GEORGE
811
GEORGE
August 2, 1545, in the catlierlral at Merseburg. His ■whole time was tliencefurth devoted to this holy work. Above all low ambition and revenge himself, he en- deavored to remove them from others. He was a peacemaker among princes. Insults he bore with Christian magnanimity. He lived with God in his heart, and for God in his intercourse with men. Lu- ther, Justus, Jonas, and others were his most intimate friends. As in life, so in death, he was full of resii?- nation, faith, and love ; dwelling most sweetly on the promises, especially John iii, 16 ; x, 27, 28, and Matt. xi, 28. He died Oct. 17, 1553, aged forty-six. His synodal addresses, in Latin, were published by Came- rarius (1555) ; his German writings by Melancthon (7th edit. 17-11). Melancthon wrote two elegies on his death, and Camerarius wrote his life in Latin, which was translated into German by Schubert, and publish- ed, with additions (Zerbst, 1854). — Middleton, Biofj. pA-ang. i, 292 ; Beckmann. Hist. d. Furst. Anhults, vols. V, vi; Herzog, Real-Encijlclop. v, 24.
George Scholarius. See Gexnadius of Cox-
STANTIXOPLE.
George, St., patron of England, and of several other countries and towns, according to the legend, was a prince of Cappadocia, who fell a martjT under Dioclesian, 303. His greatest achievement was the conquest of a dragon, bj' which he delivered a king's daughter from death. He is commonly figured on horseback, in full armor, with the dragon writhing at his feet. It is difficult to separate the mythical from the historical in the accounts of St. George. Cal- vin and the Magdeburg centuriators deny that there ever was such a person. But it is certain that he was honoi'cd, and churches named after him, at a very earlj' period, in the Eastern Church, especially in Georgia. Gregory of Tours mentions the honors jiaid him in France in the Gth century ; and Gregory the Great or- dered the renewal of an ancient church of St. George that was falling to ruin. His relics are said to be still preserved in the church of St. Germain des Pres at Paris. The Crusaders held St. Georii:e in special devo- tion ; the English Council held at Oxford, 1222, made St. George's daj' a festival for all Englar.d ; in 1347 Edward III instituted the Order of the Garter under his protection. Some writers identify St. George with the Arian George of Cappadocia (so Gil>bon, Decline, and Fall, Harpers' edit., ii, 454). Mr. John Hogg, sec- retary of the Eoyal Society of Literature, published a pamphlet in 1862, entitled Supplemenfary Notes on St. George the Martyr, in which he professes to settle the question \i\ a Greek inscription taken from a very an- cient church at Ezra, in Syria, in which George is styled Martyr, and the date of his death fixed before A.D. 341), while George the Arian, of Cappadocia, was yet living. See Heylyn, Historie of St. George (Lond. lG31,4to) ; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap, xxiii ; Acta Sanctorum, t. iii; Milner, Historical and critical Inquirg into the History and Character of St. George ; Lowick, Life and Martyrdom of St. George ; Methodist Quarter- ly Reriew, 1862, p. 499.
George the Arian, also George the Fuller, or OF Cai'padocia, was called by the first name from the occupation of his father, and liy the second be- cause he was an inliabitant of that province. Few men have been more corrupt and more despicable. He began life as a parasite. Afterwards he was pro- vided with a subaltern office in the commissariat de- partment of the arm}', and he there embezzled the money intrusted to him, and was obliged to fl}'. He then became a vagabond. To so many bad qualities he added profound ignorance ; he had no knowledge of letters, and still less of the holy Scriptures and the- ology. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, this man appeared to the Arians a fit instrument to work their will. The}' brought the emperor Constans into their views ; he was their protector and their support. At
Antioch, in the year 356, there was an assembly of thirty Arian bishops, and in this assembly George was ordained, and received the mission to go and govern the Church of Athanasius. George entered Alexan- dria accompanied, by the order of Constans, by sol- diers under the command of Sebastian, duke of Egypt, and a Manichaean. Under pretext of searching for Athanasius, the}' violated the most sacred jJaces, and committed ever}' kind of crime. The Alexandrians rose against him and obliged him to fly ; but, sup- ported by Constans, he returned more powerful than ever. But "the pagans, whose temples George had pillaged, afterwards rose in revolt, threw themselves upon George, and overwhelmed him with abuse and with blows. The next day they paraded him through the town upon a camel, and, having lighted a pile, they threw him and the animal on which he was mounted upon it, ai'ter which tlie}' threw his ashes to the Avinds, and plundered his house and his treasures (A.D. 361). Julian, on learning this outrage, was much irritated, or pretended to be so ; he wrote a severe letter to the insurgents, but pursued them no further. As a lover of books, he endeavored to recover the liljrary of George, which was very numerous. It is hard to rec- oncile the accounts of George's extreme ignorance witli the accounts given of this library. — Socrates, Hist. Feci. bk. ii, ch. xiv, 28 ; bk. iii, ch. ii ; Keander, Ch. Hist, ii, 60 ; Hook, Eccles. Biog. v, 205 ; Sozomen, Hist. Feci, iii, 5 ; i\', 10 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Ginerale, XX, 116.