of Saint George but onely relatively in reference to one particular passage inserted by the Arians into his Historie The processe of the whole is this The Cardinall makes mention of the Decree Canon of Gelasius wherein the Historie of George the Martyr is râ—ckoned as Apocryphall and thereupon goeth on to tell us what paines himselfe had taked in search of that exploded storie so branded by Gelasius At last saith he tumbling about the Vatican I found a certaine Historie of St. George full of prodigious lyes and such as have not any likelinesse with other myracles Insunt praeterea illic quaedam accepta ab haereticis atque Gentilibus ut conflictus ille Georgij cum Athanasio Mago Alludit nimirum impius author ad Georgium Arianum Episcopum invasorem sedis Alexandriae c. Athanasium enim Magum ab Arianis appellatum Acta conciliabuli Tyrij satis docent Besides saith hee there are some passages therein borrowed no question from the Hereticks as how that George should have great bickerings with the Magitian Athanasius the impious Author questionlesse alluding unto George of Alexandria and that extreame hatred which he bare to holy Athanasius whom in the Conventicle of Tyre they accused of Sorcery Thereupon hee inferres ex quibus sanè apparet totam illam fabulam de actis Georgij fuisse commentum Arianorum Construe me this and we shall finde Baronius himselfe no enemie unto St. George but onely to the Arian Legend which was extant of him Thus have wee seene how much Baronius himselfe hath affirm'd though not in such plaine termes as we expected what Dr. Reynolds proves we shall see hereafter CHAP. IIII. 1 A Coniecture at those reasons which may make the History of St. George suspected 2 The Church of Rome too prodigall in the bestowing Divine honours 3 False Saints no preiudice vnto the true 4 The lives of Saints how fabulously and vainely written 5 What might induce the Church-Historians to that veine of writing 6 The vndertaking of Aloysius Lippomanus and how well performed 7 The inter-mixture of vaine Fables no preiudice to truth of Story 8 Of Arthur Guy of Warwicke and Sir Bevis 9 Haereticall dreames and practices not able to beare downe the Truth 10 An application of the whole vnto St. George 1 THus are wee come at last to the maine shocke and furie of the battaile wherein if our successe bee answerable to the beginnings wee need not doubt but that St George may keepe his place in the heaven of glories A matter which I have lesse cause to feare because I finde not heere in the first place eyther authorities or reasons set to charge upon mee Onely a single name and a bare assertion stand ready to defend it selfe and make good the day as Scaeva once opposed himselfe in the defence of Caesars trenches against the whole force of the Pompeians A name I must confesse which I gladly honour and doubt not but there was as hee conceived it reason inough to justifie and confirme his saying although hee pleased not to expresse it Yet give me leave to say that it is Reason and Proofe chiefly which ennobleth and commends an Author and not the greatnesse of his Name or confidence of affirmation Et quanquam in autore satis rationis est ratio tamen quemlibet magnum autorem facit as wee reade it in Velleius I say I doubt not but that Reverend and famous man who first declar'd himselfe openly and in tearmes expresse against our blessed Saint and Martyr did not oppose himselfe against an Historie so generally receiv'd as this without some reasons which might incline and moove him to it Which reasons since it hath not pleased him to deliver to us in his writings wee will make bold as neere as possibly we can to conjecture at them A worke of no great difficultie unto any who hath the least acquaintance with the affaires and passages of the Roman Church as they then stood when first the Storie of St. George was call'd in question I conceive it thus The Romish Legends and not those onely but even the publicke service of that Church had made St. George just like to Perseus in the Poët in killing of a monstrous Dragon and freeing of a Lady sole Daughter to a King from his unmercifull crueltie Those stories also which reported of his Death and Martyrdome had in them as it might be thought many grosse and notable absurdities as that hee suffred under I know not what Dacianus King of Persia a Monarch that had under him no lesse than 70. tributarie Princes though others have it under the Emperour Diocletian this Dacianus being then President or as it were Proconsul Now being so that they agreed not with themselves and that there never was at or about that time a King of Persia of that name and greatnesse of command nor any such like action to bee found in true antiquitie as his encounter with the Dragon This might occasion and not without good reason that the whole Historie became suspected and therefore that S. George might fairely be dismissed out of the Calendar Adde unto this that shamefull libertie which the Man of Rome had tooke unto himselfe of Canonizing Saints and ordering the dignities and powers of Heaven and that profuse and lavish prodigalitie wherewith hee did conferre the divinest honours on unworthy persons and sometimes such as had no beeing and wee shall quickly see that Calvin had some reason why hee reputed our St. George among his Counterfeits or Larva's though as before I said it did not please him to expresse it These are as I conceive it the reasons of especiall moment and these we can as easily conjure downe as we rais'd them up 2 And first not to say any thing of that arrogant libertie assum'd by them of Rome in making Saints nor of those many Ceremonies which they use in that solemnitie both of them borrowed from that so famous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of heathen Rome whereby their Emperours were inroll'd among their Gods not to say any thing of these it is not to bee question'd but that the Church of Rome hath beene exceeding prodigall of that greatest and most heavenly honour Wee know indeed that innocent and pious Christianity in the first times registred those as Saints and those onely which had confessed their Faith in CHRIST even to the death and lost their Lives in testimony of a good Conscience or else had otherwise nobly deserv'd of their common Mother by their paines in writing or assiduitie in Preaching in the defence of Sacred truth against the growth of Heresie But afterwards the Church of Rome advanced into the roome of Christ and equall in her owne conceit unto all that was called God if not above proclaim'd them also to bee Saints which had contested in her quarrels how unjust and treacherous soever So that the most rebellious sort of Subjects became at last most capable of this high Honour the greatest
Voragine and Antoninus The yeare thereof limited more particularly by the Fasciculus temporum ad ann 291. and by Oraeus to the yeare 289. to which wee will adjoyne Baronius who places it in his Annals and so reports it in his Annot. on the Calendar ad ann 290. A difference not observeable And last of all the day thereof assigned upon the 23. of Aprill 9. Kal. Maij. by Venerable Bede Rabanus and Notgerus as also by Vincentius and Antoninus and by the Martyrologies both Greeke and Latine not yet produced the manner of his death being affirmed also by the loosing of his head by Metaphrastes Bede Rabanus and Notgerus by Vincentius de Voragine Nicephorus Antoninus Schedell and Bergomensis Which being so wee may the better and with more justice apply the old complaint of Canus to the businesse now in hand Si namque in duorum ore vel trium firmum stat omne verbum cur adversus hanc legenâ— plurimis testibus rem tandem olim gestam contestantibus fidem Theologus abnegabit Since GOD saith he hath told us that out of the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word shall be established with what pretence of reason may a Divine oppose this Law and not give credit unto many witnesses affirming all together the same Historie For our parts so confident are we that our cause is just and true that if the adversaries of St. GEORGE are able to produce one single testimonie out of any ancient Author or out of any Author borne before the time of CALVIN to make good their affirmavit we will forsake our colours and revolt to them But I am bold to say they cannot For had the thing beene possible the learned Doctor Reynolds who spared no labour in the search would have produced it CHAP. IIII. 1 Foure severall wayes used by the Church to keepe alive the memory of the Martyrs 2 The way of Martyrologies how ancient 3 The Roman Martyrologie and what it testifieth of St. George 4 Natale what it is in the construction of the Church 5 The testimonie given vnto St. George in the Greeke Church 6 St. George why called Tropaeophorus 7 Commemoration of the Dead how used in the Church primitive 8 The depravation of the ancient use of it in the Church of Rome 9 The publike service of that Church on St. Georges day 10 Arguments drawne from the Church service of what validitie 11 Saint George continually famous in the Church Christian. 12 And among the Turkes 1 THus have we drawne together the suffrages of such which eyther positively have affirmed or Historically related any thing of St. George the Martyr In which wee finde sufficient proofe as of his Country so of the time and day and manner of his death and that so punctually so agreeably both to their foreman and themselves that never any Iurie agreed bettâ—r on a Verdict This done we now addresse our selves to make inquiry of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The pillar and the ground of Truth as Saint Paul calls it to learne of her what she hath practically done in St. Georges honour For to the positive affirmations of some men in St. Georges cause and the historicall relations of some others if wee can also get the countenance and practise of the Church wee then may have some good assurance that no man will hereafter stirre against us Now in the practise of the Church we may observe foure wayes or courses whereby she hath continually endeavoured to keepe alive the memory of the blessed Martyrs in none of which she hath beene wanting such is her tender care and respect of him unto our St. George The first of these is the common Martyrologie or Calendar in which their Names and Passion briefly but unto all eternity are registred The second is by giving them some speciall place in her publicke Liturgies The third by recollecting up their Reliques and laying them with all due honour in some place fit for them And last of all the calling of such Temples by the names of these most blessed Spirits which she had solemnely erected to GODS speciall service and Consecrated to his honour How much the Church hath done in all and every one of these to keepe the memory of Saint GEORGE the Martyr alive and flourishing wee shall best see by taking of them every one in their severall Order and speaking of them in particulars 2 Beginning with the first wee finde it on Record in Tullie that in the very first beginnings of the Roman State it was the Office of the chiefe Priest or Pontifex Max. to keepe a Register of all publike occurrences and to preserve them in some tables openly that so the people might peruse them Ab initio rerum Rom. saith he usque ad Publ. Mutium Pont. Max. res omnes singulorum annorum mandabat literis Pontifex Max. efferebatque in album proponebatque tabulam domi potestas ut esset populo cognoscendi Which Office discontinued in the time of Publ. Mutius was afterwards reviv'd by Iulius Caesar in his first Consulship being at that time chiefe Byshop of the Romans An institution of especial use service in that state as also in others there being not a greater spurre to vertue and Heroick undertakings than an assurance that the Fame of our atchievments well-deserving shall not be buried in the same grave with us perish w th our bodies For certainly the care both to live vertuously and if occasion so require to dye noblely must needs be much augmented in the minds of good and honest men when once they know that their performings shall not be folded up in silence but openly presented to the eyes and eares of all the people Vpon which grounds it was the custome of the faithfull in the first times and specially of those which were for place and power moâ—â— eminent amongst them to commit to publike memory the sufferings of all them which had confess'd the faith of CHRIST in the midst of tortures and continued constant in it even unto the death Not that they thought to adde thereby unto their glories who now were glorious in the Heavens but by preserving in continuall remembrance their infinite indurances for the truth and testimony of Religion to make the remnant of Gods people yet alive more apt to run that course and so to runne it that at the last they might attaine an equall guerdon Of which kinde of memoriall or publike Register is the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna extant in the fourth booke of Eusebius Historie that of the Lugdunenses and Viennoys in the fifth and lastly that also of Dionysius Byshop of Alexandria in the sixth and seaventh of the same Author 3 Of this kinde specially I meane in reference to the first times of Christian Religion were the two publike Martyrologies of the Greeke and Latine Churches The first originall of which not to looke further and perhaps fare worse may be referr'd most probably
unto Anterus Byshop of Rome about the yeare 238. at what time Maximinus having first kill'd his master Alex. Severus made havocke of the Church of GOD. Of him it is recorded that hee first caused the Acts and Passions of the blessed Martyrs to be diligently sought out and enroll'd by the publike Notaries in the common Registers of the Church lest else their memory might be determined with their lives Anterus primus statuit saith Platina ut res gestae Martyrum diligentèr exquisitae à notarijs scriberentur conscriptas recondi in aerario Ecclesiae mandavit ne unà cum vita bene agentium memoria aboleretur As for the Roman Martyrologie now extant as wee may well conclude that it was built upon that ground-worke or foundation of Anterus So we can ill affirme for certaine by whom the whole structure as we now see it was raised and perfected Onely we find in one of Gregories Epistles that then the Roman Church had upon register the names almost of all the Martyrs and a memoriall of their Sufferings digested as the Martyrologies now are according to their proper dayes the time onely of their passions and the place thereof assigned in them but litle of the circumstance and manner of their deaths Nos penè omnium Martyrum distinctis per dies singulos passionibus collecta in uno codice nomina habemus c. Non tamen codem volumine quis qualiter sit passus indicatur sed tantùm dies locus passionis ponitur Which booke or register here spoke of as it hath much resemblance in the forme and substance of it with the Roman Martyrologie now being so wee may happily resolve that it is the same augmented onely in the addition of such Saints as in the times succeeding have had place and some of them unworthily in the common Calendar This Martyrologie thus ancient as it may bee well supposed upon the Three and twentieth day of Aprill gives us this testimony of our Martyr viz. Natalis S. Georgij Martyris cuius illustre martyrium Ecclesia Dei veneratur The Passion of St. George the Martyr whose blessed martyrdome is in the Church of GOD in especiall honour And this briefly and in a word according to the use and nature of a Martyrologie 4 I have here rendred the Natalis in the Text by the English word of Passion because as I conceive it however it bee used in other Authors yet it must so be taken in the construction of the Church which did not use to solemnize the Birth dayes of the Saints but the dayes onely of their departure For they conceived it rightly that the birth-day of a Christian was his entrance into Glory by the gate of Death and that the worldly-minded man reputed that to bee the day of his Nativity by which hee entred into life And therefore Origen hath noted of the Christians of his time and of the times before him That they esteemed the day of Birth to be an entrance into anguish and temptation but celebrated with a solemne Feast the day wherein their friends and brethren were released from sinne and bondage Nunc nos saith hee non Nativitatis diem celebramus cum sit dolorum atque tentationum introitus Sed mortis diem celebramus utpote omnium dolorum depositionem atque omnium tent ationum effugationem Nay in his eighth Homily upon Leviticus hee affirmes for certaine that never any of the Saints did solemnize their Birth-day with good cheeâ—â— and festivals and not much after Soli peccatores super huiusmodi Nativitate laetantur That onely wicked men did so observe it Much also to this purpose that of St. Bernard in his Epistle to and against the Canons of the Church of Lyons who had presumed to introduce into the Church a new festivall The Feast of the Conception of the blessed Vigin The Church saith he hath by a spâ—ciall exception kept as holy the Birth-day of our Saviour of whom the Angels did affirme unto the Sheepe-heards that his Nativitie was tidings of great Ioy unto all the people Caeterorum autem non Nativitatâ—m sed mortem Sanctorum iâ—dicâ—t praedicat pretâ—oâ—am But for the rest saith hee the Church hath taught us that not the Birth-day of the Saints but the day rather of their dissolution is accounted precious In which no doubt hee did allude to that of DAVID Right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints 5 If wee crosse over into Greece and aske what Honours they affoord unto St. GEORGE in their publicke registers wee find the Church there little lesse devoted to him than it is at Rome For thus Wicelius hath observ'd for us Veteres Graecos recensere in diario sub finem Aprilis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Greekes anciently in their Diarie or common Almanacke about the end of Aprill did celebrate the memory of St. GEORGE and SABAS as the Saints or Patrons of Military men Which Saba to note it by the way hath a place also in the Roman Martyrologie on the Foure and twentieth of Aprill and is there called Ductor militum a Captaine or Commander But not to stand alone upon the credit of Wicelius we have the Greeke Menologie for so they call it thus speaking of him and in the day agreeing with the Church of Rome Memoria Sancti Gloriosi Magni Martyris Georgij â—â—gnomento Tropelophori Fuit genere Cappadox passus sub Diocletâ—anâ— Imper. Id est This day is celebrated in memoriall of that most holy glorious and great Martyr George sirnamed Tropelophorus a Cappadocian by his Countrey who suffered under Diocletian In which we finde two circumstances which adde much unto him and his honour a sirname and an adjunct The adjunct is that hee is here stiled Magnus Martyr the great Martyr and not here onely but in divers other passages of Greeke writers For Metaphrastes gives this title to the Story of him Vita S. Georgij magni Martyris The History of George the great Martyr So also doth Pasicrates So also Comus the Suffragan of Amba Gabriel Patriarch of Alexandria doth call Saint GEORGES Church in that Citie Ecclesiam S. Georgij magni Martyris the Temple of George the Great Martyr But of this Comus more anon in the next Chapter 6 The sirname added in the Greeke Menologie unto Saint GEORGE is as Baronius reades it Tropelophorus for which hee is by Mr. Selden in his Titles of Honour justly tax'd it being plaine saith hee that it should rather be Tropaeophorus For proofe of which he hath produced a testimony out of Iohn Euchaites who flourish'd in the time of Constantinus Monamachus the Greeke Emperour about the yeare 1043. Which Euchaites being at that time a Byshop of the Greeke Church writing unto the Emperour above-named thus calls St. George the Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The chiefe and President of warre the same Who from an
