the constitution of his country the service of tacitly aban- doning a position which had been perhaps necessarily achieved by his father, but which it was not desirable that
the sovereigns of England should permanently occupy.His only child by his wife Queen Caroline was the Princess Charlotte Augusta, married in 1816 to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, afterwards king of the Belgians. She died in childbirth November 6, 1817.
GEORGE of Cappadocia, who from 356 to 361 was Arian archbishop of Alexandria, was born about the beginning of the 4th century. According to Ammianus (xxii. 11), he was a native of Epiphania, in Cilicia; but universal tradition makes him a Cappadocian. Gregory Nazianzen tells us that his father was a fuller, and that he himself soon became notorious as a parasite of so mean a type that he wouk “ sell himself for a cake.” By his powers of insinuation he succeeded in obtaininga lucrative contract for supplying bacon to the army, but fulfilled its terms so ill that he was soon compelled to abscond after he had with diflieulty escaped death at the hands of the indignant soldiers. After many wanderings, in the course of which he seems to have lived for some time at Constantinople, and to have amassed a considerable fortune as receiver of taxes, he ultimately reached Alexandria. It is not known how or when he obtained ecclesiastical orders ; but, after Athanasius had been banished in 356, George was promoted by the influence of the then prevalent Arian faction to the vacant see. His persecutions and oppressions of the orthodox ultimately raised a rebellion which coni- pelled him to flee for his life; but his authority was restored, although with difficulty, by a military demonstration. Untaught by experience he resumed his course of selfish tyranny over Christians and heathen alike, and raised the irritation of the populace to such a pitch that, within a few days after the accession of Julian, they rose en masse, dragged him out of prison, where he had been placed by the magistrates for safety, paraded him with every indignity through the streets on the back of a camel, burnt his dead body, and cast the ashes into the sea (December 24, 361). with much that was sordid and brutal in his character George combined a highly cultivated literary taste, and in the course of his chequered career he had found the means of Collecting a splendid library, which J nlian ordered to be carefully preserved and conveyed to Antioch for his own use. The original sources for the facts of the life of George of Cappadocia are Ammianus, Gregory Naziauzen, Epipha- nius, and Athanasius. In modern times his character has been drawn with graphic fidelity by Gibbon in the 23d chapter of the Decline and Fall.
GEORGE, Saint, according to Metaphiastes the Byzantine hagiologist, whose narrative is substantially repeated in the Roman .lcta Sanctorum and in the Spanish breviary, was born in Cappadocia of noble Christian parents, from whom he received a careful religious training. Having embraced the profession of a soldier, he rapidly rose under Diocletian to high military rank. \Vhen that emperor had begun to manifest a pronounced hostility towards Christi- anity George sought a personal interview with him, in which he made deliberate profession of his faith, and, earnestly remonstrating against the persecution which had begun, resigned his commission. He was immediately laid under arrest, and after various tortures, finally put to death at Nicomedia (or, according to other accounts, at Lydda) April 23, 303. His festival is observed on that anniversary by the entire Roman Church as a semi-duplex, and by the Spanish Catholics as a duplex of the first class with an octave. The day is also celebrated as a principal feast in the Greek Church, where the saint is distinguished by the titles lieyahépap'rvp and rporratqudpoc.
In the canon of Pope Gelasius (494) George is mentioned among the martyrs whom the Roman Church venerates, but whose gesta it does not read.[1] The language implies that even at that date much had been written concerning him, but little that the Catholic Church Could accept as trust- worthy. Numerous traits front the biography of the here- tical archbishop had already crept, it would seem,into the acta of the orthodox soldier ; and it was feared that any vigorous attempt to eliminate these would leave but a small residue of fact. Modern investigation has proved that apprehension to have been well-founded, for even on the Catholic side in the controversy regarding the existence and character of St George, the chief contention is simply the improbability that within the space of 150 years a turbulent and unscrupulous Arian ecclesiastic should have come to be reputed a holy martyr for the Catholic faith. The caution displayed with regard to St George in the 5th century was not long preserved , Gregory of Tours, for example, asserts that his relics actually existed in the French village of Le Maine, where many miracles were wrought by means of them ; and the Venerable Bede, while still explaining that the gesta of St George are reckoned apocryphal, commits himself to the statement that the martyr was beheaded under Dacian,king of Persia, whose wifeAlexandra,however, adhered to the Catholic faith. The dragon was a still later introduction into the legend, which, as given by J acobus de Voragine and later writers, ceases to represent the here as in any sense a sufferer. In its current popular form the story of his successful conflict is probably a mere modification of the old Aryan mythus, to which many inter- preters are now disposed to attach a solar interpretation.
The popularity of the name of St George in England dates from the time of Richard Cu‘ur de Lion, who, it was said, had successfully invoked his aid during the first crusade; but it was not till the time of Edward III. that he was made patron of the kingdom, although at the council of Oxford in 1222 it had already been ordered that his feast should be kept as a national festival. The republics of Genoa and Venice were also under his protection; and his name is much revered in all the Oriental churches.
See Hcylin, The History of that most famous Saynt and Souldier Qf Christ Jesus, St George of C'appadocia (1631) ; and Milner, An Historical and Critical Inquiry into the EJ-isteacc and Character of St George, Patron of England (1795). For some account of the numerous artistic representations, whether of his martyrdom or of his triumph, see. J amieson 3 Sacred and Li‘gcrzdln'y Art, vol. ii.
- ↑ The full text of this canon is given by Heylin, p. ii. 0. 9.
