near the great spring which they call Wielea." Ussher reports from the Glastonbury Chronicle, chapter 5, that with King Ina consenting, Daniel, Bishop of the Britons, sat there.

[32] According to the manuscript codex of Glastonbury, Saint Ina went to Rome twice. About the first journey these things are reported there: "After the diplomas were given to the monastery of Glastonbury, the aforesaid King Ina directed letters sealed with the royal signet to the supreme Pontiff, he gives the Roman Pope a golden cup, in which all the aforesaid things, together with the possessions and liberties of the Glastonbury Church, were contained in writing, and at the same time, together with a certain cup of the purest gold, and with other royal gifts, which the same King transmitted to the aforesaid Pontiff, he petitioned, and by petitioning obtained, privileges confirmed for the Glastonians that he should receive the Church of Glastonbury with its appurtenances and liberties into the bosom and protection of the holy Roman Church, and confirm it by Apostolic authority in perpetuity. When all these things were accepted by the supreme Pontiff, and with his assenting and receiving, he gloriously confirmed the royal pension by Apostolic writings. returning from Rome he brings back: And in the same year the same King went to Rome in person, and returning, brought back to Glastonbury the privilege corroborated by the Apostolic seal."

[33] Then perhaps Ina offered to the Pontiff the most celebrated alms which they call Peter's Pence. "King Ina," says the Chester chronicler, "is reported to have been the first of all Kings to have granted a penny from each house of his kingdom to Blessed Peter, which was long called by the English 'Romescot,' and in Latin, 'Peter's Pence.'" having offered Peter's Pence to the Pontiff, Polydore says he himself first came to England for the purpose of performing this office, and managed this collection for several years, which he explains thus: "The services of the piety of that King (Ina, that is) are reported to be infinite: and this especially, that he made his kingdom tributary to the Roman Pontiff, he subjects his kingdom to him: with individual silver coins, which they call denarii, imposed upon each household. The same thing was done, following his example, I think, by Offa, King of the Mercians, who reigned not long after that time. That was the year of salvation 740. This tribute, as some write, was afterward increased by King Ethelwulf, or Athulf, who obtained the rule of nearly the whole island. All of England at this time pays this tribute to the Roman Pontiff for the sake of piety and religion, collected from house to house, and those silver coins are commonly called 'Peter's Pence,' which the Papal collector, whom they not unknowingly call the Collector, exacts." What besides Ina intended by this alms of his, we add from the Westminster writer: "King Ina," he says at the year 727, "made a house at Rome, with the consent and will of Pope Gregory, which he had called the School of the English. he builds the School of the English at Rome: To which the Kings of England and the royal family, with Bishops, Priests, and Clerics, would come to be instructed in Catholic doctrine and faith, lest anything sinister or contrary to Catholic unity should be taught in the English Church, and thus,

strengthened in firm faith, they would return to their own lands. For the doctrine and schools of the English had been forbidden from the times of Saint Augustine by the Roman Pontiffs on account of the persistent heresies that had arisen in Britain at the arrival of the English, while pagans, mixed with Christians, had corrupted the grace of holy life in the Christian faith. Moreover, he had a church built and a church of Saint Mary near the aforesaid house, in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in which the divine mysteries would be celebrated for the English arriving at Rome: and in which any of the English who might happen to die at Rome could be buried. And so that all these things might obtain the strength of perpetual firmness, it was decreed by a general decree throughout the whole kingdom of the West Saxons, in which the aforesaid Ina reigned, that a single penny from each household, which in English is called 'Romescot,' should be sent to Blessed Peter and the Roman Church, so that the English dwelling there might have a vital subsidy therefrom." These are the words of the Westminster writer: which may have been conceived and arranged during his first visit to the City, but brought to perfect execution during the second.

[43] His sisters Saint Cuthburga and Quenburga had professed the monastic life under the same Rule of Saint Benedict. Finally, she who is praised by all as the leader of so great an undertaking was his wife, Queen Ethelburga, Queen Ethelburga his wife a most prudent and most devout woman, who, when the King set out for Rome, herself also (these are the words of Baronius at the year of Christ 740, no. 14), displaying a courage no less than her husband's, though in the weaker sex, gave a most excellent example of contempt for the world. For having embraced the monastic life, she consigned herself to perpetual enclosure, a nun, having entered a monastery of holy nuns, where she transformed herself from a Queen into a handmaid, and chose to exercise authority over herself alone, knowing well that he is truly a King who, for the love of Christ, makes himself subject to others, and that he truly rules who masters his own passions. Spelman notes at the year 725 that this Queen Ethelburga first became a nun at the aforementioned monastery of Barking in Essex, near the river Thames, and was afterward Abbess there. then Abbess at the monastery of Barking, she rested in a blessed end. The same is related by Harpsfield, Matthew, and others. Another Ethelburga, sister of Saint Erconwald, Bishop of London, sprung from the Kings of the East Angles, had presided there in the previous century; she is numbered among the holy Virgins and venerated on the eleventh of October. The Chester chronicler says that Ethelburga, wife of Saint Ina, withdrew to the monastery of Barking, where her sister had been Abbess, and she herself afterward, having been placed over those Virgins, rested in a blessed end.

[44] In ordering the years of Ina's reign, the following must be observed. We have assigned the beginning to the year of Christ 689, following the ancient authorities; yet that year, not being completed, is not reckoned in the computation. Hence what is for the Huntingdon chronicler the twenty-sixth year of the reign, is for others the year of Christ 718, Years of his reign, in which his battle with Ceolred, King of the Mercians, is recorded; what is for the same chronicler the thirty-sixth year of the reign is given by the Anglo-Saxon Chronologist as the year of Christ 727, when the famous victory over the South Saxons was won. Bede and others universally assign thirty-seven years to his reign, which according to the given reckoning we end at the year of Christ 726, and thus the Westminster writer says: "In the year of grace 727, Ina, a fortunate and powerful King, leaving his kingdom to his kinsman Aethelheard, set out for Rome, that he might exchange a temporal kingdom for an eternal one." Others, however, refer these events to the following year 728, time of pilgrimage. perhaps on account of some interregnum whose duration is attributed to him. Thus the Anglo-Saxon Chronologist at that year: "Here Ina went to Rome and there breathed his last." The Worcester chronicler: "Having relinquished his rule and commended it to Aethelheard, who was descended from the stock of King Cerdic, King Ina set out for the shrines of the blessed Apostles, while Gregory held the pontificate, desiring to sojourn for a time near the holy places on earth, that he might more familiarly deserve to be received by the Saints in heaven." These last words are taken from the passage of Bede quoted above. After he had described in the same chapter how Saint Caedwalla had been carried off by a sudden death at Rome, and life spent at Rome. he allows Saint Ina some period of pilgrimage; and thus the Malmesbury writer records that he grew old in obscurity at Rome, surviving for some time after the year 728.