Church it selfe and more unpleasing to the tyrants so was it also more full of honour and respect unto the Martyr Witnesse whereof those many Temples erected in the Empire of Severus Gordian Philip and Galicnus demolished after in the time of Diocletian and reerected by the Decree and Licence of Maximinianus Which Temples so erected were consecrated though in a second place unto the memory of some or other of the more notable and famous of the Saints departed in those fierie times as may appeare by that which wee have elsewhere cyted out of Marcellinus as viz. how the Alexandrian people had cast the ashes of their Arian Byshop George into the Sea ne aedes illis ex struerentur ut reliquis lest else they should bee taken by the multitude for holy Martyrs and Temples erected to them as unto others of that ranke of which though falsly they conceived him But in the time of CONSTANTINE we find the practise of it very frequent in the Church the Emperour himselfe dedicating one of his owne building 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto the blessed memory of the Apostles As for his Motheâ— the most illustrious Helena we find of 〈…〉 cting a Temple dedicated to the Virgin 〈◊〉 in the Towne of Bethlehem another to St. Iohn the Baptist in the Mountaines of Iudaea another to St. Peter on Mount Sion Nor were those blessed spirits the Apostles thought worthy onely of these honours but the rest also of the holy Martyrs and Confessours the first of this ranke which I have met with in my reading being that of Dionysius in the Citie of Alexandria whereof he once was Byshop and there at first one of the Auditors of Origen Built as I doe conceive it in the time of Persecution by the Gentiles and burnt as the HistoriaÌ„ tells us in the time tumults of the Arians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Alexandriae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Sozomen Now the reason why it pleased the Church to give the names of Saints and Martyrs to their Temples was not as our incomparable Hooker hath observed rightly either that they should serve unto the worship of those glorious spirits or that those blessed spirits now made glorious should take upon them the protection and patronage of those places but partly in respect that by the ministerie of those Saints it pleased God there to shew some rare effect of his Power and partly in regard that by their deathes which there the Saints did suffer for the testimonie of the trueth the places where they dyed were made more venerable 6 In these respects St. George had many Churches built and consecrated as to Gods service principally so as before I said in a second place unto his memory The first for I will onely touch upon a few of speciall note the first I say of those which hitherto I have obserued that in Diospolis or Lydda in the tribe of Ephraim built by Iustinian Emp. who beganne his Empire Anno 527. over or neere the place of our Martyrs sepulcher Cuius ecclesiam quam ad honorem eiusdem Martyris pius et orthodoxus Princeps Rom. Augustus illustris memoriae D. Iustinianus multo studio et devotione prompta aedisicari praeceperat c. So Gulielmus Tyrius speaking of this our Martyr This Church was by the Turkes demolished vpon the coÌ„ming of the armies of the Westerne Princes for the conquest of Hierusalem the Church which now standeth being built after as the natives say by a King of England The cause which moved the Turkes hereto a feare least else the timber of it which was large and mâ—ssie might be converted to some engines for the battery of that Citie Timentes ne trabes ecclesiae quae multae proceritatis erant in machinas ad expugnandam urbem vellent convertere As that Author hath it Nor farre from Lydda is the little Citie of Rama or Ramula supposed to bee the dwelling of Ioseph of Arimathea where our St. George was honoured with another temple defaced by the Turkes also Cuius ibi ab antiquo fundatam ecclesiam Turci nonnihil deformaverant in the words of Malmesburie Hence I collect that seeing one of these Churchs is called ancient ab antiquo and that the timber of the other was large and massie that certainly St. George was anciently honoured with a Temple by the magnificence of which we may coniecture at the â—ame and credit of the Saint These Churches were in times succeeding made by D. Godfrie and the Christians of the West a Bishops see both Cities and the villages adioyning appointed for his diocesse Primitias laborum suorum cum omni devotione egregio Martyri dedicantes those Noble princes so consecrating the first fruites of their victories to our glorious Martyr The first Byshop of them was a Norman of the Diocesse of Roan his title Byshop of St. GEORGE'S of which see more in our second Chapter of this second Part ¶ 4. The second Church of note erected in Saint GEORGE'S honour which I have met with hitherto was founded by Sidonius Archbyshop of Mentz in Germanie who flourished in the yeare 556 and after but whether in the Towne of Mentz or in some other place I am not certaine Of this Venantius Fortunatus Byshop of Poyctiers Florens doctrina sanctitate saith the Cardinall famous for piety and learning hath in his Sacra Carmina composed this Epigram He liv'd about the yeare 570. In Basilicam S. Georgij quam aedificavit Sidonius Archâ—ep Moguntinus Martyris egregij pollens micat aula Georgij Cuius in hunc mundum spargitur altus honos Carcere caede siti vinclis fame frigore flammis Confessus Christum duxit ad astracaput Qui virtute potens Orientis in axe sepultus Ecce sub Occiduo cardine praebet opem Ergo memento preces reddere vota viator Obtiner hic meritis quod petit alma fides Condidit Antistes Sidonius ista decenter Proficianâ— anima qua nova Templa suae Vpon St. GEORGE'S Church built by Sidonius Archbyshop of Mentz St. GEORGE'S glorious Temple here behold Whose noble Acts through all the world are told Who in so many severall torments tried Confess'd his Faith in CHRIST confessing died Who great in power though buried in the East Extends his wondrous graces to the West Therefore pay here thy vowes who êre thou bee Where such a Saint is neare to joyne with thee This goodly Temple did Sidonious build Vnto his Soule may it due comforts yeild 8 One Temple yet there is ancienter as I conceive than any of the three yet mention'd founded by whom I cannot tell nor in what place but specified by Pope Gregorie the first in an Epistle to Maurinianus then an Abbat with great care and in these particulars The superscription of it Gregorius Mauriniano Abbati the subject of it De Ecclesia S. Georgij restauranda touching the reparation of St. George's Church the Letter this as followeth
Temple of Hierusalem Those of Samaria and some Schismatickes of Iewrie with them had built themselves a Temple on Mount Garizim which Temple they contended before Ptolomie Philometor King of Egypt to bee more ancient and more orthodoxe than that so celebrated by the Iewes A question hereupon arising ANDRONICVS a learned and religious Iew tooke on him the defence of the true Temple as Advocate for those of Iudah against Sabbaus and Theodosius Proctors for the Samaritanes The day of hearing come and Ptolomie in presence Andronicus had licence graunted by his Adversaries first to proceed unto his proofes themselves not yet resolved so it appear'd what might bee sayd in theyr owne quarrell Hee did so and hee prooved his cause by three sorts of Arguments first from the letter of the Law then from the constant and continuall succession of the high Priests and lastly That the Kings of Asia had vouchsafed to Honour it with many costly presents and rich offerings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So farre the Storie The application of it this Wee have already verified the Cause of our St. GEORGE although not from the letter of the Law it selfe yet from the practise of the Church which is the fairest Commentarie that was ever made upon that letter and wee have proved it from the succession of so many severall Authors most of them Priests and other publicke Monuments of antiquitie which since his time the severall ages of the Church successively have given us It now remayneth that wee make mention of those Honours which have beene done unto him by the Princes of the most parts of Christendome That so there may bee nothing wanting by which Saint George may bee restored unto his Honour and his Historie asserted The issue of the former businesse was this that those of Counsell for the Schismatickes and Samaritans had nothing to reply and so the sentence was pronounced in favour of the Iewes Our method is the same our evidence as faire our proofes as pregnant and therefore wee presume of equall favour in the judgement Namque aequum reor as Tullie hath it ut qui in eadem causa fuerunt in eadem etiam essent fortuna 3 And first not to say any thing of that which hath beene sayd already or shall be sayd hereafter touching those Churches which by severall Kings and Princes have beene erected to his Honour Wee will begin with those particulars of this last ranke of proofes which come most neare it and which reflect upon him onely as a Saint Of this kinde are those many Monasteries and Houses of religious persons which have beene founded partly to his Honour and dedicated by his Name The first of which that built by Hildericus King of Lorreine or Austrasia Anno 660. founded Ad deserta loca montis Vosagi the mountainous parts of the Province of Alsatia and dedicated to the blessed Virgin the two Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul and to Saint George Fundavit ibi sayth the learned and judicious Munster Hildericus Rex Austrasiae Anno 660. monasterium Abbatiam ordinis S. Benedicti in honorem gloriosa virginis Mariae Apostolorum Petri Pauli atque S. Georgij Yet notwithstanding that such and so many blessed spirits were joyned with him in the dedication it seemeth that the greatest honour of it was conferred upon St. GEORGE the whole adioyning Countrey being call'd St. George's valley Vnde et locus ille atque vallis vo catus est vallis S. Georgij as that Author hath it Wee reade also in the same Munster of two other Monasteries of that Order entituled by his name and both in Germanie but the time of the Foundation not specified one of them built by the Lord of Degernow the other by one WILLIAM the Abbat of some other Convent of the same Order The second Monasterie which wee meete with dedicated unto Saint GEORGE is that in Venice erected as HOSPINIAN tells us by TRIBUNUS MEVIUS once Duke of that State and Cittie Anno 975. In which HOSPINIAN also and the same Booke of his wee finde Saint GEORGE'S Abbey an house of Benedictine Monkes founded about the yeare 996. by the most excellent Princesse HEDINGE Duchesse of Bavaria Anno 1005 ab Henrico secundo Steinam translatum c. Which after in the yeare 1005. was by the Emperour Henry of that name the second translated from those unpeopled Mountaines where before it was and setled in Steinberg a Towne of Suevia Another of Saint George's Abbeyes we reade of also in the same Authour founded at Ausbourg a principall Cittie of those parts of Germanie by Walter Byshop of that City anno 1142. 4 Nor did the fruitfull devotion of those times employ it selfe onely in consecrating houses of Religious persons by his name and to his memory but sometimes the Religious folke themselves were dedicated to his name and wore his livery Of this kind were St. GEORGE'S Canons an order of new Regulars founded at Venice called by the Cardinall in his Chronologie Ordo S. Georgij de Alga by Pol. Virgil Canonici D. Georgij in Alga The founder of them Laurentius Iustinianus a Venetian by birth and the first Patriarch of that City famous for long time doctrina sanctitate miraculis for learning sanctitie and miracles Borne in the yeare 1381. and at the first a Canon Regular as they use to call them in opposition to those Canons which had forgot their name and became Secular Anno 1426. made Byshop of Venice and after by Pope Nicholas the fifth created as before I said the first Patriarch of that Citie anno 1450. in which great dignity hee continued five yeares longer and than dyed By Bellarmine the institution of this order is referred ad annum 1410. when hee was yet a private man no lesse than sixteene yeares before his consecration Pol. Virgil acquaints us with the founder of these new Regulars in which the Cardinall is silent but tells us nothing of the time and addes withall that their habit is of blew or watchet Canonici D. Georgij in Alga saith he Venctijs à Laurentio Iustiniano instituti caeruleo utuntur habitu Hospinian mentioneth two latter broodes of the same name and order of which the one candidus planè est is distinguished by their white habit the other Extra monasterium atri coloris chlamydem assumit is apparelled all in blacke They are obliged to no profession Their Order I meane that founded by Iustinian was ratified by Iohn the 22 th or as Balaeus by Gregory the 12 th 5 In the next place we are to looke uppon the honours done unto our Martyr as superstitiously conceiv'd to be the Patron of the military men the fighting Saint as Mr. Purchas though little reverently calls him Reges enim in militari conflictu S. Georgium invocare solitos c. For that the greatest Princes used to call upon Saint GEORGE in
Earle of Arundell ROB. CARRE Earle of Somerset 1612. FREDERICK Prince Elector Palatine MAVRICE VAN NASSAVV Prince of Orange 1615. THOMAS ERESKIN Viscount Fenton and after Earle of Kellie WILLIAM Lord Knolles after Earle of Banburie 1616. FRANCIS MANNOVRS Earle of Rutland GEORGE VILLIERS Earle Marquise and after Duke of Buckingham ROBERT SIDNEY Viscount L'isle after Earle of Leicester 1623. IAMES Marquise Hamilton 1624. ESME STEVVARD Duke of Lennox and Earle of March CHRISTIAN Duke of Brunswicke CHARLES Of that Name the First KING OF GREAT BRITTAINE FRANCE and IRELAND Soveraigne of the most Noble Order of S t. GEORGE called commonly the Garter adorned therewith 1625. de Lorreine Duke of Chevereuze WILLIAM CECILL Earle of Salisbury IAMES HAY Earle of Carlile EDVVARD SACKVILL Earle of Dorset HENRY RICH Earle of Holland THOMAS HOVVARD Earle of Berkshire 1627. GVSTAVUS ADOLPHVS King of Swethland HENRY Van Nassaw Prince of Orange 1628. THEOPHILVS HOVVARD Earle of Suffolke 1629. WIL. COMPTON Earle of Northampton 1630. RICHARD Lord Weston Lord high Treasurer ROBERT BERTY Earle of Lindsey WILLIAM CECILL Earle of Exeter THE FELLOVVES of that most Noble Order of St. GEORGE call'd commonly the Garter according as they now are this present May Anno 1630. CHARLES King of England CHRISTIERNE King of Denmarke ADOLPHVS King of Swethland FREDERICK King of Bohemia HENRY Prince of Orange Duke of Cheureuze HENRY Earle of Northumberland EDMOND Earle of Moulgrave WILLIAM Earle of Darby IOHN Earle of Marre PHIL. Earle of Pembroke and Montgomery THOM. Earle of Arundell and Surrey ROBERT Earle of Somerset THOMAS Earle of Kelly WILLIAM Earle of Banbury FRANCIS Earle of Rutland WILLIAM Earle of Salisbury IAMES Earle of Carlile EDVVARD Earle of Dorset HENRY Earle of Holland THOMAS Earle of Berkshire THEOPHILVS Earle of Suffolke WILLIAM Earle of Northampton RICHARD Lord Weston of Neyland ROBERT Earle of Lindsey WILLIAM Earle of Exeter Iamque opus exegi Thus have I as I hope made good that which at first I undertooke so to assert the Historie of this most blessed Saint and Martyr that neither we become ashamed of Saint GEORGE nor he of us In which though sometimes upon just and necessary causes I have tooke liberty to digresse a litle yet in the generall I have conform'd my selfe to the rule of Plinie and kept my selfe unto my title In the first part wee have removed those imputations which were cast upon this Storie by the practises of Heretickes and follies of the Legendaries We have given also satisfaction to those doubts and arguments which in these latter ages have beene made against Saint George and that so throughly and point per point as the saâ—ing is that I perswade my selfe there is not anything unsatisfied which may give occasion to reply If any man too passionately affected to mens names and persons shall waiâ—e the cause in hand to take upon him the defence of those whose judgements herein are rejected such I must first enforme that I respect and reverence those famous Writers which have thought the contrary as much as any that I have those excellent copies of themselves which they have left behind them in as high esteeme as any hee that most adores them Onely I must conceive my selfe to bee a Free-man oblig'd to no mans judgement nor sworne to any mans opinion of what eminent ranke soever but left at liberty to search the way of truth and trace the foote-steps of antiquitie from which I would not gladly swerve Which protestation first premised I will bee bold to use Saint Hieromes words unto his Reader Quaeso Lector ut memor tribunalis Domini c. nec mihi nec Adversarijs meis faveas neve personas loquentium sed causam consideres The second Part of this discourse containes the formall justification of Saint GEORGE'S Historie considered in it selfe so farre forth as it hath beene commended to us in the best Authors In that we have confirmed it first by the testimony of such Writers of good qualitie which have unanimously concurr'd in it and those both of the Greeke Church and of the Latine both Protestants and Papists In the next place we had recourse unto the practice of the Church Catholicke which hath abundantly express'd her good opinion of him in giving him such speciall place in her publike Martyrologies and in her ordinarie Service in taking such a tender care of his precious Reliques and consecrating by his name so many goodly and magnificent Temples To this wee have adjoyn'd the publike honours done unto him by the greatest Princes and Republicks in the Christian world Not onely in erecting Monasteries to his name and memory and instituting Orders of Religious persons to his honour but as the times then were in making him the tutelarie Saint of their Men of Warre the speciall Patron of their estates and military Orders also and not so onely but the Guardian of the distressed affaires of Christianitie In the last place wee haue particularly related the honours done unto him heere in England as generally in calling Churches by his name in making him the Patron of this most noble Kingdome in leaving him his place in our publike Calendars and forcing the wilde Irish to call upon him in their battailes so more especially in dedicating to him that most Heroicke Order of Saint GEORGE called commonly the Garter Such honours and of such high esteeme as might have beene of force to make an English-man suspend his censure of him and to forbeare to second any quarrels raised against him had not Saint AVSTIN truely noted this to bee a quality of Errour that whatsoever likes not us wee would not gladly should bee pleasing unto any others Hoc est error is proprium saith hee ut quod cuique displicet id quoqne existimet oportere displicere alijs What hath beene done by mee in the contexture and composition of the whole I leave to bee determined by all learned and Religious men who shall happe to reade it to whose judicious censure next under his most sacred Majestie and this most excellent Church whereof I am I willingly submit my selfe and my performance For my part I resolve of it with the Author of the Macchabees with whose submission of himselfe I conclude this Treatise Ego quoque in his faciam finem sermonis Et si quidem benè ut Historiae competit hoc ipse velim sin autem minus dignè concedendum est mihi If I have done well and as is fitting the Storie it is that which I desired but if slenderly and meanely it is that which I could attaine unto And heere shall be an end FINIS LONDON Printed by B.A. and T. F. for Henry Seile at the Tygers-head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1631. Lib. 11. Cap 4. Epigr. l. 5.10 Ethicâ— l. 1. c. 4. â—th lib. 1. Cap. 6 Tat. de Mor. Germ. V. Chap. 3 §. 6. De Script Eccles. In Chronol L. 4. ad Pag. 131 Pag. 251. b. De Tradend discipl
