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A03144 The historie of that most famous saint and souldier of Christ Iesus; St. George of Cappadocia asserted from the fictions, in the middle ages of the Church; and opposition, of the present. The institution of the most noble Order of St. George, named the Garter. A catalogue of all the knights thereof untill this present. By Pet. Heylyn. Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver. 1631 (1631) STC 13272; ESTC S104019 168,694 376

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made the tutelarie Saint of Soldiers at what time he first began to be accounted so principall a Patron of Christianitie before we can descend unto particulars And first if we demand how our Saint George became to bee accounted the chiefe Saint of Soldiers we answere that he was himselfe a Soldier of chiefe ranke and qualitie and therefore in the superstitious times before us conceived to be most worthy to countenance that calling For which cause also it pleased the Church of Rome who then did what she listed to joyne with him in commission although perhaps not with equall power St. Maurice and St. Sebastian So witnesseth Baronius out of the Roman Ceremoniall De divinis officijs Romanam ipsam Ecclesiam ad expugnandos fidei hostes hos praecipuè martyres invocare consuevisse Mauritium Sebastianum Georgium Which Maurice and Sebastian also were both of them Soldiers of the same time with our St. George and both of eminent place in their severall Armies MAVRITIUS being one of the Chiefetaines of the Theban Legion slaughtered by MAXIMINIANUS in his expedition towards Brittaine SEBASTIAN a Commander of the first ranke Princeps primae cohortis under DIOCLETIAN This was the reason why they were first selected to take upon them the defence of militarie men Saint GEORGE as chiefe upon the earth in birth and honours so also generally reckoned by the men of Warre to bee of greater power than eyther of the other and therefore most devoutly prayed to Hence is it that the Poet MANTVAN calls him the MARS of Christians MARS being at the first some notable swash-buckler himselfe and afterwards the GOD of Soldiers in the opinion of the Gentiles Vt Martem Latij sic nos te Dive Georgi Nunc colimus As Rome did MARS so wee St. GEORGE doe honour thee And in another place Inclyte bellorum rector quem nostra Inventu● Pro Mavorte colit Thou famous President of Wars Whom we adore instead of MARS 2 Nor was St. George only reckoned as a chiefe Saint of soldiers but after and before the English tooke him to themselves esteemed a principall patron of the affaire of Christendome For as before I noted the Christians used to call upon him being so lessoned by their superstitious teachers as an advocate of victory and did implore his helpe ad expugnandos fidei hostes in all their Warres against the enemies of our religion as they did also pray unto St. Maurice and St. Sebastian though not so generally Hence is it that St. Marke St. Iames St. Davis St. Andrew and the rest being once chosen the Protectors of particular States and Countries were never importuned to take upon them the tuition and defence of any others It may be they were fastned unto those imployments as once the Tyrians chained the statua of Hercules their especiall Guardian to their Altars for feare he might be wonne to take part against them and give succour to their enemies But of St. George we finde not any such sufficient bond by which he is obliged either unto particular places or designes as one whom they thought good to leave at large that so hee might the better succour the afflicted parts of Christendome For which cause howsoever in the latter dayes hee was conceived to be a speciall fautor of the English yet have the Georgians and the Genoese alwayes esteem'd him as their Patron and by the German Emperours he hath beene made Protectour also of their military orders of which more hereafter How and on what occasion he came to have the generall patronage of Christianitie conferred upon him at the least as I conceive it I am next to shew first making roome for that which followes by a short but necessarie digression 3 After the yeare 600. the affaires of Christendome began in all places to decline the Westerne parts beginning to be over-spread by superstition the Easterne made a prey unto the Saracens who in their conquests laboured what they could to advance the sect of Mahomet By this meanes as they inlarged their Empire so did they also propagate the infinite impieties of that Impostour whose irreligion had the fortune not onely to be entertained by those poore wretches whom the Saracens had conquered