William Fleming
Published: 2010-10
Total Pages: 0
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: put into a vessel filled with molten lead, and finally beheaded.' ' He suffered at Diopolis [another name for Lydda] in the city of the Persians upon April 23rd.' As no one can for a moment imagine that a man, so learned as Vincentius, would quote from the apocryphal history condemned by Pope Gelasius; we must conclude, then, that there was some genuine history, or histories, of St. George, like that of Simeon Metaphrastes, then in existence. Hermanns Schedal's Biography of St. Georf/e. Schedal, a doc'tor of the University of Padua, and author of the Chronicn Chronicorum, which was published in the year 1493. His evidence is this: ? ' George, of Cappadocia, a Tribune, and a famous soldier of Jesus Christ, suffered about this time. Coming from Cappadocia to Diopolis [Lydda], a city of the Persians, like another Roman Curtius, and like Cedrus, king of Athens, who delivered themselves to death for their country, he offered himself a victim in order to slay the dragon. After killing the dragon he was stretched upon the rack, his body was lacerated with wounds, his bowels were torn out, with divers other torments, until at last he finished his life by being decapitated.' Metaphrastes, in his anniversary oration on the Feast of St. George's Martyrdom, uses the same metaphor. After dwelling ou the snares laid for the martyr, he enumerates amongst chapter{Section 4them, ' the kingdom of this world and its glory, the frowns of an angry emperor, and the terrors of torture and death.' He concludes by saying that ' it was consoling to see this most astuta dragon, who used to boast of his triumphs over mankind, rejoicing in his victories, successfully eluded by a young man in the flower of his youth, and so despised and shamed that he was utterly astounded.' The Lei/end of St..
