Medieval Sourcebook:
The Golden Legend: St. George
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See:
Of S. George, Martyr, and first the interpretation of
his name.
George is said of geos, which is as much to say as earth, and orge that is tilling. So
George is to say as tilling the earth, that is his flesh. And S. Austin saith, in libro de
Trinitate that, good earth is in the height of the mountains, in the temperance of the
valleys, and in the plain of the fields. The first is good for herbs being green, the
second to vines, and the third to wheat and corn. Thus the blessed George was high
in despising low things, and therefore he had verdure in himself, he was attemperate by
discretion, and therefore he had wine of gladness, and within he was plane of humility,
and thereby put he forth wheat of good works. Or George may be said of gerar, that is
holy, and of gyon, that is a wrestler, that is an holy wrestler, for he wrestled with the
dragon. Or George is said of gero, that is a pilgrim, and gir, that is detrenched out, and
ys, that is a councillor. He was a pilgrim in the sight of the world, and he was cut and
detrenched by the crown of martyrdom, and he was a good councillor in preaching. And his
legend is numbered among other scriptures apocryphal in the council of Nicene, because his
martyrdom hath no certain relation. For in the calendar of Bede it is said that he
suffered martyrdom in Persia in the city of Diaspolin, and in other places it is read that
he resteth in the city of Diaspolin which tofore was called Lidda, which is by the city of
Joppa or Japh. And in another place it is said that he suffered death under Diocletian and
Maximian, which that time were emperors. And in another place under Diocletian emperor of
Persia, being present seventy kings of his empire. And it is said here that he suffered
death under Dacian the provost, then Diocletian and Maximian being emperors.
Here followeth the Life of S. George Martyr.
S. George was a knight and born in Cappadocia. On a time he came in to the province of
Libya, to a city which is said Silene. And by this city was a stagne or a pond like a sea,
wherein was a dragon which envenomed all the country. And on a time the people were
assembled for to slay him, and when they saw him they fled. And when he came nigh the city
he venomed the people with his breath, and therefore the people of the city gave to him
every day two sheep for to feed him, because he should do no harm to the people, and when
the sheep failed there was taken a man and a sheep. Then was an ordinance made in the town
that there should be taken the children and young people of them of the town by lot, and
every each one as it fell, were he gentle or poor, should be delivered when the lot fell
on him or her. So it happed that many of them of the town were then delivered, insomuch
that the lot fell upon the king's daughter, whereof the king was sorry, and said unto the
people: For the love of the gods take gold and silver and all that I have, and let me have
my daughter. They said: How sir! ye have made and ordained the law, and our children be
now dead, and ye would do the contrary. Your daughter shall be given, or else we shall
burn you and your house.
When the king saw he might no more do, he began to weep, and said to his daughter: Now
shall I never see thine espousals. Then returned he to the people and demanded eight days'
respite, and they granted it to him. And when the eight days were passed they came to him
and said: Thou seest that the city perisheth: Then did the king do array his daughter like
as she should be wedded, and embraced her, kissed her and gave her hls benediction, and
after, led her to the place where the dragon was.
When she was there S. George passed by, and when he saw the lady he demanded the lady
what she made there and she said: Go ye your way fair young man, that ye perish not also.
Then said he: Tell to me what have ye and why weep ye, and doubt ye of nothing. When she
saw that he would know, she said to him how she was delivered to the dragon. Then said S.
George: Fair daughter, doubt ye no thing hereof for I shall help thee in the name of Jesu
Christ. She said: For God's sake, good knight, go your way, and abide not with me, for ye
may not deliver me. Thus as they spake together the dragon appeared and came running to
them, and S. George was upon his horse, and drew out his sword and garnished him with the
sign of the cross, and rode hardily against the dragon which came towards him, and
smote him with his spear and hurt him sore and threw him to the ground. And after said to
the maid: Deliver to me your girdle, and bind it about the neck of the dragon and be not
afeard. When she had done so the dragon followed her as it had been a meek beast and
debonair. Then she led him into the city, and the people fled by mountains and valleys,
and said: Alas! alas! we shall be all dead. Then S. George said to them: Ne doubt ye no
thing, without more, believe ye in God, Jesu Christ, and do ye to be baptized and I shall
slay the dragon. Then the king was baptized and all his people, and S. George slew the
dragon and smote off his head, and commanded that he should be thrown in the fields, and
they took four carts with oxen that drew him out of the city.
