Editing Saint George (section)

==History==
[[File:Nuremberg chronicles f 124v 2.jpg|thumb|George depicted in the ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' of 1493]]
Very little is known about George's life. It is thought that he was a [[Roman Empire|Roman]] military officer of [[Cappadocian Greeks|Cappadocian Greek]] descent, who was martyred under [[Roman emperor]] [[Diocletian]] in one of the [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|pre-Constantinian persecutions]] of the 3rd or early 4th century.<ref name=":1">{{Harvnb|Lampinen|Mataix-Ferrándiz|2022|p=14}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=23 April 2020 |title=Who was Saint George and why is he England's patron saint? |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/st-georges-day-google-doodle-england-patron-saint-soldier-dragon-a9479816.html |access-date=21 August 2020 |website=The Independent}}</ref> Beyond this, early sources give conflicting information.

The English historian [[Edward Gibbon]]<ref>[[Edward Gibbon]], ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', 2:23:5</ref><ref name="Emerson">{{citation |title=Emerson |page=520 |year=1996 |editor1-last=Richardson |editor1-first=Robert D. |quote=George of Cappadocia&nbsp;... [held] the contract to supply the army with bacon&nbsp;... embraced [[Arianism]]&nbsp;... [and was] promoted&nbsp;... to the episcopal throne of [[Alexandria]]&nbsp;... When Julian came, George was dragged to prison, the prison was burst open by a mob, and George was lynched&nbsp;... [he] became in good time Saint George of England |editor2-last=Moser |editor2-first=Barry}}.</ref> argued that George, or at least the legend from which the above is distilled, is based on [[George of Cappadocia]],<ref name="Gibbon">Edward Gibbon, ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', 2:23:5</ref><ref name="CathEnc">{{citation |title=[[Catholic Encyclopedia]] |contribution=Saint George |quote=it is not improbable that the apocryphal Acts have borrowed some incidents from the story of the Arian bishop}}.</ref> a notorious 4th-century Arian bishop who was [[Athanasius of Alexandria]]'s most bitter rival, and that it was he who in time became George of England. This identification is seen as highly improbable. Bishop George was slain by Gentile Greeks for exacting onerous taxes, especially inheritance taxes. [[J. B. Bury]], who edited the 1906 edition of Gibbon's ''[[The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'', wrote "this theory of Gibbon's has nothing to be said for it". He adds that "the connection of St. George with a dragon-slaying legend does not relegate him to the region of the myth".<ref name="CE1913">{{Cite CE1913|last=Thurston|first=Herbert|authorlink=Herbert Thurston|wstitle=St. George}} "There seems, therefore, no ground for doubting the historical existence of St. George, even though he is not commemorated in the Syrian, or in the primitive Hieronymian Martyrologium, but no faith can be placed in the attempts that have been made to fill up any of the details of his history. For example, it is now generally admitted that St. George cannot safely be identified by the nameless martyr spoken of by Eusebius (Church History VIII.5), who tore down Diocletian's edict of persecution at Nicomedia. The version of the legend in which Diocletian appears as persecutor is not primitive. Diocletian is only a rationalised form of the name Dadianus. Moreover, the connection of the saint's name with Nicomedia is inconsistent with the early cultus at Diospolis. Still less is St. George to be considered, as suggested by Gibbon, Vetter, and others, a legendary double of the disreputable bishop, George of Cappadocia, the Arian opponent of St. Athanasius."</ref> Saint George in all likelihood was martyred before the year 290.<ref name="hogg">{{citation |last=Hogg |first=John |title=Supplemental Notes on St George the Martyr, and on George the Arian Bishop |journal=Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature of the United Kingdom |pages=106–136 |year=1863 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044090850256;view=1up;seq=9 |publisher=Royal Society of Literature}}</ref>