are the principall SYLLABVS CAPITVM PART I. The Preface 1 THe nature of Curiositie 2 And pronenesse of the present Age to new fancies 3 The opening of the cause in hand 4 The Reasons which induced the Author to undertake the Patronage of St. George's Cause and Historie 5 His resolution in it and the manner of his proceeding 6 The method of the whole 7 The Authors free submission of himselfe and his performance to the wise and learned CHAP. I. 1. Three kindes of Imposture 2. The first Author of Scholasticall or fabulous Hiâ—â—â—rie 3. The three ages of the Church in these later times 4. Iacobus de Voragine the Author of the Golden Legend his time and qualitie 5. His fiction of St. George's killing of the Dragon 6. The remainder of that Legend continued out of Ovid. 7. The fable of St. George's Birth in England 8. Poetically countenanced by Edm. Spencer 9. The Legend of the Dragon reiected by the learned Romanists 10. Defended by Geo. Wicelius 11. The Scene thereof removed from Africke into Asia CHAP. II. 1. Of Heretickes and their Originall 2. Their early practices to corrupt the Gospell 3. Their arts to countenance their cause 4. Their plots discovered and condemned by Councels and by Fathers 5. The iniurie done by Heretickes vnto the History of St. George 6. St. Athanasius accused for Magick by the Arians 7. Of Alexandra Diocletians wife in the Arian Legend 8. The indiscretion of some Church-Historians in their choyce of Argument CHAH. III. 1. A proposition of the two contrary opinions 2. Calvin the first that ever bid defiance to St. George 3. Melanchthon misreported by the Papists 4. Calvins opinion in it by whom seconded 5. Saint George by whom first made an Arian Byshop 6. The principall abettours of this last opinion 7. No enemie more dangerous to the Truth than a great mans errour 8. An examination of the Arguments drawne from the Canon of P. Gelasius 9. And the Authority of Cardinall Baronius CHAP. IIII. 1. A coniecture at those reasons which may make the History of St. George suspected 2. The Church of Rome too prodigall in bestowing Divine honours 3. False Saints no preiudice vnto the true 4. The lives of Saints how fabulously and vainely written 5. What might induce the Church-Historians to that veine of writing 6. The vndertaking of Aloysius Lippomanus how well performed 7. The inter-mixture of vaine Fables no preiudice to truth of Story 8. Of Arthur Guy of Warwicke and Sir Bevis 9. Haereticall dreames and practices not able to beare downe the truth 10. An application of the whole vnto St. George CHAP. V. 1 Vndoubted truths the ground of fabulous reports 2 The priviledge of two French Churches and the Fables thence arising 3 The Barons case of Gascoygne 4 St. George's killing of the Dragon how â—arre it may be iustified 5 The Portraiture of Constantine 6 The Order of the Dragon and of St. Michael 7 St. George how pictured commonly and what it signifieth 8 The memorable story of St. George's his Horse 9 The picture of St. George how made a Fable and by whom 10 The entertainment of it in the Church of Rome 11 The Reformation of the Missall 12 A finall answere to all those on the part of Calvin CHAP. VI. 1 The whole story of George the Arian Byshop 2 George Byshop of Alexandria not proved by Doctor Reynolds to be a Cappadocian 3 The Cappadocians infamous for their lewdnesse 4 The life of George before he was appointed Byshop 5 His Butcherly behaviour in that holy Dignity 6 Degraded in the Councels of Sardica and Seleucia 7 An 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Drusius in making George the Laodicean to be the same with him of Alexandria 8 The strange effects of fancie and preconceipt 9 George's returne to Alexandria and the manner of his death 10 George Byshop of Alexandria never reputed for a Martyr 11 Shreds of the Arrian Legend by whom patch'd on vpon St. George's Cloake 12 Sr. W. Raleighs resolution in received opinions 13 A transition to the examination of Witnesses on St. George's side The second Part. CHAP. I. 1 THe Name and Etymologie of GEORGE 2 The Story of St. George by Metaphrastes 3 The time of that Author and the reason of his name 4 The opinion of him in the Greeke-Church 5 This Metaphrastes not the same with Simeon the Schoole-master 6 The Country Parentage and first fortunes of St. George 7 The State of the Roman Empire at that time and Persecution then beginning 8 The speech of George vnto the tyrants his torments and his death 9 The manner of his death according to Frier Anselme and the English Storie 10 Fabulous histories of that nature of what profit to the reader 11 A reiection of the residue in Metaphrastes 12 Arguments Ab autoritate negative of what credit in the Schooles CHAP. II. 1 Magnentius mentioned in the former Storie what hee was 2 Vestem exuere militarem the meaning of it and when vsed 3 Lydda the Scene of this great action now called St. George's 4 Malmesbury reconciled with other Authors 5 No executions permitted by the Ancients within their Cities 6 The former Story iustified most of it by Eusebius 7 St. Ambrose testimony of St. George how certaine to be his 8 The time and Canon of P. Gelasius 9 The Story of St. George why reckoned as Apocryphall 10 The meaning of Gelasius not to explode the Martyr with his Hystorie 11 The Arrian George not likely in so small a tract of time to be reputed as a Martyr 12 A Catalogue of the Authors cyted in this booke which haue made honourable mention of Saint George as also of those Princes Peeres and Prelates which haue done him honour digested in their times and ages CHAP. III. 1 The state of learning in the Church divided into two naturall dayes 2 The time and learning of Venerable Bede 3 His testimonies of St. George 4 Of Dacianus King of Persia and who he was 5 Persia taken in some Authors for the Easterne Countries 6 A reconcilement of the other doubts touching this Dacianus 7 The Martyrologies of Vsuardus Rabanus Maurus and Notgerus 8 St. George how said to haue converted many people 9 The witnesse of Vincentius Iacobus and Antoninus Florent 10 Nicephorus Callistus and his evidence 11 The suffrage of Sabellicus Schedell Bergomensis and Volaterran 12 Of the Magdeburgians and some other Protestant Divines 13 A recollection and application of the whole proofes CHAP. IIII. 1 Foure seuerall wayes used by the Church to keepe aliue the memory of the Martyrs 2 The way of Martyrologies how ancient 3 The Roman Martyrologie and what it testifieth of St. George 4 Natale what it is in the construction of the Church 5 The testimonie given vnto St. George in the Greeke Church 6 St. George why called Tropaeophorus 7 Commemoration of the Dead how vsed in the Church primitive 8 The depravation of the ancient vse of it in the Church of Rome
9 The publike service of that Church on St. Georges day 10 Arguments drawne from the Church service of what validitie 11 Saint George continually famous in the Church Christian. 12 And among the Turkes CHAP. V. 1 The honour done vnto the Dead in the decent buriall of their bodies 2 The reliques of the Saints of what esteeme in the Church primitive 3 The care of Gregorie of Tours to preserve his writings and what he testifieth of St. George's reliques 4 What mention there is made of them in Aymonius and others 5 Churches distinguished anciently by the names of Saints and for what reason 6 St. George's Churches in Lydda and in Ramula made afterwards a Byshops Seate 7 St. George's Church built by Sidonius Archbyshop of Mentz 8 That mention'd in St. Gregories Epistles 9 St. George's Church in Rome the title of a Cardinall 10 Churches erected to St. George in Alexandria and elsewhere 11 Of Faustus Rhegiensis 12 And the Pseudo-Martyr in Sulpitius 13 An application of the rule in Lerinensis vnto the businesse now in hand CHAP. VI. 1 St. George how hee became to bee accounted the chiefe Saint of Souldiers 2 St. George when first esteemed a chiefe Patron of Christianity 3 The expedition of the Westerne Princes to the Holy Land 4 The Storie of the succours brought unto their Army by St. George 5 Second apparition to them at the Leaguer of Hierusalem 6 The probability of the former myracle disputed 8 An essay of the famous battaile of Antiochia by way of Poem CHAP. VII 1 The honours done by Kings to others of what reckoning 2 Arguments used by the Iewes in the defence of their Temple of Hierusalem 3 Of Monasteries dedicated to St. George 4 St. George's Canons a Religious order 5 St. George by what Kings honoured anciently as a chiefe Saint of Soldierie 6 The military Order of St. George in Austria 7 The German or Dutch Order call'd Sanct Georgen Schilts 8 St. George's banke in Genoa 9 And his band in Italie 10 The Georgians why so called and of the honour done by them to our Martyr 11 A view of severall places denominated of St. George 12 A recollection of the Arguments before used in the present businesse CHAP. VIII 1 St. George not anciently esteemed the Patron of the English 2 Churches erected to him here in England 3 His apparition to King Richard in the Holy Land 4 What may bee thought in generall touching the apparition of the Saints 5 And what in this particular 6 St. George when he began to be entituled particularly to the English 7 The honours done him here and among the Irish. 8 The institution of the Noble Order of the Garter 9 A briefe view of the chiefe Statutes of the Order 10 St. George the Patron of it 11 Sr. W. Raleighs opinion touching the killing of the Dragon 12 And of them also which desire to haue the George Symbolicall 13 A Catalogue of all St. George's Knights of that most noble Order vntill this present 14 The Conclusion of the whole THE HISTORIE OF That most famous Saint and Soldier of CHRIST IESUS S t. GEORGE of CAPPADOCIA Asserted from the Fictions of the middle Ages of the Church and opposition of the present THE PREFACE 1 The natur◠of Curiositie 2 And pronenesse of the present Age to new fancies 3 The opening of the cause in hand 4 The Reasons which induced the Author to vndertake the Patronage of St. George's Cause and Historie 5 His resolution in it and the manner of his proceeding 6 The method of the whole 7 The Authors free submission of himselfe and his performance to the wise and learned 1 IT is a sad Complaint of Melchior Canus that many of us in this more neate and curious Age doe peevishly to say no worse reject those ancient Stories which are commended to us in the best and gravest Authors Plerique nostra hac aetate perversè ne dicam impudenter res quas esse gestas gravissimi autores testati sunt in dubium vocant So hee and certainly he spake it not at randome but as a man which well fore-saw to what extremities that restlesse humour of leaving nothing undiscussed and not so onely but leaving nothing in the state wee found it at the last would bring us For such the nature is of Curiositie especially if once attended with Selfe-love and that vnquiet spirit of Opposition that wee are alwayes watchfull to prie into the passages of former Times and Authors and leaue no path vntroden how crooked and indirect soever which may conduce to the advancement eyther of our cause or credit By meanes whereof as sometimes happily wee doe good service to the Common-wealth of Learning in the correcting of an Errour so for the most part wee involue it in uncertainties or broach new errours vnder a pretence of canvassing the Old or by denying credit to Antiquitie we onely teach posteritie how litle credit may be due vnto our selves 2 I say not this to blunt the edge of any vertuous endeavours nor to the prejudice of those heroicke spirits by whom so many of the ancient Writers which had beene buried in their owne dust and made a prey to moathes and cobwebs have beene restor'd vnto themselues Ill may I prosper in my Studies if I deny the least of due respects to them to whose most fortunate and painfull travailes wee owe no lesse than to the Authors Nor would I gladly be esteem'd a Patron eyther of lazie ignorance or of dull credulitie nor willingly bee thought to countenance those of the vulgar Heard who runne into receiv'd opinions as Calderinus in Ludovic Vives did to Masse Eamus ergo said he quia sic placet in communes errores Not so I know it argue's a degenerous and ignoble mind barely and simply to submit it selfe unto the tyrannie of popular fames or old traditions not daring once to search into them to see at least some shew of reason in our bondage Much like those noble Housekeepers so much commended in the Country who rather choose to haue their judgements question'd in giving entertainment vnto all than that their Hospitalitie should bee accused in excluding any Onely I said it a litle to take downe if possible that height of selfe-conceit and stomacke wherewith too many of vs doe affront those Worthies of the former dayes and set our selves against our Fathers Which humour if it once possesse vs in spight of him that told vs nihil novum est sub sole without regard of him that said it quia vetus est melius we must have every thing as new and moderne as our selves new Organons for Logicke new modells of Divinity scarce any thing which hath beene hitherto resolv'd eyther in Philologicall Theologie or in Philosophie no not in Ecclesiasticall or civill History not new not altered The tendries and decisions of our Ancestours growne as unfashionable as their garments and if we please our selves in any thing it must be somewhat which
tainted the Hereticks inserting such passages into their Histories as might perswade the world to thinke them of their party the others labouring so to describe their lives and passions as might procure unto their shrines a greater measure of Devotion and attendance The one of these an effect onely of a superstitious Piety the other a designe of a malicious cunning 2 And first beginning with the Legendaries which of these two Impostors are the last in time and least in danger they tooke beginning from one Peter sirnamed Comestor the Author as his friends doe stile him and as himselfe inscribe's his worke of the Scholasticall Historie But they which looke upon his Writings with the eye of judgment and not of blind Affection have thought it fitter to bestow upon him that Character which I haue somewhere read of Herodotus and to intitle him Fabulosae Historiae Patrem the Father and Originall of all those fabulous Tales and Legends which at this day are so frequent in the Roman Church Sure I am that Bellarmine hath given him this Censure that he inserted into the sacred Stories of the Bible many things out of vulgar glosses and prophane Authors not rarely mingling with it uncertaine and unprofitable Fables Scripsit autem saith he inserens verbis sacris multa ex glossis ex prophanis Auctoribus non rarò admiscens incertas Historias He liv'd and writ about the yeare 1150. which Age with that that followed may most deservedly be intituled Fabulous 3 For as the learned Varro call'd the first Ages of the world before the Floud conceive it of Deucalion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 obscure because of the ignorance thereof and those which were before the first Olympiad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fabulous because of those so frequent Fables of the Gods and Goddesses in them delivered but those that next succeeded them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Historicall the writings of it beginning now to be worthy credit so is it also in these latter Ages of the Church There was a time which Bellarmine doth call Infelix seculum a time of ignorance and darknesse which lasted from the yeare 900. unto the yeare 1100. or thereabouts There also was a time which wee may properly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Fabulous delighted only in the myracles apparitions of the Saints with other matters of that nature the fruits of superstitious fancies And last of all when learning was reviv'd by Petrarch and his endeavours seconded by Fl. Blondus Aeneas Sylvius Picus Mirandula and others of that time and Country the Church may justly stile her Acts and Monuments Historicall and true the knowledge of the present times having expell'd the ignorance of the first Ages and discovered the fabulous vanities of the other 4 Not to search further in this Argument let it suffice that we have found the first Father of the Legendaries in the Westerne Churches nor is it to be doubted but that he had a fruitfull issue in an age so prone to Superstition Of these the man of greatest Fame was Iames Archbishop of Genoa in Italie a native of that Country his surname De Voragine so call'd in the opinion of Helvicus quasi Vorago esset Bibliorum propter crebras allegationes because he was so great a Student in the Holy Scriptures so frequent in quotations Philippus Bergomensis and Possevin since him will rather have it to bee de Viragine a litle Village in the territorie of Genoa the place of his Nativity Oraeus in his Nomenclator placeth him ad Annum 1278. Helvicus in the yeere 1280. And Bergoâ—mensis ten yeeres after Anno 1290. None of them differing from the truth though from themselves The last of these give 's him the commendation both of Eloquence and Learning and Vossius makes him in his worke de Latinis Historicis to be the first Translatour of the Bible into the Italian language His workes were many and of good opinion in the Church but none of equall credit with the Historie which he collected of the lives of Saints Himselfe intituleth it Historia Lombardica call'd by the people for the excellency thereof as it was then conceiv'd the Golden Legend A booke in the esteeme and judgment of those times of high desert how ever now the learned Papists haue rejected it with shame inough There is saith Master Harding in his Detection an old Moathe-eaten booke wherin Saints lives are said to be contein'd certaine it is that among some true stories are many vaine fables written And Lud. Vives give 's him this censure for a farewell that he was homo ferrei oris plumbei Cordis some also adde Animi certè parùm prudentis severi a man of litlewit and lesse judgment a leaden heart and a brazen forehead 6 Of him and of his Legend more hereafter and for the present let us looke upon him in his so memorated Storie of St. George and of thâ— Dragon He begins it thus Georgius Tribunus genere Cappadox pervenit quadam vice in Provinciam Lybiae in civitatem quae dicitur Silena iuxta quam Civitatens erat stagnum instar Maris in quo Draco pestifer latitabat flatuque suo ad muros civitatis accedens omnes inficiebat quapropter compulsi cives duas oves quotidiè ' sibi dabant ut eius furorem sedarent Cum ergo iam oves pene deficerent inito consilio ovem cum adiuncto homine tribuebant Cum igitur sorte omnium filij filiae consumpti essent quadam vice filia Regis unica sorte est deprehensa Draconi adiudicata c. Once on a time for so wee will begin it St. George of Cappadocia a Colonell or a Tribune of the Soldiers at that time came to the Country of Lybia and to the Citie of Sisena A City as Don Quixote said of his Kingdome errant that is not to bee found in all the Map Neere to this Towne there whs a Lake as big as any Sea God blesse us and in that Lake a deadly Dragon which with his breath did poyson all the Country round about him and therefore the poore people were compell'd God helpe em to give him every day two sheepe to keepe him quiet At last when all their sheepe were spent alas poore people they were compell'd to give him every day one sheepe and one man or one woman with it to make up the number And then when almost all their Sonnes and Daughters had beene eaten at length the cruell and unlucky lot fell upon the Kings Daughter her Fathers onely Child and her mothers blessing It was a sorry house I warrant you but who could helpe it the poore Lady was drawne forth into the Fields and stript of all her gay attire and bound unto a stake and ready for the foule Feind that was to eate her c. 6 So farre the Storie or the Tale rather in the Legend the rest of it for the more variety we will make bold