Then were there well fifteen thousand men baptized, without women and children, and the
king did do make a church there of our Lady and of S. George, in the which yet sourdeth a
fountain of living water, which healeth sick people that drink thereof. After this the
king offered to S. George as much money as there might be numbered, but he refused all and
commanded that it should be given to poor people for God's sake; and enjoined the king
four things, that is, that he should have charge of the churches, and that he should
honour the priests and hear their service diligently, and that he should have pity on the
poor people, and after, kissed the king and departed.
Now it happed that in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, which were emperors, was so
great persecution of christian men that within a month were martyred well twenty-two
thousand, and therefore they had so great dread that some renied and forsook God and did
sacrifice to the idols. When S. George saw this, he left the habit of a knight and sold
all that he had, and gave it to the poor, and took the habit of a christian man, and went
into the middle of the paynims and began to cry: All the gods of the paynims and gentiles
be devils, my God made the heavens and is very God. Then said the provost to him: Of what
presumption cometh this to thee, that thou sayest that our gods be devils? And say to us
what thou art and what is thy name. He answered anon and said: I am named George, I am a
gentleman, a knight of Cappadocia, and have left all for to serve the God of heaven. Then
the provost enforced himself to draw him unto his faith by fair words, and when he might
not bring him thereto he did do raise him on a gibbet; and so much beat him with great
staves and broches of iron, that his body was all tobroken in pieces. And after he did do
take brands of iron and join them to his sides, and his bowels which then appeared
he did do frot with salt, and so sent him into prison, but our Lord appeared to him the of
same night with great light and comforted him much sweetly. And by this great consolation
he took to him so good heart that he doubted no torment that they might make him suffer.
Then, when Dacian the provost saw that he might not surmount him, he called his enchanter
and said to him: I see that these christian people doubt not our torments. The enchanter
bound himself, upon his head to be smitten off, if he overcame not his crafts. Then he did
take strong venom and meddled it with wine, and made invocation of the names of his false
gods, and gave it to S. George to drink. S. George took it and made the sign of the cross
on it, and anon drank it without grieving him any thing. Then the enchanter made it more
stronger than it was tofore of venom, and gave it him to drink, and it grieved him
nothing. When the enchanter saw that, he kneeled down at the feet of S. George and prayed
him that he would make him christian. And when Dacian knew that he was become christian he
made to smite off his head. And after, on the morn, he made S. George to be set between
two wheels, which were full of swords, sharp and cutting on both sides, but anon the
wheels were broken and S. George escaped without hurt. And then commanded Dacian that they
should put him in a caldron full of molten lead, and when S. George entered therein, by
the virtue of our Lord it seemed that he was in a bath well at ease. Then Dacian seeing
this began to assuage his ire, and to flatter him by fair words, and said to him: George,
the patience of our gods is over great unto thee which hast blasphemed them, and
done to them great despite, then fair, and right sweet son, I pray thee that thou return
to our law and make sacrifice to the idols, and leave thy folly, and I shall enhance thee
to great honour and worship. Then began S. George to smile, and said to him: Wherefore
saidst thou not to me thus at the beginning? I am ready to do as thou sayest. Then was
Dacian glad and made to cry over all the town that all the people should assemble for to
see George make sacrifice which so much had striven there against. Then was the city
arrayed and feast kept throughout all the town, and all came to the temple for to see him.
