ST. GEORGE'S DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4399, 26 April 1875, Page 3

ST. GEORGE'S DAY.

Amongst the various traditions which have been set forth as to the origin of.St. George's Day, few are as reliable as the following, which is supported by the historian Gibbon. In the year 363 a.d., the attempts of the Emi peror, Julian to put down Christianity and restore Paganism were the causes of many disgraces and oppressions of the Christians, who were deprived of all civil rights and for-. bidden to hold any office connected with the government of the State. The Pagans abused without prudence and remorse the moments of their prosperity, and the unhappy objects of,their cruelty were released from torture only by death. The dead bodies were dragged through the streets, and such was the rage of the Pagans that oven the lifeless bodies were pierced by the spits of cooks and the distaffs of enraged women, and barbarously treated. Such scenes of religious madness exhibited the most odious and offensive picture of human nature ; buij the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more attention from the rank of the victimv, the splendor of the capital of Egypt, and the more immediate bearing which it has upon the origin of St. George's Day. George, from his parents or his education, surnamed the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania, in Cecilia, in a fuller's shop. From this obscure and servile origin ho raised himself by the talents of a parasite, and tho patrons whom ho assiduously flattered procured for their worthless dependant a lucrative commission or contract to supply the army with bacon. The employment was mean. He rendered it infamous. Indeed, his malversations were bo notorious that he was compelled to seek refuge in flight in order to escape from the hand of justice. Soon after this disgrace, in whicli he saved his fortune at the expense of hiß honor, he embraced ostensibly the profes- | sion of Arianism. From his love of learning, he accumulated a valuable library of history, rhetoric, philosophy, and theology, and the ]• choice of the prevailing faction promoted this George of Cappadocia to tho throne of Athanasius. The accession of tho new archbishop was that of a barbarian conqueror; each

moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. So great .was his intolerance that during the reign of Constantius he was expelled by the fury, or rather by the awakened justice of the people, and it was not without a violent struggle that the civic arid military powers of the State could restore his authority arid gratify his revenue. The messenger that proclaimed the accession of the Emperor Julian at Alexandria, also proclaimed the downfall of the fiendish archbishop. George, with two of his most obsequious ministers, Count Diodorus and "Dracentius was ignominiously- dragged in chains to the public prison. The prison was broken open by the rage of a superstitious multitude, impatient of the tedious forms of judicial procedure. The enemies of God and man expired beneath these insults, and their lifeless bodies were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel. The inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience, and the meritorious death of the archbishop obliterated the memory of his iniquitous life. The rival of Athanasms was held dear and sacred by the Arians, and the seeming conversion of those sectarians introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic Church. The odious stranger assumed the mark of a martyr, a saint, and a Christian hero, and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned St. George, the patron saint of England—the patron of arms, of chivalry, and of the Garter.