which that Church could possibly usurpe if at the least their opposition which they made against their Prince might seeme to tend to the advancement of Ecclesiasticall liberty Of which strange ranke of Saints not to name Anselme Dunstan or the rest before them was that stout Rebell Becket in the former times Clement that kill'd the King of France and Garnet of the Powder-plot both Sainted though not solemnely in the present Nor was the Church of Rome excessive onely in this kinde to such as might pleade merit in the Catholicke cause forsooth but euen to those of whose existence any time upon the earth there is not any the least ground or possibility Witnesse St. Longesse or Longinus the name as they perswade us of that Soldier that pierced our Saviours side which is indeed not any thing but a very Speare in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 composed into a name And next to him St. Loy the Patron if you please of Cattaile which is indeed onely two nayles the name derived from the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 two of those nayles conceiv'd to have beene used about our Saviours crucifying 3 All this we grant and this is nothing to the prejudice of our St. George The Popes have beene too prodigall in bestowing that divine and heavenly title What then Therefore shall they which were exalted to that honour in the common suffrage of the Church before the Popes usurped this power bee presently degraded This were no equitie Farre be it from us to doe after this manner to slay the righteous with the wicked and that the righteous should be as the wicked that be I say farre from us This was the Argument of Abraham in the behalfe of those few good and godly men which were in Sodom and such an argument it was that God Almighty could not I will not say but sure I am he did not answere but by yeeelding to it Hector Boetius and the Author of the Brittish Historie have made a Catalogue of divers Kings which I perswade my selfe had never any beeing unlesse in their conceits that made them and yet it cannot be denyed but there are many passages in both those stories worthy credit and many Kings whose acts and beings are not question'd It was an Heavenly Iustice in Almighty God not to destroy the righteous with the wicked but to be willing to reprieve that great and populous City of Sodom from destruction for the sake onely of ten just and vertuous persons How unjust therefore were our judgment onely because of some few Larva's counterfeit Saints as we may call them to prejudice so many of the true and reall as curiosity or spleene may call in question 4 A second circumstance which makes the storie of St George suspected is that his life hath in it many vaine and grosse absurdities and some such actions father'd on him as might farre better in appearance sort with a Saint in Ovid than in the credit and beleefe of holy Church An accusation which we will not plead to unlesse in saying guiltie nor will the learned Papists traverse the enditement So that wee have on all parts confitentem reum a plaine confession of the fact The learned and judicious Vives plainely tels us with what great griefe and sorrow hee did commonly complaine unto himselfe when he considered with what care and faithfulnesse the acts of Hanibal and Alexander were committed to posterity At verò Apostolorum Martyrum denique Divorum nostrae religionis maximis tenebris fere ignorari When in the meane time the Acts of the Apostles understand those written by Abdias Babylonius those also of the Martyrs and other Saints acknowledg'd in the Christian Church were even quite lost amidst the darke and cloudy fogs of ignorant Superstition Much also to this purpose the Complaint of Melchior Canus an honest man as I conjecture if ever any was of the Dominicks Order Dolenter hoe dico multo severius à Laertio vitas Philosophorum Scriptas quà m à Christianis vitas Sanctorum longeque in corruptius integrius Sueto nium res Caesarum exposuisse quam exposuerint Catholici non res dico Imperatorum sed Martyrum Virginum Confessorum I speake it to my griefe saith he that the Philosophers have had their lives more perfectly digested by Laertius than the Saints theirs by Christians and that Suetonius hath recorded the lives and actions of the Caesars with more integritie than wee have put in writing I say not those of Princes but even of Martyrs Confessours aâ—d sacred Virgins Nor doth he stop here but tells us presently of those fabulous and idle writers Ecclesiae Christi cùm nihil vtilitatis attulisse tum incommodationis plurimum That they not onely brought no profit to the Church but a full measure of discredit A thing which might be easily exemplified in their St. Christopher St. Dennis Hippolitus the Martyr whom before we spoke of and in whom not that ever fell into the hands of any of the Legends but what need further proofe when we have confession 5 Three things there were which might induce the writers of these darke and superstitious times to prosecute this veine of writing not to say any thing of that which is objected commonly viz. that they intended onely aut quaestum aut erroreÌ„ eyther their owne profit or the peoples ignorance Of these the first might be a purpose pious in the opinion of that age by setting out the Histories of the Saints with fained myracles and wonders which they never did to gaine unto their shrines more multitudes of people and a greater credit and perhaps a noble emulation And this in imitation of those ancient Heroes among the Gentiles who therefore did derive their pedigree from Heaven that so they might more constantly bee prompted to Heroicke undertakings Vt eo modus animus humanus veluti divinae stirpis fiduciam gerens res magnas aggrediendas praesumat audacius c. As St. Austin hath it out of Varro Posses'd with which conceit they so composed the lives and actions of the Saints as Xenophon his Cyrus or as Virgil his Aeneas though somewhat more incongruously not so much writing what they did as what they thought most proper for such Saints to doe and what they wish'd were done Nam quae de Sanctis Scripta sunt praeter pauca quaedam multis foedat a sunt commentis dum qui scribit affectui suo indulget non quae egit Divus sed quae ille egisse eum vellet exponit c So Vives in the place before alleaged The second was a kinde of indiscretion in the choyce of argument while such as onely medled in the Histories of the Church chose rather to collect together what ever fables or prodigious Acts had beene reported than that they would be thought to leave out any thing which they had met with in discourse or reading This we haue touch'd at once already nor will I more
our Bill reserving all the rest as seconds to make good his assertions I know we might with greater glory and more seeming shew of Antiquity haue cast this burthen upon him that calls himselfe Saint George's servant Pasicrates by name the first which did commit to writing the Death and Actions of St. George and one if such a one there was which might relate the Storie with most assurance as being alwayes with him even unto his suffering But since the credit of Pasicrates and of the storie written by him dependeth onely on the word of Metaphrastes who ascribes it to him We may as well immediatly report it out of Metaphrastes in whom there is not any thing omitted worth our reading which is found extant in the other Of whom and of the time in which hee liv'd and that opinion which he carrieth in the world wee will speake a little because we have made choyce of him to declare first for us and it concernes us not to have our businesse opened by a man suspected by one of no esteeme and credit with the learned When that is done we will not beg you to beleeve him any further than in Sir Walter Raleigh's judgement we may give credit unto Annius and his Authors namely so farre as others writing on the same Argument concurre with him and justifie his words as warrantable and historicall 3 And first the Age in which hee lived is diuersly reported Bellarmine on the credit of Baronius hath placed him in the middle of the ninth Centurie Iohn Vossius in his Booke De Gr. Historicis hath ranked him in the yeare 1060 Oraeus Volaterran our learned Iewell and Helvicus make him a babe of yesterday a writer of the fourteenth Centurie no older Of this last computation more hereafter the other two being the worst of them more probable than this though but one true These two both built upon the same ground the time of Michael Psellus and therefore if wee can resolve upon his time wee have found the other By Bellarmine it is affirm'd that Psellus was alive anno 850. Michael the third together with his Mother Theodora then ruling in the East which Psellus made a funerall Oration in the praise of Metaphrastes This last acknowledg'd to bee true by Vossius but then he tells us and that upon the credit of Cedrenus that Michael Psellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Author calls him was Tutor unto Constantinus Ducas who began his Empire in the yeare 1061. But in the sifting of the businesse it may perhaps appeare that Vossius is not ledde to this by any argument more than his owne opinion Non negare possum saith hee ijs temporibus viz. sub Mich. 3. vixisse quendam Michael Psellum nam id apertè testatur Iohannes Curopalates sed nego istum nobilem illum esse Philosophum cuius permulta hodieque supersunt He cannot choose but grant that Michael Psellus flourished in the time of Michael and Theodora but that this was the Michael Psellus whose writings are still extant this he denieth So then it being so farre granted that Michael Psellus was aliue according to the time assigned by Bellarmine we will according to that computation resolve of Sim. Metaphrastes that he flourished in the ninth Centurie When we see better reason to inforce the contrary wee shall not thinke it any shame to alter our opinion As for the name of Metaphrastes it was given our Author in reference unto a worke of his touching the Lives of Saints and Martyrs which lives he had collected with indefatigable industry out of severall Authors himselfe retayning the sense and matter of them but otherwise delivering the Stories in wordes more proper and expressive So witnesâ—eth Aloysius Lippomanus in his Preface Ideòque Metaphrastae nomen fuisse adeptum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enim Graecè Latinè est Scripturam aliquam dilucidioribus verbis sensu tamen materia retentis interpretari 4 This worke thus brought together became of good esteeme and credit in the Easterne parts the reputation of the Writer and the opinion had of his good performance in that kind coÌ„curring both together to further the admission of it in their Churches For of the man himselfe it is affirm'd by Lippomanus that by the Grecians hee is honour'd as a Saint the 27. of November being assign'd him for his Feast-day Psellus a man of speciall qualitie himselfe hath played the Panegyrist in his commendation and therein added to the fame of Metaphrastes Adeò bonum est laudari à laudato viro And not he onely but all the Fathers of the great Councell of Florence the greatest in the later Ages of the Church have magnified his Name and extoll'd his Learning For vouching him and his authority in that great point De filioque then debated hee is summon'd thus Imprimis ergo Sim. Metaphrastes vestris in Ecclesijs celebarrimus accedat c. Sess. 7. But what need more bee sayd than that of Theod. Balsamon in his Commentaries on the Canons of the sixt Synod For there was great complaint made in that Councell how hideously the lives of Saints were falsified by Heretickes which 63. Canon together with the resolution of the Fathers wee have recited in the second Chapter of the former part of this Discourse Hereupon Balsamon takes occasion to congratulate the felicity of the Church in those latter times and to commend withall the paines and excellent performance of our Author in that Argument Magna itaque B. Metaphrastae agenda est gratia qui martyricas pro veritate fossas non sine multis laboribus sudoribus repurgavit exornavit ad Dei laudem S. Martyrum perennem gloriam So hee or rather his Translatour for I have not the originall now by me 5 Bellarmine giveth this note of him and the note is good Videri aliquas historias Sanctorum additas à posterioribus That many Histories were added to the worke of Metaphrastes by some of lesser standing those namely which were added to the Catalogue of Saints after the death of the first Author Which note of his together with the testimonies of Balsamon and Psellus doe most abundantly refell their errour which make him such a Puisné and in part also satisfie it The first of those that did disparage thus our Author Raphael Volaterran and in him wee reade it thus Simeon Constantinopolitanus ludi magister circiter annos abhinc 200. composuit Graecè Metaphrastas Id est Sanctorum vitas quae singulis mensibus proprie leguntur habenturque in Bibliotheca Vaticana I thus translate it in the wordes of Byshop Iewell This Simeon Metaphrastes whom Mr. Harding calleth a greeke Writer was a poore Schoole-master in Constantinople and wrote Saints lives which may well be called The Legend of lyes and lived Two hundred yeares agoe and not above Thus hath Helvicus placed his Simeon Constantinopolitanus in the yeare 1306. which was two
hundred yeares exactly before the time of Volaterran And so Oraeus in his Nomenclator Simeon Metaphrastes Constantinopolitanus scripsit de vitis Sanctorum Sec. 14. So they but this can nothing prejudice our Simeon Metaphrastes extoll'd so highly by Michael Psellus who liv'd in their account which speake the least Anno 1060. so highly praised by Balsamon who wrote about the yeare 1191. above an hundred yeares before this Scoole-master was talked of Likely it is this Schoole-master might adde those Lives unto the worke of Metaphrastes which by the Cardinall are noted to bee of later date and a lesse standing And this I thinke the rather because Nicephorus who liv'd then with this Schoole-master if such there was hath told vs touching Simeon Stylites the latter of that name how that one Simeon Magister Some Schoole-master perhappes had written of him but not so learnedly as the occasion did require Ea huc vsque de Sim. viz. Stylite sermone omnium celebrantur à Simeone Magistro quanquam non ita doctè ut magnitudo rerum postulavit conscripta But be he what he will and even as ignorant as a Pedant may be in nature it is no matter certaine I am hee cannot be that Metaphrastes so much fam'd by Psellus Balsamon and a whole Councell not that whom wee haue chosen to report the storie of St. George and is now readie to relate it 6 Of Metaphrastes hitherto We now proceed unto the storie which hee tell 's vs thus Georgius in Cappadocia non obscuro loco e Christianis parentibus natus in vera pietate iam inde educatus fuerat Hic cum ad pubertatem nondum pervenisset patrem in certamine pietatis egregis pugnantem amisit è Cappadociaque cum matre in Palestinam vnde erat oriunda se contulit vbi multae illi possessiones et ingens erat haereditas Ob generis igitur nobilitatem cum iam et corporis pulchritudine et aetate ad militiam aptus esset Tribunus militum est constitutus Quo quidem in munere cum virtutem suam in bellicis certaminibus séque strenum militem ostendisset Comes à Diocletiano constitutus est antequà m christianus esse cognosceretur Cum autem eo tempore mater é vita discessisset maioris cupidus dignitatis maximam e divitijs sibi relictis partem accipit et ad Imperatorem profectus est Tunc annum vicessimum aetatis annum impleverat So farre the words of Metaphrastes which I haue therefore here put downe at large because it is the ground worke of the whole businesse I translate it thus St. George was borne in Cappadocia of Christian parents and those not of the meanest qualitie by whom he was brought up in true Religion and the feare of God Hee was no sooner past his Childhood but hee lost his father brauely encountring with the enemies of Christ and thereupon departed with his afflicted Mother into Palestine whereof she was a native and where great fortunes and a faire inheritance did fall unto him Thus qualified in birth and being also of an able bodie and of an age fit for employment in the warres hee was made a Colonell In which employment hee gaue such testimonies of his valour and behav'd himselfe so nobly that forthwith Dioclesian not knowing yet that he was a Christian advanc'd him to the place and dignitie of his Councell for the warres for so on good authoritie I have made bold to render Comes in this place and time About this time his Mother dyed and hee augmenting the heroicke resolutions of his mind with the increase of his revenue