(ABOUT A.D. 728.)
[Anglican Martyrology of Wyon, Ferrarius, Menardus, &c. Authorities:
Malmsbury and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.]
Ina, king of Wessex, which consisted of Wiltshire, Hampshire,
Gloucestershire, Dorsetshire, and Oxfordshire, was the son of Cerdic,
and his wife was Ethelburga. He reigned as much as thirty-eight years;
from 688 to 726. He put together the laws of the West Saxons, so as to
form a code, and this is the oldest code of West Saxon laws that we
have, though there are Kentish laws which are older still. He also
divided the kingdom into two bishoprics. Hitherto all Wessex had been
under the bishops of Winchester; but now that the kingdom was so much
larger, Ina founded another bishopric at Sherborne in Dorsetshire. He
also in 704, founded S. Andrew's Church in Wells, which is now a
Cathedral. And at Glastonbury Ina did great things. He built the
monastery and richly adorned it, he also translated to it the bodies
of SS. Indract and his companions.
Ina fought with the Welsh under their King Gerent, and also with the
other English kings. He fought against the men of Kent, and made them
pay him much gold for his kinsman Mul, whom they had slain. He had
also wars in Sussex and East Anglia, and in 714 he fought a great
battle with Ceolred, king of the Mercians, in which neither gained the
victory, at Wanborough in Wiltshire. Towards the end of his reign, Ina
seems to have been troubled by some rebellions among his own people,
and also to have been less successful than before in his wars with the
Welsh. In 726 he gave up his kingdom and went to Rome and died there.
William of Malmesbury relates a curious story about the occasion of
this which is deserving of record.[23]
Ina once made a feast to his lords and great men in one of his royal
houses; the house was hung with goodly curtains, and the table was
spread with vessels of gold and silver, and Ina and his lords ate and
drank and were merry. Now on the next day, Ina set forth from that
house to go to another that he had, and Ethelburga, his queen, went
with him. So men took down the curtains and carried off the goodly
vessels and left the house bare and empty. Moreover, Ethelburga, the
queen spake to the steward who had care of that house, saying "When
the king is gone, fill the house with rubbish, and with the dung of
cattle, and lay in the bed where the king slept a sow with her litter
of pigs." So the steward did as the queen commanded. And when Ina and
the queen had gone forth, about a mile from the house, the queen said
to Ina, "Turn back, my lord, to the house whence we have come, for it
will be greatly for thy good so to do." So Ina hearkened to the voice
of his wife, and turned back to the house. There he found all the
curtains and the goodly vessels gone, and the house full of rubbish
and defiled with the dung of cattle, and a sow and her pigs lying in
the bed where Ina and Ethelburga his queen had slept. So Ethelburga
spake to her husband, saying, "Seest thou, O king, how the pomp of
this world passeth away? Where are all thy goodly things? How foul is
now the house which but yesterday was thy royal abode! Are not all the
things of this life as a breath, yea as smoke, and as a wind that
passeth away?"
Then the old king entered into himself, and he resolved to lay aside
his dignity and rule, and to devote the rest of his days to the
custody of his soul. So he and his wife went to Rome to pray at the
tomb of the Apostles, and Pope Gregory II. received them gladly; and
he died there.
[21] The story is without any foundation in fact. The brothers were
probably no relations to S. Patrick. According to the fabulous history
of the relatives of S. Patrick, his pretended sister Tigridia had
seventeen sons all bishops, priests, or monks, and five daughters all
nuns. Some of Darerca's sons are attributed to Tigridia, and some to
Liemania. Lupita, another pretended sister is said by some to have
remained a consecrated virgin, by others to have been the mother of
bishops.
[22] See Feb 1.
[23] It is only found in Malmesbury's English Chronicle, lib. i.,
c. 2; and is not found in all copies of Malmesbury.
[Illustration: S. Amandus. See page 184.]
February 7.
S. CHRYSOLIUS, _B. M. in Flanders_, A.D. 302.
SS. ADAUCTUS AND COMPANIONS, _MM. at Antandris, circ._ A.D. 303.
S. AUGULUS, _B. M. in London_.
SS. ONE THOUSAND AND THREE MARTYRS AT NICOMEDIA, _circ._ A.D. 302.
S. MAXIMUS, _B. of Nola_ (_see_ S. FELIX, _Jan. 15_).
S. THEODORE, _M. at Heraclea_, A.D. 319.
S. PARTHENIUS, _B. of Lampsacus, 4th cent._
S. MOSES, _B. of the Saracens in Arabia, end of 5th cent._
SS. MOSES AND SIX MONKS, _MM. in Egypt, 5th cent._
S. JULIANA, _W. at Bologna, circ._ A.D. 435.
S. TRESAN, _P. C. of Mareuil, 6th cent._
S. LAURENCE, _B. of Manfredonia, circ._ A.D. 550.
S. FIDELIS, _B. of Merida, circ._ A.D. 570.
S. MELDAN, _B. at Peronne, end of 6th cent._
S. RICHARD, _C. at Lucca_, A.D. 719.
S. LUKE THE YOUNGER, _C. at Soterio, in Greece, circ._ A.D. 946.
S. ROMUALD, _Ab. Founder of the Order of Camaldoli, circ._ A.D. 1027.