Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/435



Is situate in the hundred of Powdre, and hath upon the east Probus, north Newland, west St. Allen, south Clements. As for the name it is derived from St. Herme, the tutelar guardian saint of this church, extant and endowed long before the Norman Conquest, by the Lord of the Manor of Polsew or Polduh, taxed in Domesday Roll, and therefore the Church again is taxed in Domesday Roll 20 William I. 1087, by the name of Ermen-hen, i.e. old or ancient Herme. In the taxation of benefices to the Popes in Cornwall, made by the Bishops of Lincoln and Winchester 1294, Ecclesia de Hermita in Decanatus de Powdre is rated at 6l. In Wolsey's Inquisition, 1521, and Valor Beneficiorum, by the name of Erme 22l. 13s. 4d. The patronage in Lutterell, Lord of the Manor of Polsew, aforesaid. The incumbent Carthew, and the parish rated to the 4s. in the pound Land Tax, 1696, 120l.

The following short account of the patron saint is substituted for six or eight pages of uninteresting legend given by Mr. Hals.

St. Hermes or St. Ermes, the supposed patron saint of this parish, is said to have suffered martyrdom at Rome in the persecution raised by the Emperor Adrian, about the year 132. His tomb in the Salian Way was ornamented by Pope Pelagius the Second, who filled the chair of St. Peter from 577 to 590. The name of St. Hermes is much celebrated in the ancient martyrologies.

In the Missale Romanum is the following prayer, to be used on the 28th of August, the day consecrated to his memory:

Deus, qui beatum Hermetem Martyrem tuum virtute constantiæ in passione roborasti, ex ejus nobis imitatione