did presently applie himselfe vnto the Court and service of his Prince his twentieth yeere being even then compleat and ended This is the first part of St. Georges historie according unto Metaphrastes In affirmation of the which I will adde onely for the present a rowle or catalogue of such which make St. George to bee by birth a Cappadocian which is the thing first doubted As viz. The Martyrologie of the Greeke Church Vincentius Bellovacensis Nicephorus Callistus Iacobus de Voragine The Breviarie of the English Church See Vsum Sarum Edward the third of England in his Charter of the Foundation of the Church in Windsore Antoninus Florentinus Hermannus Schedell Phil. Bergomensis Ralph Volaterran the Magdeburgians and Oraeus twelve honest men besides their fore-man and true most of them besides all those of the Romish partie also which are peremptorie in it The severall places and the words therein alleaged unto this purpose we shall see hereafter Which being so I cannot choose but wonder at the boldnesse of one Fryer Anselme of the Order of St. Francis who makes St. GEORGE a Native of Palestine or Syria and tells us that the house in which he was borne is still standing and call'd commonly S t. GEORGES De Acon versus orientem these are his words ad quinque Leucas occurrit Casale quoddam quod S. Georgius dicitur quia ibi natus fuit situm est inter montana in Valle. But more I marvaile at Sir Walter Raleigh that on such weake and shallow grounds should so report it Five miles saith he from Ptolemais which is the same with Acon towards the East is the Castle of St. GEORGE where he was borne the Valley adjoyning bearing the same name This last indeed we grant that there is such a Valley and that it is so call'd and that there is a Castle and an Oratorie in it consecrated to our Martyr Yet this not in relation to his birth which none besides themselves have thought on but on as weake and faultie grounds his conflict with the Dragon said by the Natives to be slaine by him in this place which before we noted from PATRITIVS and ADRICOMIVS in the latter end of our first Chapter 7 Before we travaile further in the Storie of St. GEORGE we must a litle looke upon the state of the Roman Empire govern'd by Diocletian in the East and in the West by Maximinian surnamed Herculius For Diocletian beeing made Emperour by the Army upon the death of Carus and finding that the burden was too weighty for him to sustaine alone he joyn'd unto him in that honour one of his fellow-Soldiers this Maximinian reserving to himselfe the Easterne parts at that time daily wasted by the neighbouring Persians and sending his Copartner into the West where the Barbarians of the North and Westerne Marches were no lesse troublesome But things not rightly yet succeeding to their wish as well to keepe in quiet that which was peaceable as to regaine such Provinces as had beene lost they tooke unto themselves two CAESARS for so the next Successours were then called viz. Galerius Maximinianus and Constantius Chlorus Of these the latter was by his Parentage and birth of Illyricum and by AVGVSTVS MAXIMINIAN employed in Brittaine which was then revolted The other was of Dacia a neighbour by his Country unto Diocletian by whom hee was sent
together with the strange Conversion of the Empresse AREXANDRA both which before have had my blessing These intermingled with the horrible and most unsufferable torments which are there said to be applyed unto our Martyr so great so farre above the strength of nature to indure that wee must needs reject the very naming of them as things so short of Truth that in the greatest charity they may not be reputed possible And for the close of all a cheate or couzning tricke of his put by him on the Emperour whom hee perswaded after many of his torments that hee was now content to sacrifice unto the Roman Idols Which done the Church made trim the Priests in readinesse and many of the people gathered there together to behold the alteration hee calls upon the LORD and presently upon his prayers downe came a fire from Heaven by which both Temple Priests and many of the people were consumed This last accounted as an Errour or a Fable rather in the common Legends by Antoninus Florentinus who guessing at some reasons for which the passion of St. GEORGE was judged Apocryphall makes this for One Quòd Daciano dixerit for so hee calls him paratum se Sacrificare si faceret populum ad Templum congregari quo facto oratione eius igne coelesti totum Templum c. concremavit This last accounted also one of the principall excesses of this Writer in the composition of his Stories and for that noted by the Cardinall in his censure of him 11 These passages in Metaphrastes we admit not in our Storie and therefore leave the proofe thereof to such as thinke they may beleeve them But for the rest wee doubt not but to make it good by witnesses of speciall ranke and many of them of authority undeniable in points Historicall The rest I meane which is of principall moment and most necessary to the cause in hand as viz. his Countrey and Martyrdome in generall the manner of his Death the time and place of it all these wee doubt not to make good by such variety of Evidence and strength of testimony as may suffice to make the Storie free from all further question But for the greatnesse of his Parentage and Fortunes together with his Honourable place about the Emperour this wee will take upon the word of Metaphrastes untill wee finde some evidence not yet discovered which can prove the contrary Nor shall it be sufficient for any of the adverse party to say that no such circumstance may bee found in Eusebius who largely wrote the Story of that last and greatest Persecution no nor in Bede which mentions him nor in Vincentius or Antoninus both which are large inough in the expression of his History For wee know well inough that Argumenta ab authoritate negativè are shamefully exploded in the Schooles of Logicke that the argument would bee ridiculous should any one conclude that all the Silvian Kings reckoned in our Chronologies are to bee rejected because so many Writers of the history of Rome have spared to name them I know indeed in points of Faith and Morall duties wee may resolve it with the Fathers Non credimus quia non legimus and therefore I restraine my selfe to Cases of this qualitie and that no further till I see evidence of reason to convince me of an Error where proofe of testimony failes Which ground thus layd wee will proceed unto the justification of the history in METAPHRASTES so much thereof as wee have taken and is most materiall But we will first make cleare our passage in the removing of one doubt and commenting a little upon one memorable circumstance therein the better to explaine the meaning of the Author and content the Reader and having pointed out the scene of this great Action descend unto our evidence CHAP. II. 1 Magnentius mentioned in the former Storie what hee was 2 Vestem exuere militarem the meaning of it and when used 3 Lydda the Scene of this great action now called Saint George's 4 Malmesbury reconciled with other Authors 5 No executions permitted by the Ancients within their Cities 6 The former Storie justified most of it by Eusebius 7 St. Ambrose testimonie of St. George how certaine to bee his 8 The time and Canon of Pope Gelasius 9 The Storie of Saint George why reckoned as Apocryphall 10 The meaning of Gelasius not to explode the Martyr with his Historie 11 The Arian George not likely in so small a tract of time to bee reputed as a Martyr 12 A Catalogue of the Authors cyted in this Booke which have made honourable mention of Saint George as also of those Princes Peeres and Prelates which have done him Honour digested in their times and Ages 1 THree thinges there are then which are to bee dispatch'd before wee come to the producing of further Evidence on our party viz. A doubt to bee remooved a notable circumstance to bee explained and the designment of the place or scene of this great Action Of these the doubt to bee removed is that particular passage touching Magnentius said then to be a principall Favorite of DIOCLETIAN and at that time Consul and this may well be call'd a doubt because in all the Consular tables which I have searched and seene I cannot meete during the whole Empire of Diocletian a Consul of that Name But if wee can finde out the man I hope we shall agree with case inough about his being Consul and for the finding out the man wee must make two enquiries My first enquiry is whether Magnentius there mentioned might not be hee which afterwards slew Constans Sonne unto Constantine the Great and tooke unto himselfe that part of the Roman Empire which Constans then commanded To make this probable for wee aspire no further we must first understand that Diocletian when hee associated Maximinian in the Empire did take unto himselfe the name from IVPITER the other his from HERCVLES the one being thenceforth call'd Diocletianus Iovius the other Maximinianus Herculius But not content with this to make their memory in these adjuncts more eternall they rais'd two severall Companies of selected Souldiers whom they call'd Iovij Herculij Of these selected Companies Magnentius was at that time Captain or Commander Comes Herculiorum Ioviorum hee is called in the Latine storie when hee made slaughter of Prince Constans and therefore not unlikely but he may be the Favourite of Diocletian mentioned in Metaphrastes and by him rais'd unto this honour If any thing may bee objected against this it is that if Magnentius were at that time Consul when Saint George was made a Martyr eyther he had beene dead before the murther of the young Emperour Constans or else too old to undertake such enterprises Of his decease before that time I thinke there can bee nothing proov'd unlesse by way of possible conjecture And for his age allowing him for twenty anno 290. when our Martyr suffered about which age and sooner many
Both circumstances that of his buriall and this other mention'd last together in old Fryer Anselme quarto miliario à Modyn est Lydda civitas quâ— Diospolis dicitur in qua corpus B. Georgij testantur fuisse S. Georgius vulgo dicitur Shall we have more Roger de Hovenden in his Annals recyting there the names of such great personages as dyed in the Christian Campe at the seige of Ptolemais gives us among the rest three Byshops viz. Nâ—vus Episcopus de Acon Episcopus de Baruâ—h Episcopus de S. Georgio For at that time the Christians had made this Towne a Byshops Seate as we shall see heereafter 4 Onely in such a generall consent of Authors Will the Monke of Malmesbury doth seeme to differ from the rest who seemeth to make the Scene hereof to be Rama or Ramula a litle City not farre distant Ibi a dextra dimittentes maritima pervenerunt Ramulam civitatulam muro indigam B. Georgij si famae credimus martyrij consciam We came saith he leaving the Sea-shore on the right hand to a little Citty unwall'd knowne by the name of Ramula guilty if we may trust report of St. GEORGES Martyrdome And hereupon perhaps it is that Fryer Anselme who as before we noted hath made St. GEORGE to end his dayes in a burning fire hath chosen Rama for the place of ExecutioÌ„ his ashes being afterwards transferr'd sd he to Lydda there buried To reconcile w ch difference we must conceive that these two Cities were not very farre asunder and their Feilds or Territories close together so that an action done in one without great errour might be reported of the other St. MATHEVV in his holy Gospell tells us of a myracle done by our Saviour in the Country of the Gergezens whereas St. LVKE and MARKE affirme that it was the Country of the Gadarens Yet may it not be therefore thought that the Holy Spirit is at difference with it selfe God forbid nor that we should conceive the Gadarens and Gergezens to be the same which is not so But rather we must reconcile the places thus according to the truth of storie and the scituation of the Country that the two people mention'd in the Gospell were conterminous their Townes at no great distance and their fields bordering one upon another Therefore that miracle done in the fields betweene them both might without any wrong or errour bee made good of eyther 5 To make the reconciliation more exact and the case more parallell wee must also note that with the ancients there was nothing more unlawfull than to put any man to death within their Cities Thus in the state of Rome the Vestall Virgin having committed fornication was buried quicke within the Campus Sceleratus and other malefactors throwne headlong from the Tarpeian Rocke both situate without the Towne So also had the Thessalians a place of Execution from the praecipice of an Hill which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corvi from whence arose the Proverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Away with him to the Gallowes Thus the Iewes also when they crucified our Saviour led him out of their Citie to Mount Calvarie and thus St. LVKE reports it in the Execution of St. STEPHEN that they cast him out of the Citie and stoned him A custome which continued long even till the times of Persecution were all past and of the which our publike Gallowes which we see every where without our Townes are some remainders Which being so no executioÌ„ in those times permitted in their Cities it must needs be that our St. GEORGE did suffer in the open fields Which granted it will then appeare that Malmesbury might not unjustly say of Rama or as he calls it Ramula that it was guilty of or rather had a hand in Saint Georges death though in the generall voyce of Writers it be affirm'd of Lydda because the fields were common or close adjoyning and the Townes but litle distant 6 These matters thus dispatch'd we now proceed to verifie the former Storie out of the words of such as have concurr'd with Metaphrastes in the maine and substance And first we will attempt to justifie the whole narration out of Eusebius whose countenance herein will I am sure be worth our seeking And I would gladly know what part or circumstance there is in all our History for the defence whereof we may not use his testimony Is it that any Cappadocian was adjudg'd to suffer for the Gospell He tells us there that one Seleucus Iulian and others of that Country receiv'd the Crowne of Martyrdome during the Persecution rais'd by Diocletian Or is it that the Persecution ever did extend to Palestine He hath a Chapter at the least of such as suffered in that Country It is not I am sure that any of the militarie men abandoned their advancements or yeilded up their lives to testifie how litle they esteem'd them in comparisen of CHRIST For this he hath expresly that many of them when the Persecution first began did willingly forsake their honourable Offices and some their lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor can it bee that that the Imperiall edict did not extend to such as were of his retinue and did belong immediately unto his person For in the same booke he mentions Dorotheus and Gorgonius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with many more of Caesars houshold Wee grant indeed that no such name as that of George occurres in all that Author but we affirme withall that he confesseth it an infinite and tedious businesse to recount the names of all that suffered or capitulate those severall torments they endur'd and therefore purposely omits them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as he there hath it So then Eusebius doth affirme that Cappadocia had its Martyrs that the Persecution raged in Palestine that it extended to the military men and to those also that attended in the Pallace and lastly that it is impossible to tell the names of all that suffered Put this together and it will amount to this that George one of those many Martyrs whom Eusebius could not name a Cappadocian by his Country a Soldier by profession and one that waited in the Court was put to death in Palestine by torments not to be express'd because he constantly continued in the Faith of CHRIST 7 In the next place we have the testimony of St. Ambrose if at the least the words be his a Reverend Father of the Church and a chiefe ornament thereof who dyed about the yeare 397. The words are these Georgius Christi miles fidelissimus dum Christianismi professio tegeretur solus inter Christicolas intrepidus Dei filium confessus est Cui tantam constantiam gratia divina concessit ut tyrannicae potestatis praecepta contemneret innumerabilium non formidaret tormenta poenarum Id est George the most faithfull Soldier of IESUS CHRIST when as Religion was else every