but also to inveigle them by whom they were subdued For when the Turkes under the conduct of Tangrolipix had made themselves masters of the Persian Empire then in possession of the Saracens they tooke upon them presently the Law of that seducer as if Mahometanisme had beene annexed inseparably unto the Diademe Proud of this victory and litle able to conteine their active spirits in an obedient Peace at home they were employed in severall Armies and to severall purposes one of them under Cutlu-Moses who turned his forces on the Christian Empire the other under Ducat and Melech two kinsmen of the Persian Sultan who bent their strength against the Saracens of Syria and Damascus In this designe the issue prooved so answerable to their hopes that quickly they became possessed of almost all Armenia Media and the Lesser Asia inhabited in most parts of them then by Christians as of all Syria the Holy Land and therein of Hierusalem So that in all the East the Gospell of our Saviour was eyther utterly extinguished or his name celebrated onely in obscure and private places Religion being in this state the Christian Princes of the West most of them then in peace and amitie with one another joyntly and joyfully resolve upon the freeing of the miserable East from thraldome Perswaded thereunto piously by a Reverend Hermit whose name was Peter who had beene witnesse of those miseries which the Christians there endured and cunningly by Vrban of that name the second Pope of Rome who by employing such so many Princes in those remote Countries fore-saw a way to bring the Roman Prelates to their so-much-expected greatnesse The Princes of most note which put themselves into the action were Robert Duke of Normandie brother to Will. Rufus King of England Hugh brother to the King of France Godfrey of Bouillon Duke of Lorreine with his two brethren Baldwin and Eustace Tancred and Beomond two noble Normans of the Kingdome of Naples and he which for his spirit and magnanimity might have beene reckoned with the first Ademar Byshop of La Puy en Velay a litle territorie neere unto Auvergne in France the Popes Legate The Armie which attended them amounted to no lesse than 30000. fighting men the time of this their expedition an 1096. or thereabouts their fortune so succesful that they expell'd the Turks out of all Asia the lesse compelling them into the Easterne parts of their dominions Having no enemy at their backs they passed the streights of Taurus entring into Syria which they quickly mastered they sate them downe at last before the famous City of Antiochia A place of chiefe importance for the assurance of their new conquests and therefore very much desired 4 This famous City after a long
6 St. George when he began to bee entituled particularly to the English 7 The honours done him here and among the Irish. 8 The institution of the noble Order of the Carter 9 A briefe view of the chiefe Statutes of the Order 10 St. George the Patron of it 11 Sir Walter Raleighs opinion touching the killing of the Dragon 12 And of them also which desire to have the George Symbolicall 13 A Catalogue of all St. George's Knights of that most noble Order untill this present 14 The Conclusion of the whole 1 OVr course is now for England divisos orbe Britannos as the Poet hath it divided from the other parts of the World as in her situation so in her felicities Of which and of the testimonies which she is able to afford unto Saint GEORGE wee shall speake in severall it being as the Panegyrick and Solinus call it another world the rather because in the latter dayes hee hath beene reckoned as the especiall Patron of this Nation and as particular to us as is Saint ANTONIE to Italie Saint DENIS unto France or any of the other to their proper places I say in the later dayes onely for anciently we were not thought to have more right to him than any other of our Neighbours however it bee said by some that hee hath alwayes beene the tutelarie Saint and Guardian of our Nation For if wee will beleeve our English Fugitives wee may behold the picture of Saint GEORGE in their Church at Rome with this inscription Georgium Cappadocem Anglia sibi protectorem elegit maximis beneficijs tùm pace tùm bello receptis semper religiosissimè coluit Id est This GEORGE of Cappadocia the English chose to be their Patron and for the many benefits received from him both in Peace and Warre have alwayes very religiously worshipped him Or if we will beleeve that the victorious Prince King ARTHUR bare him in one of his royall banners which was a signe of speciall dependance on him and relation to him we finde in Master Selden that so by some it is rep●rted and