ST. GEORGE OF ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") SIR,—You will probably be inundated with letters on the subject, but if every one were deterred from addressing you on that ground, Mr. E. D. Stone would go uncontradicted. It is necessary to point out that he has fallen into a very vulgar error about St. George of England. There were two men,—one, St. George of Cappadocia, who was martyred at Rome A.D. 290; and another, an Arian Bishop, a native of Cilicia, who was lynched by the mob at Alexandria A.D. 361. It ought to be unnecessary to have to tell any one that St. George of England is the first of these two, and not the second. The latter was undoubtedly a scoundrel, and your correspondent's excuse for confusing him with St. George of England is probably the authority of no leas a writer than Emerson, who committed himself to the following statement : —" George of Cappadocia, born at Epiphanis in Cilicia" [this discrepancy should have been a warning] " was a low parasite, who got a lucrative contract to supply the army with bacon. A rogue and informer ; he got rich and had to run from justice. He saved his money, embraced Arianism, collected a library ; and got promoted by a faction to the episcopal throne of Alexandria. When Julian came, A.D. 361, George was dragged to prison. The prison was burst open by the mob, and George was lynched as he deserved. And this precious knave became in good time St. George of England, patron of chivalry, emblem of victory and civility, and the pride of the best blood of the modern world." Emerson was probably betrayed into this extravagant blunder by being a too credulous student of Gibbon, who could not resist the opportunity, which the common name of these two men afforded him, of destroying a reputation revered by Christendom. The real St. George, our St. George, was a native of Cappadocia, who entered the Roman Army as a boy and rose to high rank. During the persecution under Diocletian he proclaimed himself a Christian, was executed accordingly at Rome, seventy years before the lynching of his namesake at Alexandria. All particulars of his life and martyrdom are to be found in Peter Heylyn's "Historie of that Most Famous Saint and Souldier of Jesus Christ, St. George of Cappadocia," published in 1631.—I am, Sir, &o.,
H. E. 0.
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