himselfe in his booke of Histories first published under the name of Christodulus As for the Church of Rome there is no question to bee made of her good affection Her Missals and her testimony of him in the Martyrologie expresly say it Nor need there any more be added unlesse perhaps it be worth noting that Vergerius Byshop of Iustinople in the Seigneurie of Venice was called in question for his life Eo quòd in Concilio Trident. Georgij Legendam sibi non per omnia probari ostenderet as Chemnitius hath it because he had declamed against some passages of the Storie of Saint GEORGE in the Trent Councell As for the Churches Protestant wee finde the Lutheran Doctors many of them very favourable and how wee stand affected to him here in England we shall see hereafter Which generall agreement of the whole Church and so many famous parts of it in the honour of our Martyr may well be used as a reply to Doctor Reynolds who makes this answere to the Cardinall that George indeed may be accounted famous in the Church and his memoriall celebrated but so as was the memory of Catiline ab hominibus audacissimis domesticisque hostâ—bus onely by Ruffians and by common enemies unto the State If Bellarmine meane otherwise in saying Georgij memoria semper fuit celeberrima hee tells him plainely that hee lyeth But I will not meddle with their quarrells 12 To goe a litle further yet it will bee found upon good search that not the Christians onely have had Saint George in speciall honour but that the rude and barbarous Turkes seeing it seemes how much hee was esteem'd by them conceive a like opinion of him This Master Selden testifieth that the Mahometans doe honour him as we and that they call him Chederle which name saith hee one expresseth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Margine points us unto Contacuzenus Apol. 3. Which I cannot meet with and therefore take it upon credit The rather because I finde in Master Sam. Purchas out of Busbequius that the Turkes affirme their Chederle to bee the same with St. GEORGE and that the Dervices which are a kinde of Turkish Monkes have a great Temple dedicated to his honour at Theke Thioy not farre from Amasia the chiefe Citie of Cappadocia And in the Turkish Historie wee reade that they have in Caire of Egypt a Temple dedicated to Saint Barbara and another to Saint George which amongst those nations are of great Fame So Knolles in the life of Selimus All I finde of him in the rest of Contacuzenus I meane his Historie is that at his request the Turkish Sultan did reedifie a ruinous Temple consecrated to St. George's memorie Post haec petivit legatus vester saith the Sultan in his Letter to that Greeke Emperour ut quoddam veteris templi ruinosum aedificium vicinum Romanis S. Georgij renovaretur id etiam fecimus So great and powerfull is the truth that it prevaileth even among Turkes and Infidels CHAP. V. 1 The honour done unto the Dead in the decent buriall of their bodies 2 The reliques of the Saints of what esteeme in the Church primitive 3 The care of Gregorie of Tours to preserve his writings and what hee testifieth of Saint George's reliques 4 What mention there is made of them in Aymonius and others 5 Churches distinguished anciently by the names of Saints and for what reason 6 St. George's Churches in Lydda and in Ramula made afterwards a Byshops See 7 St. George's Church built by Sidonius Archbyshop of Mentz 8 That mention'd in St. Gregories Epistles 9 St Georges Church in Rome the title of a Cardinall 10 Churches erected to St. George in Alexandria and elsewhere 11 Of Faustus Rhegiensis 12 And the Pseudo-Martyr in Sulpitius An application of the rule in Lerinensis unto the businesse now in hand 1 THis discourse of the bodies of the Dead leades me directly to the third of those three courses whereby the Church endeavoured to preserve alive the memory of the Saints and Martyrs collecting of their Reliques and laying them with all due honours in some place fit and worthy of them Which pietie of theirs extended at the first no further than to the pious and devout interrement of their bodies the tyranny of those which first made havocke of the Church extending in those times no further than to death So reade we of St. Stephen the Protomartyr of the Church that being stoned unto death certaine devout men carried him or his body rather which was his Relique all that was left of him to the buriall and made great lamentation But in succeeding times as the Persecutions grew more violent so also grew the Tyrants more unmercifull and barbarously cruell no longer now contented with the simple death of those that suffered but tearing of their limbs asunder and scattering abroad their bones and casting forth their ashes into the winde that so they might not have the honour of an honest buriall So witnesseth Lactantius of Diocletian under whom St. GEORGE was made a Martyr Et non tantùm artus hominum dissipat saith he sed ossa ipsa comminuit in cineres furit ne quis extet sepulturae locus A desperate and raging tyrant qui lucem vivis terram mortuis denegabat which neither would allow the benefit of life unto the living nor buriall to the dead In these and such like barbarous and cruell times it was the commendable custome of the Christians to recollect those bones which by the Tyrants had bin so scattered and to interre them with due honour that even the Bones also which were broken might reioyce that so those precious Reliques of their deere Brethren which were to meet together in a joyfull Resurrection might not lye scattered up and downe the fields a scorne and laughter to the Gentiles 2 At length according as the minds and thoughts of men were raised unto an high esteeme and admiration of the Martyrs so did they with a greater zeale frequent their shrines and set an higher price and estimate upon their Reliques Not carefull onely to afford them all due respects because of those many myracles which it pleased GOD to worke in and about those places where they were intombed but in short time ascribing some divine and secret vertue to them whereof Heaven knowes they were not guiltie It is recorded that the Turkes in the Sacke of Lyssa finding the tombe of Scanderbeg did violently breake it open and take thence his bones every one somewhat more or lesse as they could divide them vainely conceiting that they should never have the worse in any action as long as any Relique of that victorious Soldier was about them So also that opinion which the people of those devout and pious times had first upon good grounds conceiv'd of any of the Martyrs and that respect which worthily at first they bare unto their shrines and Reliques degenerated at the last so farre that they fell
Quia Ecclesiam S. Georgij positam in loco qui Ad Sedem dicitur minorem quà m oportet diligentiam habere cognovimus utile esse prospeximus quoniam Monasterium tuum eidem Ecclesiae noscitur esse coniunctum eius tibi curam committere hortantes ut sollicitudinem illic congruam studeas adhiberi et Psalmodiae officium solenniter exhiberi facias Et quia Ecclesiam istam reparatione certum est indigere volumus ut quicquid illuc accedere potuerit ipse accipere atque in eius reparationem ut praevideas debeas erogare St. GEORGE'S Church situate Ad sedem not being lookt unto with that diligence w ch belongs unto it since it is so neere your unto Monasterie we thinke it good to commit the care thereof unto you Requesting that you would bestow your utmost diligence upon it and have a care the Psalmodie or daily prayers be solemnely performed And since we have beene credibly informed that it is out of reparation it is our pleasure that you gather up the profits of it and lay them out upon the worke so farre as you thinke it fit So farre the letter As for the writer of it not to say any thing of his exceeding industrie and learning whereby hee gained unto himselfe the attribute of Magnus he died about the yeare 604. before which time the Temple of St. GEORGE was now growne old and ruinous quite out of reparation Which being so considering what durable Materials Churches are commonly composed of and in what strong and lasting forme compacted I am almost perswaded that the Church here mentioned was built immediately upon the death and dissolution of our Martyr 9 From Gregory we will descend on one of his successours in the Chaire of Rome by name Pope Zacharie who entred on that Dignity Anno 742. the founder of St. George's Church in Velo Aureo or as some others call it in Velabro a part of Rome The chiefe occasion of the building was our Martyrs head which precious Relique was given unto him by the Venetians and by him here inshrined in a Church built onely for that purpose Idem quoque viz. Zacharias Basilicam B. Georgij in Velabro condidit eoque loci caput ipsius Sancti collocavit So Platina affirme's it I know indeed that the later editions of that Author reade it B. Gregorij but questionlesse they are mis-printed For in an old edition of this booke at Colen anno 1529. afterwards in that of Lovaine corrected by Oniphurius anno 1572. it is B. Georgij as before we read it Herm. Schedell addes that besides the Church there was also built a Monasterie and that it did continue in great honour even unto his times Huius inelyti Martyris caput cum postmodum Venetijs delatum fuisset in eius honorem Monasterium et Ecclesia erecta fuit quod nunc usque maxima veneratione perseverat A Church it seemes of great name and credit such which of long hath beene a title of some Roman Cardinall For in the life of Alexander 6. we have there mention of one Raphael Cardinall of St. George's Camerarius S. Ecclesiae High Chamberlaine of the State Ecclesiasticke And in the 5. Tome of the Bibl. S. Patrum we have aâ—tract de Iubileo written by Iames then Cardinall of St. GEORGES Iacobi S. Georgij ad velum aureum Diaconi Cardinalis de Iubileo liber unus as the title tells us Which Iames was nephew to Pope Boniface the eighth by him advanced unto that office in his first call of Cardinals anno 1295. So de la Bigne the first Collectour of those Volumes out of an ancient Manuscript of Alphonso Chicarelli 10 Hitherto our enquirie hath beene made in Asia and in Europe onely we will now crosse over into Africke that so it may appeare that every part of the knowne world I meane knowne anciently hath in it some memoriall of our Saint and Martyr In this we will content our selves with Alexandria the Queene of Cities and Metropolis of Africa as Sir George Sandys calls her where we shall find an ancient Temple dedicated to St. GEORGE For thus the Letter of Ioh. Comus the Suffragan of Amba Gabriel Patriarch of Alexandria directed to Pope Clement 8. and dated on the 28. of December anno 1593. Tres Alexandria sunt Ecclesiae Catholicae una nomine principis Angelorum S. Michaelis secunda S. Marci Evangelistae ac tertia nomine Martyris magni S. Georgij extra urbem ad littus maris salsi et omnes istae Ecclesiae indigent aedificatione vestitu et impensis pauperum et egenorum There are saith he three Christian Churches in Alexandria St. Michaels the Archangell St. Markes the Evangelist and thirdly that of St. George the great Martyr without the City and neere unto the Sea all which doe stand in need of reparation ornaments and money for the entertainment of the poore I know that Mr. Sam. Purchas doth account this Letter and the whole businesse handled by Baronius in his Corollarie ad Tom. 6. where this Letter is to be forged and counterfeit as having in it a submission of this Patriarke and the Church of Egypt to the See of Rome whereas indeed there was no such matter But somewhat surely there was in it which might occasion such an Embassie to Rome and some dependance of the Christians of this Country upon the Pope It being noted by G. Sandys that multitudes of late have beene drawne to receive the Popish Religion especially in Cairo the Seate of the Alexandrian Patriarke of the Cophties or native Christians of that Country by the industry of Friers having had the Roman Liturgie sent them from Rome together with the Bible in the Arabicke language As for the thing it selfe it is affirmed by Mr. Phurchas that there are three Christian Churches in Alexandria which is inough to confirme our purpose Other Churches there also are dedicated to St. George of good antiquitie though of lesse note as viz. that of Caire in Egypt that of Beddi in the realme of Ethiopia and lastly that in Constantinople built by Iustinian the Emperour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Procopious hath it What Churches have beene consecrated to his memorie with us in England wee shall see hereafter 11 If any thing may be objected against ought that we have spoken in this present Chapter and the last it is in likelyhood the case of Faustus Rhegiensis and the Pseudo-Martyr in Sulpitius Severus both which were held for Martyrs although the one of them was a Theife and the other an Hereticke Of Faustus Rhegiensis who in the opinion of the ancient Church was reckoned for a Semi-Pelagian it is affirmed by Doctor Abbotts afterwards Lord Byshop of Salisburie that he had place in the French Martyrologies a Festivall allotted to him on the 17. of Ianuary and a Temple dedicated to him by the people of his owne City Immò et in Martyrologie Gallicano inter Sanctos
Plaine Cover'd with blood and heapes of Pagans slaine Behold a fresh supply of Turkes unseene Vntouch'd as yet come fiercely rushing in And as a Reaper in a field well-growne Doth with his hooke so they with swords cut downe All those which durst withstand and so restore The furie of the day even spent before By this the Christians weary waxt and gan Full of despaire to breake their ranks each man Shifting to save himselfe not thinking so To make the whole a prey unto the foe Nor could their noble Leaders make them stay The hazard of the Warre Which spied the Pagans made a hideous sound And cried downe with thē down unto the ground The day is ours let us pursue the chase And spare no more the noble than the base There is a place but farre above the skie A place beyond all place which mortall eye Never yet saw A Citty all of gold The walles of stones most precious to behold The gates of pearle each gate an entire masse The streetes of Crystall and transparant glasse Where neither Sunne nor Moone doth shine yet light Perpetuall there a day without a night Which durst I be so bold I might well call The Court of GOD the King of Heavens White-hall There doth the Iudge of all the world possesse His glorious throne in endlesse happinesse His Saints and Angels all with one accord Chaunting the praises o◠their living Lord. Which with eternall peace and comforts blest Know but one ioy yet are of all possess'd And standing all before his presence bee Equall in grace though differing in degree Here all his Court about him leaning on His dreadfull Scepter in an higher throne Than all the rest darknes his secret place And watry Cloudes hiding his glorious face He spake unto them thus And as he spake He made th' earth tremble the mountains quake His nosthrills smoakt and thundering in his ire Came from his mouth haile-stones and coales of fire See how quoth he the faithlesse folke begin T' advance their heads as if they meant to win The day in spight of heaven and would not know That we above dispose of things below But sooner shall the Sunne forgoe his light And burie all the world in endlesse night Sooner the beauties of the earth shall wither And Parchment-like the Spheres rowl'd up together Than I will faile my people or permit Their foes to spoile them till they me forget Till they forget that God who loves them best And wallow in those sinnes I so detest This I have said and if I say the word It is for ever said I am the Lord. Goe then prepare your selves all you that were Soldiers beneath and now are sainted here Goe succour your allies that they may say You can as well fight when they need as pray My word you know would bring them all to ground Or by mine Angels I could soone confound Them and their pride at once were they farre more Than starres in heaven or sands upon the shore But this my pleasure is this my decree Yours be the service mine the honour bee This said the heavenly armies lowe inclin'd At their Creatours feet and those assign'd To this imployment swiftly posted thence The Saints chiefe vertue is obedience Behind they quickly left the Crystalline And the eight Sphere where the fix'd starres do shine The severall orbes in which the Planets move And in unequall courses equall prove The Heavens thus past and spreading all abroad Vpon the wings of the swift windes they rode And gliding through the yeilding ayre did light Vpon a Mountaine neere unto the fight There they dispos'd their ranks Mauritius lead The Theban Legion all at once made dead Of which himselfe the chiefe Demetrius those Who to great office and preferment rose The rest of common qualitie by lot Fell to Sebastian who refus'd them not But yet the Chiefe with supreame power possess'd Was wanting he that should command the rest Till by the common suffrage of them all They chose St. George to be their Generall St. George in feates of Warre exactly tried Who liv'd a Soldier and a Martyr died A blessed Saint that lost and suffered more Than almost all the rest that went before Things ordered thus the Heavenly Soldiers flie Swifter than thought upon the Enemie And brandishing their flaming swords make way For the damn'd soules to leave their walles of clay So fast they fell that wearied Charon roar'd For helpe to waft them o're the Stygian foord And Pluto fear'd their numbers were so great They came to dispossesse him of his seate In which distrust he rung the Larum-bell Never before afraid to lose his Hell Amaz'd the Persians stood to see their men Fall downe in heapes there where no eye could ken An enemy at hand for well they knew The Christians either fled or backwards drew As Niobe a fruitfull mother late When she beheld her sonnes untimely fate And viewed their wounds and heard the bow-strings twang Yet could not see from whence the mischiefe came Stiffe with amazement stood astonisht and Doth still a marble in that posture stand So they confounded stood except that none So happy was as to be made a stone Their rankes are broke their Chieftaines slaughtred bee But how or by what hand they could not see Meane while th' Almighty from above the skye Vpon the Earth bent downe his gracious eye And saw his sacred troopes now ready bent To execute their Soveraigne Lords intent Which seene he Michael call'd Michael said hee Thou know'st how I committed unto thee The safety of my flocke next under him Who with his precious bloud did it redeeme How I elected thee this stile to have The Angell Guardian of the Church and gave Thee power above the rest my Lambs to keepe And cast the Dragon downe into the deepe Goe thou unto the Christian Host take thence That cloud of flesh with which their mortall sence Is darkened and obscur'd that so they may Behold the glorious wonders of this day And for a space the light of Heaven sustaine And see my Saints and view my armies plaine At his Creatours feet with reverence due The Angell bowed and swift as lightning flew To doe the businesse by his Lord assign'd Spreading his golden feathers to the Wind. Approaching neere the host he straight fulfill'd His Makers pleasure as the Lord had will'd He did away the cloudes which dimm'd their sight And let them see the heavenly armies fight In their defence and his dispatch so done He fix'd his wings and stood a looker on By this the almost vanquish'd Christians heard A tumult in the adverse host yet fear'd To turne againe or learne what it might meane Vntill the dreadfull noise grew more extreame At last they made a stand and fac'd about And saw the Pagan armie all in rout Their troopes dispers'd their colours fall to ground And with dead bulks the fields all cover'd round And first they thought some former strife renew'd Had