When S. George was on his knees, and they supposed that he would have worshipped
the idols, he prayed our Lord God of heaven that he would destroy the temple and the idol
in the honour of his name, for to make the people to be converted. And anon the fire
descended from heaven and burnt the temple, and the idols, and their priests, and sith the
earth opened and swallowed all the cinders and ashes that were left. Then Dacian made him
to be brought tofore him, and said to him: What be the evil deeds that thou hast done and
also great untruth? Then said to him S. George: Ah, sir, believe it not, but come with me
and see how I shall sacrifice. Then said Dacian to him: I see well thy fraud and thy
barat, thou wilt make the earth to swallow me, like as thou hast the temple and my gods.
Then said S. George: O caitiff, tell me how may thy gods help thee when they may not help
themselves! Then was Dacian so angry that he said to his wife: I shall die for anger if I
may not surmount and overcome this man. Then said she to him: Evil and cruel tyrant! ne
seest thou not the great virtue of the christian people? I said to thee well that thou
shouldst not do to them any harm, for their God fighteth for them, and know thou well that
I will become christian. Then was Dacian much abashed and said to her: Wilt thou be
christian? Then he took her by the hair, and did do beat her cruelly. Then demanded she of
S. George: What may I become because I am not christened? Then answered the blessed
George: Doubt thee nothing, fair daughter, for thou shalt be baptized in thy blood. Then
began she to worship our Lord Jesu Christ, and so she died and went to heaven. On the morn
Dacian gave his sentence that S. George should be drawn through all the city, and after,
his head should be smitten off. Then made he his prayer to our Lord that all they that
desired any boon might get it of our Lord God in his name, and a voice came from heaven
which said that it which he had desired was granted; and after he had made his orison his
head was smitten off, about the year of our Lord two hundred and eighty-seven. When Dacian
went homeward from the place where he was beheaded towards his palace, fire fell down from
heaven upon him and burnt him and all his servants.
Gregory of Tours telleth that there were some that bare certain relics of S. George,
and came into a certain oratory in a hospital, and on the morning when they should depart
they could not move the door till they had left there part of their relics. It is also
found in the history of Antioch, that when the christian men went over sea to conquer
Jerusalem, that one, a right fair young man, appeared to a priest of the host and
counselled him that he should bear with him a little of the relics of S. George. for he
was conductor of the battle, and so he did so much that he had some. And when it was so
that they had assieged Jerusalem and durst not mount ne go up on the walls for the
quarrels and defence of the Saracens, they saw appertly S. George which had white arms
with a red cross, that went up tofore them on the walls, and they followed him, and so was
Jerusalem taken by his help. And between Jerusalem and port Jaffa, by a town called Ramys,
is a chapel of S. George which is now desolate and uncovered, and therein dwell christian
Greeks. And in the said chapel lieth the body of S. George, but not the head. And there
lie his father and mother and his uncle, not in the chapel but under the wall of the
chapel; and the keepers will not suffer pilgrims to come therein, but if they pay two
ducats, and therefore come but few therein, but offer without the chapel at an altar. And
there is seven years and seven lents of pardon; and the body of S. George lieth in the
middle of the quire or choir of the said chapel, and in his tomb is an hole that a man may
put in his hand. And when a Saracen, being mad, is brought thither, and if he put his head
in the hole he shall anon be made perfectly whole, and have his wit again.
This blessed and holy martyr S. George is patron of this realm of England and the cry
of men of war. In the worship of whom is founded the noble order of the garter, and also a
noble college in the castle of Windsor by kings of England, in which college is the heart
of S. George, which Sigismund, the emperor of Almayne, brought and gave for a great and a
precious relique to King Harry the fifth. And also the said Sigismund was a brother of the
said garter, and also there is a piece of his head, which college is nobly endowed to the
honour and worship of Almighty God and his blessed martyr S. George. Then let us pray unto
him that he be special protector and defender of this realm.
Source.
The Golden Legend or Lives of the Saints. Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine,
Archbishop of Genoa, 1275. First Edition Published 1470. Englished by William
Caxton, First Edition 1483, Edited by F.S. Ellis, Temple Classics, 1900 (Reprinted 1922,
1931.)
This chapter is from: Volume 3:
Scanned by Robert Blackmon. bob_blackmon@mindspring.com.
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