St. George

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30395, 20 March 1964, Page 10

St. George

Sir, —Gibbon was, no doubt, erudite and painstaking, but not always reliable, owing to his prejudices. He accepted the identification of St. George with the infamous George of Cappadocia, current at his date. His ignorance of the real St. George is common to us all, but most of those who have tried seriously to disentangle the confused records of various Georges of ancient times accept the opinion that the St. George who is on the roll bf Christian martyrs was much earlier than George of Cappadocia. He was probably a Roman soldier under the Emperor Diocletian, who was put to death for refusing to renounce his Christian faith.— Yours, etc, G. F. SEWARD. March 19, 1964.

Sir, —In supposing Gibbon to be an erudite, painstaking, and reliable historian, “Auri Fames” is grievously mistaken. The “Decline and Fall,” a literary masterpiece, is profoundly unhistorical — little more, in fact, than a piece of Voltairean propaganda. In an article in the “Dublin Review” for October, 1916, Belloc maintained that Gibbon’s work “is open, upon almost every page, to strict historical criticism which wrecks its historical authority”: and he went on to illustrate his thesis with a detailed analysis of Gibbon's account of the trial and death of Priscillian. To see how unreliable Gibbon is, one has only to compare his account of these events with that of Sulpicius Severus, the only authority he quotes, and the only one available to him. As far as St George is concerned, Krumbacher, Delehaye and most other historians now hold that doubts about the existence of the martyr are quite unreasonable.—Yours, etc, G.HD. March 19, 1964.

Sir, —I hasten to assure “Auri Ftmes,” without I hope, disappointing him, that “Veritati (sic)” was merely the unfortunate result of onefinger typing. If I may add one more lash at the dead horse it is merely to add to Gibbon, who still has a place on my bookshelf, two authors who unfortunately have not: M. Huber, OSB, “Zur Georgslegende,” 1906, and H. Delahaye, “Les Legendes grecques des saintes militaires,” 1909. Neither of them is infallible. —Yours, etc, VERITATIS FAMES. March 19, 1964. [This correspondence may now cease.—Ed, “The Press.”]