the day of Battaile Baronius labors to make good by two examples the one of Cunibert a King of Lombardie the other of Nicephorus an Emperour of Constantinople Whether these instances doe prove sufficiently the matter to be verified wee shall best see by looking on them though I must needes say that in the first there is small hope of finding much to the purpose PAVLUS DIACONUS who liv'd about the yeare 774. principall Secretarie of State to DESIDERIUS King of the Lombards reports it of King CUNIBERT one of the Kings of that Nation that in a place where hee had formerly vanquished the Alahis a barbarous people hee built a Monasterie to the honour of Saint GEORGE In campo Coronatae ubi bellum contra Alahis gessit in honorem B. Georgij Monasterium construxit sayth the Author Where by the way it is to bee observed That in the late Edition of this Author by Gruterus wee reade not Georgij but Gregorij which also is the errour of the new editions of PLATINA as before I noted but yet hee tells us in his Annotations that the old Bookes reade it Georgij himselfe none of Saint GEORGE'S friends it seemes not willing so to have it longer Which brings into my minde that memorable saying of old TIMON Who beeing asked by Aratus how hee might get the workes of Homer in the best Edition returned this answere That hee must make enquirie after the most ancient Copies and not for those which were last corrected 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth Diogenes Là ertius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether this passage of this Longobardìan King may bee sufficient proofe for this that hee did call upon Saint George in the day of Battaile is next to bee examined For my part I beleeve it cannot though the particular circumstance of the place where might unto one which were contentious so to have it administer an argument of possibilitie My reason is because this CVNIBERT beganne his raigne over the Lombards Anno 698. And I perswade my selfe that in those early dayes this superstitious invocation of Saint GEORGE as a chiefe Advocate of Victorie was not in fashion Let it suffice that though it proove not throughly what BARONIVS did intend yet is proofe sufficient that Saint GEORGE was specially honoured among the Lombards as a Saint of more than common note which is as much as I endeavour to make from it In the next instance of NICEPHORVS sirnamed PHOCAS Emperour of Constantinople the proofe as I conceive it is faire and pregnant delivered thus by GEORGIUS CEDRENUS who flourished in and about the yeare One thousand and seventie in his Compendium Historiarum NICEPHORUS PHOCAS hee beganne his raigne in the yeare Nine hundred sixtie three had entred in a Warre against the Rossi a Scythian or Sarmatian people bordering on his Empire with whom encountring upon Saint GEORGE'S day hee gave them a memorable Overthrow And then it followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Id est The Emperour having payed his vowes unto the most victorious Martyr St. GEORGE upon whose Festivall he had discomfited his enemies went the next morning with his Army unto Dorostulum The greeke Phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used in the Author is found often in Demosthenes and other Writers of those more elegant times of the Greeke language with whom it signifieth Sacra facere ob partam victoriam to sacrifice unto those Gods after the victorie whose â—avour they implored before it I have here rendred it the payment of his Vowes more proper to the use and meaning of the word in the Christian Church the meaning of the whole passage beeing this that he had vowed some speciall honour to St. George 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hee there calls him in case he should obtaine the victory which afterwards according to the honour of his vow he did religiously performe 6 In our last sort of evidence which is next to follow we must reflect upon St. George as a chiefe Patron of the affaires of Christendome though even in some of these wee may consider him as a chiefe Patron also of the men of Warre Of this kinde was that military Order of Saint George in Austria first instituted by Radulphus Habspurgensis Emperour of Germany and first Duke of Austria of this family for the defence of Hungary Styria and Carinthia The Author des Estates du Monde thus hath it Radolphe de Habspurg he began his Empire anno 1273 pour defendre La Hongrie la Syrie he meanes Styria et la Carinthie contre les armes de Turcs institua l'ordre de St. Georges c. He also tells us that he gave unto the Master of it a Towne of Carinthia well built and situate for his ordinarie Seate together with the Toparchie of Chranichberge Trautmandorfe Scharfeneich and St. Patoville for the revenue and maintenance of the Order As also how he permitted the fellowes of it La croix rouge de St. George dans les armoiries des leurs maisons to beare St. George's crosse in their owne Armes the Armes belonging to their houses In most of this we may beleeve him but where he tells us that this institution was intended contre les armes de Turcs against the forces of the Turke in this we must be bold to tell him that he is deceived For in these times the Turkish Kingdome was suppress'd and ruined by the Tartars nor had they ever any footing in the Continent of Europe untill the yeare 1358. when under the conduct of Solyman the Sonne of Orchanes they surprised Callipolis in Thrace 7 In imitation of this Order FREDERICK the third Emperour of the Germans and Duke of Austria instituted the Order of Saint Georgen Schilts if at the least as BERNARD of Luxembourg conceives it were not rather a restitution of the former Order then decayed Of which thus Stumpsius in his historie of the Switzers anno 1448 Caesar Fredericus communem fecit in Suevia pacem omnium Ordinum confederatione quae vocabutur St. Georgen Schilts Nam omnes qui in ea comprehendebantur debebant gestare clypeum S. Georij modò ex Nobilitate essent The Emperour Fredericke saith he anno 1448 established a firme Peace and League in Schwaben by a confederacie of all the States together Which Order had the name of Sanct Georgen Schilts because it was permitted unto such as were comprehended in it to beare an Escutcheon of Saint George in their owne armes so I conceive it if they were nobly descended Fortie yeares after a new League and Confederacie was set on foote under the old name but for ten yeares onely at the request of MAXIMILIAN sonne to the former Frederick and afterwards his successour in the German Empire the most potent of the Princes and Imperiall Cities being contained in it Anno 1488 saith MARTIN CRUSIUS Suevi impulsu Maximiliani ob tuendam mutuam pacem quietem foedus quoddam Nortbergae ineunt inter se decennale foedus
dictum Clypei Georgiane societatis in quo foedere potentissimi quique Principes non modò civitates Imperij fuerunt So hee 8 We must now crosse the Alpes and make over into Italie where we shall finde St. GEORGE to be conceived as great a Patron of the Common-wealth of Genoa as of the peace of Germanie For as the Germans were secured from Warres without and civill broyles within by the Confederacie and Order of Saint George's Sheilds so are the Geneose protected and the ancient dignitie of that State preserved by St. George's Banke or Treasurie The first beginnings of which Banke or Treasurie and the administration thereof together with that benefit which redounds thereby unto the publike take heere according as it is related by that great Statesman Machiavell in his Historie of Florence Post diuturnum illud bellum quod Genuenses multis ab hinc annis cum Venetis gessere cum pace iam inter eas respub constituta Genuenses civibus suis ob aes in bello concreditum satisfacere non possent c. After that tedious Warre betweene the Genoese and the Venetians was now ended anno 1381. and the Genoese perceived themselves unable to repay those moneys which they had taken up of their private Citizens for the mainteining of the Warre they thought it best to assigne over to them their ordinarie taxes that so in tract of time the whole debt might be satisfied and for that purpose allotted them a common Hall there to deliberate and determine of their affaires These men thus made the masters of the publike Taxes and Revenew elect amongst themselves a common Councell of an hundred and over them eight Officers of especiall power to order and direct the rest and to dispose of the Intrado Vniversam verò administrationem titulo S. Georgij insignivere which Corporation so established they entitused St. George's Banke It hapned afterwards that the Republicke wanting more moneys was glad to have recourse unto St. George who now growne wealthy by the just and orderly administration of his stocke was best able to releive them and as before they released their taxes so now ditionem suam oppignorare coepit they morgaged their domaine So that at last St. George continually growing richer and the State poorer this Corporation became possess'd of almost all the Townes and Territories belonging to that Signeurie all which they governe by their owne Magistrates chosen by common suffrage from among themselves It followed hereupon that the common people respected lesse the publike and chiefly bent their favours to the Corporation of St. George this being alwayes prudently and moderately governed that many times inclining unto tyranny this never changing either their Officers or forme of government that subject to the ambitious lusts of every proud Vsurper both Forreiner and Citizen Insomuch that when the potent families of the Fregosi and the Adorni contended for the Principalitie of that State most of the people stood idle looking upon them as spectators of a quarrell which did not any way concerne them St. George not medling more in it than to take oath of the prevailing faction to preserve his liberties Rarissimo sanè exemplo neque à tot Philosophis imaginarijs istis in rebuspub suis unquam reperto c. A most excellent and rare thing saith he never found out by any of the Philosophers in their imaginarie Common-wealthes that in the same State and the same people we may see at once tyrannie and libertie justice and wrong-dealing civilitie and rudenesse this onely Corporation preserving in the State the ancient beautie and orders of it Nay he perswades himselfe that if St. GEORGE should in the end become possess'd of the remainders of the publike demeanes quod omnino eventurum mihi persuasissimum est of which he makes not any question that certainly that State might not be onely equalled with the State of Venice but preferred before it 9 From St. George's Banke or Treasurie let us proceed unto St. George's Band or Regiment both instituted neere about the same time and much unto the same purpose St. George's Banke preserving the ancient dignitie of that Citty his Regiment or Band reviving the decayed repute and credit of the Italian Soldierie The Author of it one Ludovicus Conius the occasion this After the Norman and Dutch lines in the Realme of Naples the French and Arragonians became competitours for that Kingdome the Popes of Rome having at that time sundry quarrels with the Emperours and many of the Townes of Italie taking thereby occasion to recover liberty By meanes of which the whole Country was in a manner over-runne with forreine Soldiers the States thereof all jealous of each other and so not willing to employ theyr owne people So that all Italie did swarme with French and Dutch and Spanish Soldiers the English also flocking thither under the conduct of Sir Iohn Hawkwood after the Peace made betweene our Edward the third and the French King At last this Lodovicus Conius rightly considering how ignominious and dishonourable a thing it was that Italie should not bee able with her owne hands to maintaine her owne quarrels collected a choyce band of Italian Soldiers which he called St. Georg's Regiment which shortly grew to such esteeme that they eclipsed the glorie of the forreine Companies and restored the ancient lustre to their native forces Is enim postea saith the same MACHIAVELL ex Italo milite exercitum conscripsit sub titulo S. Georgij cujus tanta fnit virtus disciplina militaris ut exiguo temporis intervallo omnem gloriam militibus externis adimeret suam Italis restitueret eoque solo usi sunt deinceps Italiae Principes si quod inter eos bellum gerebatur So he and we will onely adde thus much that out of this so famous Seminarie of St. GEORGE'S Regiment came afterwards that Braccio and Picennini which had so much to doe in the affaires of Italie as also that Francisco Sforza which made himselfe Duke of Millaine and left it to his Children 10 Our next journey must bee for Asia where in the midland of it wee finde a Countrey betweene Colchis and Albania called anciently Iberia but now Georgia the reason of which new name is reported diversly Michael ab Ysselt is confident that they tooke their appellation from Saint GEORGE Georgiani verò vocantur à D. Georgio c. Others with better reason at the least in mine opinion that they are called so from the Georgi the ancient inhabitants of these tracts which ancient Georgians Sir Walter Raleigh makes to bee denominated quasi Gordians from the Gordiaei a Mountaine people of the Hill-Countries and Stephanus in his Thesaurus quasi Georgici Husbandmen Georgij Asiae populi ab agricultura nomen sortiti as he there hath it Betweene these two we have one indifferent Master Samuel Purcha◠who saith that it is called Georgia eyther from the honour of their Patron Saint GEORGE or
haply because they descended of those Georgi which PLINIE nameth among the Caspian Inhabitants Let it suffice that though they take not their denomination from Saint GEORGE yet they affoord him more honour than any other of the Saints the same Authour telling us that when they goe into a Church they give meane respect to other Images but that Saint George is so worshipped we will permit him to make merry with himselfe that his Horses hoofes are kissed of them Michael ab Ysselt more seriously though he erre somewhat in the derivation Georgiani verò vocantur à D. Georgio quem velut patronum praecipuum in suis contra Paganos praelijs velut signiferum propugnatorem ingenti honore venerantur Quocunque enim tendunt turmatim incedunt vexillum D. Georgij insignitum circumferentes cuius ope auxilio in bello maximè se iuvari credunt The Georgians saith hee are so denominated from Saint GEORGE whom as their principall Patron and theyr Champion in their warres against the Pagans they worship with especiall honour For which way soever they employ their Forces they carry with them a faire Banner with the picture of Saint George upon it beleeving that by his assistance they are much comforted and ayded in their warres So the Historian 11 But howsoever we dare not say with him that this Asian people had their appellation from Saint George their Patron yet wee are confident of this that many places both of Asia and Europe have received denomination from him For heere in Asia wee finde a large and spacious Valley not farre from Libanus which is call'd St. George's Valley and we have also noted that the Towne of Lydda or Diospolis was by the Christians called Saint George's and that there is in Europe a St. George's Vally also in the midst of Germanie Adde hereunto that the Thracian Chersonesse is now called commonly St. George's Arme which is remembred by Maginus in his Geographie and hath beene since observed by Sir George Sandys The learned Munster doth transferre this appellation from the Land unto the Sea from the Thracian Chersonesse unto the narrow streight or Arme neere to it which they call Bosphorus Porrò Bosphorus appellatur brachium S. Georgij saith hee and like inough the name is fitted unto both But why this Chersonesse was call'd Saint George's Arme I cannot say unlesse perhaps that Relique of Saint George was there in former times layed up which after by Iustinian the Emperour was bestowed upon Saint German as before I noted Paulus Diaconus makes mention of Saint George's River neare to the Country of the Bulgarians Coeterùm Aprili mense saith hee of Constantine the Sonne of Eirene cum castra moveret contra Bulgares venit ad castellum quod dicitur Probati ad rivum D. Georgij Wee reade in our industrious CAMDEN also that the Irish Ocean which runneth betweene Brittaine and Ireland is called by Sea-men at this day Saint GEORGE'S Chanell And lest that any part of the old World should not have some place in it of this name PATRITIUS tells us in the booke of his owne Navigations that one of the Azores is call'd St. George's Est D. Georgij insula c. 12 To draw up that together which hath beene formerly alleaged in Saint GEORGE'S cause I hope it will appeare that there is no occasion why hee should eyther bee reputed as an Arian or a Counterfeit a Larva nay why hee should not bee accounted to have as high a place in immortalitie as any of the other those blessed Spirits the Apostles excepted onely For if antiquitie may bee thought worthy of any credit wee have antiquitie to friend or if the common suffrages of so many famous and renowned writers successively in every age may bee of any reckoning with us Saint George may challenge as much interest in them as any in the Calendar However put case that they have erred in their relations of Saint GEORGE and that they tooke that evidence which out of them wee borrowed on trust from one another yet what shall bee replyed to this that in the Church of God hee hath beene hitherto reputed as an holy Martyr Shall wee conceive the Church of God would bee so carefull to preserve his memorie in the publike Martyrologies or give him place in their publike Liturgies or take such heed unto his Reliques or honour him with Temples had hee beene such a damnable and bloudie Hereticke or which they say is better if hee had never beene at all Or if hee had beene such may it bee thought that both the Church and all the learned members of it for 1300 yeares almost should be deluded no man in all that time able to see into the fraud or that the Spirit of God should quite abandon all the rest and settle onely on some two or three of later times who though they kept amongst themselves the Band of Peace had not as it appeares the Spirit of Vnitie Or last of all suppose the Monkes and Fryers should joyne together to put a tricke upon the world and that they had prevailed upon the Church to give countenance unto it shall wee conceive so poorely of the greatest Kings and Princes in the Christian world that they were all of them abused and drawne to do◠such honours to one which eyther never was a man or was now a Divell All this is hard to bee digested And wee may well bee counted easie of beleefe if onely on the ipse dixit of one man and the conjectures of another were they of greater reputation than they are wee should give faith unto their sayings to one of them I meane for both are not to be beleeved together when such a Cloud of Witnesses affirme the contrarie Catalogus testium veritatis a Catalogue of witnesses in all times and ages If men may be beleeved upon their bare assertion why may not they be credited which say Saint George was once a Martyr and is now a Saint as well as they which say he was not Or if wee will not take up any thing on trust without some reason for it why rather should not they bee worthy of beleefe which have good proofe for what they say than those that build upon conjectures ill-grounded and worse-raised Lastly if that may be beleeved most safely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the words of Aristotle which both the vulgar wits and more excellent spirits have agreed on joyntly still we are where we were and still St. George must be a Martyr But I am now for England where I am sure to finde as ample testimonies for St. George as any other part of the world what ever CHAP. VIII 1 St. George not anciently esteemed the Patron of the English 2 Churches erected to him here in England 3 His apparition to King Richard in the Holy Land 4 What may be thought in generall touching the apparition of the Saints 5 And what in this particular
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 repâ—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