HARDING whom I have not seene is cyted in the Margin And first to make reply to that which was first alleaged if so our Fugitives of Rome doe by their Semper understand that ever since his Martyrdome Saint GEGRGE hath beene esteemed and worshipped as the Patron of the English wee must needes tell them that howsoever this may bee beleeved at Rome it is not likely to bee entertained with us here in England If by their Semper they meane onely that alwayes since the English chose him for their Patron hee hath beene specially esteemed and worshipped by them wee grant indeed that since that time Saint GEORGE hath alwayes beene especially honoured though not religiously worshipped As for King ARTHUR wee reade in MALMESBURIE that at the Seige of Bannesdowne mons Badonicus not farre from Bathe to which the Saxons had retyred and thereon fortified that in his royall Armes hee bare the portraiture of the blessed Virgin Postremò in obsidione Badonici montis fretus imagine dominicae matris quam armis suis insuerat c. as he there hath it Of any Image of Saint George wee have ne gry quidem eyther in him or any other of our Historians Nor is it easie to bee credited that in so small a tract of time Saint George was growne so eminent in the opinion of the Brittaines as to be deem'd the Patron of their Armies their tutelarie Saint against their enemies 2 If from the Brittaines we proceed unto the Saxons I have not found as yet that eyther in their Heptarchie or after they became one entire state a Monarchie they had St. GEORGE in more than ordinary honour Vnlesse perhaps we may beleeve that Theobald one of the Saxon Kings might take a speciall liking to him upon the commendation of Cunibert King of the Lombards by whom hee was magnificently feasted in his journey towards Rome His diebus Theobald rex Anglorum Saxonum qui multa in sua patria bella gesserat ad Christum conversus Romam properavit qui ad Cunibertum regem veniens this Cunibert as before we noted had built St. George a Monasterie ab eo mirificè susceptus est saith Paul the Deacon But in the Empire of the Normans we have variety and store inough some of it even in their first entrance before their state and affaires here were well setled For in the yeare 1074 which was some eight yeares after the death of Harald Robert D'Oyley a Nobleman of Normandie when he had received at the hands of William the Conquerour in reward of his service in the Warres large possessions in the County of Oxon built a spacious Castle on the West side of the City of Oxford with deepe Ditches Ramparts an high raised Mount and therein a Parish-Church unto St. George unto which when the Parishioners could not have accesse by reason that King Stephen most streightly besiedged Maud the Empresse within this Castle St. Thomas Chappell in the street hard by was built Afterwards King Edward the 3. that famous and puissant Prince being borne at Windsore erected there out of the ground a most strong Castle equall in bignesse to a pretty Cittie and in the very entrance of it a most stately Church consecrated B. Virgini Mariae S. Georgio Cappadoci unto the blessed Virgin Marie and St. George of Cappadocia but brought unto that sumptuous magnificence which now we see it carry by King Edward the fourth and Sir Reginald Bray Of which both Church and Castle thus Draytons Muse in the 15. song of his Poly-Olbion Then hand in hand her Thames the Forrest softly brings To that supreamest place of the great English Kings The Garters royall seate from him who did advance That princely Order first our first that conqured France The Temple of St. George whereas his honour'd Knights Vpon his hallowed day observe their ancient rights Thus had we as we finde in Camden a Monasterie dedicated to St. GEORGE in the County of Derby built by the Greyslayes gentlemen of good ancientrie in that country Thus have wee also a faire Church consecrated to St. George's name in Doncaster a St. GEORGE'S Church in South-werke and in London and not to travaile further in this enquirie a St. GEORGE'S Church in Burford where it pleased GOD to give mee first my naturalll being and afterwards my education In which regard I hold my selfe bound in a manner to vindicate St. GEORGE'S honour having received such comforts in a place where his memorie was anciently precious and the onely Church in it dedicated by his name 3 St. George thus generally honoured by the English as a Saint it was not long before they fastned superstition being then in the very height a more particular respect upon him the first beginnings whereof wee must referre unto King Richard of that name the first according to the information which William