Dethick Garter principall King of armes gave to the learned Camden and is thus extant in his most excellent Brittannia Richardo cum contra Turcas Agarenos c. When as K. Richard warred upon the Turks and Saracens Cyprus and Acon and was wearie of so lingring delay whiles the seige continued long in wonderfull care and anxiety at length Illabente per D. Georgij ut opinatum est interventum spiritu c. Vpon a divine inspiration by the comming in and apparition as it was thought of St. GEORGE it came into his mind to draw upon the legs of certaine choyce Knights of his a certaine Garter or tacke of Leather such onely as hee had then ready at hand Whereby they beeing distinguished and put in minde of future glory promised unto them in case they wonne the victory they might bee stirred up and provoked to performe their service bravely and fight more valiantly In imitation of the Romans who had such varietie of Coronets wherewith militarie men for sundry causes were accordingly rewarded to the end that by these instigations as it were cowardise being shaken off the valour of the minde and courage of the hart might shew it selfe more resolute Which passage I have therefore recited at the full length because that some there be which have referred the institution of the most noble Order of the Garter unto this King and to this occasion and are perswaded verily that Edward the third did onely bring it againe in use being awhile forgotten or neglected But herein as the learned Camden who saw as farre into antiquitie as any man either before his birth or since his death gives but a cold assent or rather no assent at all so neyther have I met with any of the more judicious sort which doe affirme it though the opinion bee related in many of them 4 However though wee referre not unto this occasion and those times the Institution of the Garter yet wee may warrantably bee perswaded that this occasion did much promote the reputation of that Saint among the English whereby in tract of time that most heroicke Order was dedicated to him As for the thing it selfe because that all the apparitions of the Saints in these late dayes are commonly suspected wee will digresse a litle to shew what may bee said in the generall defence of the thing questioned that so wee may the better see how much we may beleeve in this particular of King Richard and St. GEORGE And first if wee consult the Scriptures we finde that at the Resurrection of our Saviour the graves were opened and many bodies of the Saints which slept arose and came out of the graves and went into the holy Cittie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and appeared unto many This as it was an extraordinary dispensation and farre above the common Law and course of Nature so was it for a speciall end to verifie the Resurrection of our Saviour on whom they did attend and to assure the faithfull of the certainty of their future Resurrection also A signe it was saith Reverend Theophylact 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostome more particularly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a token of the Resurrection and for the close of all Saint HIEROME Vt dominum ostenderent resurâ—gentem So then although in ordinary course the Saints are in the Heaven of glories and that their bodies bee corrupted in the earth yet upon speciall cause and at the pleasure of their GOD they may assume an humane shape and in that shape appeare unto their Brethren according to the will of him that sends them For if the Angels to whom no bodies doe belong have appeared visible to many of GODS people in execution of the charge committed to them how much more easily may we beleeve the same of the Saints departed that even they also at some times and on some great occasions have beene employed by GOD in their owne ordinary forme and shape Potamiaena a Virgin Martyr is reported by EUSEBIUS that shee appeared unto BASILIDES her Executioner the third night after her decease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 putting a Crowne upon his head foretelling so that not long after hee should receive the Crowne of Martyrdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Nay the same Author tells us that many of the people of Alexandria where shee suffered were converted to the Faith by the frequent apparitions of that Virgin Other examples also there are many and of Angels also Of the Archangell MICHAEL there are reports of severall apparitions uppon Mount Garganus in Naples uppon Saint MICHEL'S Mounts in Normandie and Cornewall and one unto King Charles the 7. on the bridge of Orleans in his warres against the English illustri seu miraculo seu viso D. Michaelis in praelio ad pontem Aurelianae civitatis c. which was a chiefe occasion of the French Order of St. Michael I know indeed that in times of late the Priests have dealt exceeding faithlesly both with Church and people in this kinde theyr doctrine in the point of Purgatorie beeing such as could not well subsist without many foule Impostures and counterfeit apparitions of the Dead Insomuch that as once Lyra said In Ecclesia Dei populus saepe decipitur à Sacerdotibus fictis miraculis lucri causa Gods people many times is couzened by the Priests with fained miracles so we may say also that for the sake of filthie lucre they have as often beene abused with forged apparitions 5 But this of all things else cannot be well objected against this apparition of Saint George King Richard having no such end proposed unto himselfe in raising this report as to abuse his people or to satisfie his avarice And certainly were it recorded in any grave and serious Author that such an apparition as this mention'd of St. George had beene seene generally by the Armie or by such others which might for certaine have affirmed it I make no question but the probability thereof might have beene easily defended Bnt since it is related onely upon the credit of a private Register and in that Register with no more confidence than opinatum est it is so thought I must crave licence to declare my selfe herein and how I doe conceive it We have already in the prosecution of this Historie of Saint GEORGE spoke of the apparition of this Saint and many others at the battaile of Antiochia whereby the Christian Armies then ready for the fight were so incouraged and revived that they obtained a memorable victory upon the enemie By meanes whereof Saint George became so famous in all the parts of Christendome and especially among those Soldiers which were continually in those times sent to pursue the Warres of the Holy Land that possibly there could not be a greater spurre unto the military men than to suggest unto them that Saint George had lately shewne himselfe unto their Chieftaines and promised them successe or counselled them in their designes
Master de Bellay hath recorded that IOANE of Orleans so much commemorated in our common Chronicles was not what shee appeared but onely so disguised and prepared before hand Pour faire revenir le courage aux Francoys for to revive the drooping spirits of the French so falne and broken that they were not to bee raised but by a miracle Somewhat to this purpose is related by PLUTARCH of AGESILAUS Who to embolden his Soldiers to the fight wrote with a certaine juyce the word Victorie in the palme of his hand and after being at the Sacrifice hee layed his hand cunningly upon the heart of it so leaving the word Victorie imprinted on it which presently he shewed unto those about him as if it had beene there written by the Gods I cannot say for certaine that this apparition to King Richard was by him set on foot for the same purpose and that it was no other than a Kingly fraud to quicken and revive the spirits of his Soldiers but I perswade my selfe if I did say so having no other testimony than an opinatum est against me I might be pardoned for my boldnesse 6 This notwithstanding the fame of such his apparition to that King did as before I said exceedingly promote the reputation of that Saint among the English so farre that the most excellent Prince King EDVVARD the third made choyce of him for his Patron So Master CAMDEN witnesseth in his Remaines that GEORGE hath beene a name of speciall respect in England since the victorious King EDVVARD the third chose Saint GEORGE for his Patron and the English in all Encounters and Battailes have used the name of Saint George in their cries as the French did Montioy Saint Denis The more immediate occasion was that this Edward at the battaile of Callice Anno 1349. being much troubled with griefe and anger drawing his Sword call'd earnestly upon Saint Edward and Saint George whereupon many of his Soldiers flocking presently unto him they fell upon the enemie and put many of them at that instant to the sword Rex Edwardus providè frendens more apri ab ira dolore turbatus evaginato gladio S. Edwardum S. Georgium invocavit dicens Ha Saint Edward Ha Saint George Quibus auditis visis milites confestim Anglici confluebant ad Regem suum Es facto impetu contra hostes tam animose institerunt quòd ducenti ex illis ceciderunt interfecti c. The next yeare after followed the Institution of that noble Order of the Garter dedicated unto Saint George also by which he came possessed alone of that speciall patronage as the more military Saint which in the former Invocation might seeme to be divided betweene St. Edward and himselfe Nor did the King stay here but having chose St. George to bee the tutelarie Saint and Patron of his Soldierie hee caused him to be painted as upon a lusty Courser holding a white Sheild with a red Crosse on it in his hand and gave unto his Soldiers to every one a white Coat or Cassock with two red Crosses on each side of them one to weare upon their armour Edwardus item saith Pol. Virgil. cum D. Georgium militia praesidem optasset postea ei armato equo insidenti dedit scutum album rubra a cruce perinsigne dedit militibus suis saga alba utrimque binis crucibus item rubris munita quae illi super armaturam induerent So that saith he it is a seemely and magnificent thing to see the Armies of the English to sparkle like the rising Sunne the Soldierie of other Countries having no habit eyther to distinguish or adorne them From henceforth therefore we must not looke upon St. GEORGE as a Saint in generall but as conceived such was the superstition of those times the speciall Patron of the English of which the Pilgrim in the Poet thus prophecieth unto his Red-crosse Knight as hee there calls him Then seeke this path which I to thee presage Which after all to Heaven shall thee send Then peaceably thy painefull Pilgrimage To yonder same Hierusalem doe bend Where is for thee ordain'd a blessed end For thou amongst those Saints which thou dost see Shalt be a saint and thine owne Nations friend And Patron thou St. George shalt called bee St. George of merry England the signe of victorie And hereunto alludes Mich. Draiton in his Poly-Olbion in a great controversie questionlesse which was then hot among some Nymphes of his in that Poem And humbly to St. George their Countries Patrō pray To prosper their designes now in that mighty day 7 Of other honours done by the English to St. GEORGE more than they call'd upon him as their Advocate of victory it may perhaps seeme litle necessary to dilate But since our Invocation of God and St. GEORGE is by some men conceived to bee rather Turkish than truely Christian wee will produce such evidence as may be lesse liable unto offence Of which kinde I perswade my selfe was that honour done unto him in a peece of gold currant in those times in this Kingdome called The George-noble which on the one side had the picture of Saint GEORGE upon it with this Impresse Tali dicata signo mens fluctuare nescit Nor can it be offence that many noble families in this Realme had the name of Saint GEORGE an ancient family of Saint George out of which flourished many Knights since the time of King Henry the first at Hatley which is of them call'd Hatley Saint George as I have found in learned Camden another of them as I conceive it at Hinton Saint GEORGE in Com. Sommerset the Baronie at this present of the right honourable the Lord Pawlet But this I leave unto Clarentieux one of the Kings of Armes as most interessed in it I will not heere observe that CHARLES of Burgundie one of the fellowes of the Gareer beeing in discontent with EDVVARD the fourth for his Peace with France brake out into this Passion Oh LORD Oh Saint GEORGE have you done thus indeed c or that the English used his name as an ordinary oath among them Par St. George dirent les Angloys vous dites vray c. as Froissart notes it These things I say I will not speake of lest they may give offence to our nicer eares nor of more honours of this lesser ranke or qualitie afforded him in England and therefore though the Sea bee very troublesome and unruly we will passe over Saint GEORGE'S Chanell into Ireland And here I shall observe that onely which I finde in Master Seldens notes on the Poly-Olbion as viz. that under Henry 8. it was enacted that the Irish should leave their Cramaboo and Butleraboo words of unlawfull Patronage and name themselves as under St. George and the Kings of England Which noted since I must returne againe for England there to behold the solemne institution of the Garter it will not
afterwards by meanes of friends and upon good excuse and reason by him alleaged in his defence as certainly he was a wise and valiant Captaine however in the stage they haue beene pleased to make merry with him he was restored unto his honour The third and last meanes of avoydance is by Cession Surrendrie the examples hereof also are but few This I am sure of not to make further search into it that Philip King of Spaine beeing offended with Qu. Elizabeth about the altering of Religion and thereby alienated from the English delivered backe to the Lord Vicount Mountague the robes and habit of the Order wherewith he was invested on his marriage with Qu. Mary By which his Act as the Historian hath observed Cum Anglis amicitiam visus est prorsus eiurare he seemed to breake off utterly all amitie and friendship with the realme of England 'T is true indeed King Philip being once resolved to renounce his Order was of necessitie to send backe the habit For so it is ordained amongst them that even such of them as depart this life are to take care especially that the Garter bee restored unto the Soveraigne by him and by the Company of the said Order to be disposed of to some other Examples in which kinde are infinite to bee related Windsore the fairest and most stately of our English Pallaces was by King Edward who adorned and beautified it conceived most fit to bee the Seate of that most excellent Order which he had established An house indeed worthie of such inhabitants and therefore worthily honoured by them For here they alwayes leave in readinesse the mantle of their Order to be layed up for them for any suddaine chances which might happen to require their presence at Saint GEORGES Chappell or in the Chapter-house Here doe they solemnize the Installations of their Brethren and performe their obsequies And lastly such a reverend regard they owe the place that if they come within two miles of it except that they be hindered by some weighty and important businesse they alwayes doe repaire thereto and putting on their mantles which are there in readinesse proceed unto the Chappell and there make their Offerings Nor doe they go at any time from out the Castle if their occasions bring them thither till they have offered in like manner I should now from the Knights and from the Order proceed unto the Patron of it but that I first must meet an errour by some reputed as a Law and Statute of the Order and so delivered by tradition from hand to hand viz. that those of this Heroicke Order are by their Order bound Vt mutuo se iuvent that they defend each other at all extremities and assaies But doubtlesse there is no such matter Onely the Knights are bound not to ingage themselves in the service of a forreine Prince without licence from the Soveraigne nor to beare Armes on one side if any of their Fellowes bee already entertained upon the other This is the ground of the report for Omnis fabula as the Mythologists affirme fundatur in Historia Yet hereupon Alphonso Duke of Calabria sonne unto Ferdinand King of Naples knowing that Charles the eighth of France threatned the conquest of that Kingdome did with great importunitie request to be elected of this Order as accordingly hee was Conceiving that if once he were Companion of that Order the King of England as the Soveraigne thereof would be obliged to countenance and aide him in his Warres against the French Which hopes as they were built upon a false and ruinous ground so is it not to bee admired if they deceived him Polydore Virgil who before accounted mutuall defence to be a Statute of this Order doth in this passage overthrow his owne building Concluding this relation of Alphonsus and his investiture with this note Iampridem ea consuetudo ferendi auxilij obsoleverat that long agoe that custome had beene out of use He might as well have said and more agreeable unto the truth it had never beene 10 Having thus spoken of the Statutes of this most noble Order whereby they are and beene govern'd wee will descend in the next place to give you notice of their Patron which after the opinion of those times they chose unto themselves Of which thus Pol. Virgil in his English Historie Ordâ— verò est D. Georgio ut bellatorum praesidi dicatus quare equites quotannis diem ei sacrum multis ceremonijs colunt This Order is saith hee dedicated unto Saint George as the chiefe Saint and Patron of the men of Warre whose Festivall they therefore solemnely observe with many noble Ceremonies But what need Polydore have beene produced unto this purpose since from the Charter of the Institution we have a testimony more authenticall For there King Edward tells us that to the honour of Almighty GOD and of the blessed Virgin our Ladie St. Mary and of the glorious Martyr Saint GEORGE Patron of the right noble Realme of England and to the exaltation of the holy Catholicke Faith hee had ordained established created and founded within his Castle of Windsore a Company of twenty sixe noble Knights to bee of the said most noble Order of Saint GEORGE named the Garter 'T is true indeed that Polydore hath well observed with how great Ceremonie and solemnitie the Knights doe celebrate this Feast Attending both on the Vespers and the day it selfe at divine Service attired in the most rich and stately Mantles of the Order and gallantly adorned with their most rich sumptuous Collars which wee call of S. S. the Image of Saint GEORGE garnished with pearles and precious stones appendant to them In which their going to the Church and in their setting at the Table they goe and set by two and two every one with his fellow which is foreagainst him in his stall And if by chance it happen that his fellow be not present he doth both goe and set alone I say if so it chance to happen for all the fellowes are obliged to be there personally present without a just and reasonable cause acceptable to the Soveraigne or his Deputie and signified by speciall Letters of excuse Other the pompe and rich magnificence of this Feast I forbeare to mention as utterly unable to expresse it The minde is then best satisfied in such things as this when the eye hath seene them But I proceed unto St. George Of which their Patron and of the noble Order it selfe the Marriage of the Tame and Isis a Poeme written some yeeres past doth thus descant Auratos thalmos regum praeclara sepulchra Et quaecunque refers nunc Windesora referre Desine Cappadocis quamvis sis clara Georgi Militia procerumque cohors chlamydata intenti Cincta periscelidi suras te lumine tanto Illustret tantis radijs perstringet orbem Vt nunc Phrixâ—um spernat Burgundia vellus Contemnat cochleis variatos Gallia torques Et cruce