Celt, Druid, Elder

[CrackSmokeRepublican]

Looks pretty trippy... has a lot of Gnostic material mixed in and other New age stuff:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/gno/fff/fff65.htm

The book Celt, Druid, Elder (has commentary on ancient Scotland, England and Ireland ... hence Doggerland):
http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/imag ... -Elder.pdf

Sempiterna Lux! Nec divitias nec honores peto; me modo Divinæ Lucis radio illumines!

                 From An Essay of Transmigration in Defence of Pythagoras (London, 1692).

CHAPTER V

KING ARTHUR

AFTER Constantine the Great it is to the British king, Arthur, that we owe the preservation of the memory of St. George, whose charming qualities of mind and heart appealed with irresistible force to a prince no less Christian.

Descended through the same royal line as Queen Helena from Caractacus, King of the Silures (some authorities say he was a descendant of Constantius and Helena)1 the historicity of Arthur's reign is well established.

In the Middle Ages doubt was thrown upon Arthur's existence; this, however, at a time when it had become fashionable to view with scepticism the tales and romances of former days. St. George came in for the same summary treatment by medieval scholars.

 

The historical writer Gibbon states : "The Ro­mance of Arthur transcribed in the Latin of Geoffrey of Monmouth, and afterwards translated into the fashionable idiom of the times, was enriched with the various though incoherent ornaments which were familiar to the experience, the learning, or the fancy of the twelfth century."

 

"Every nation embraced and adorned the popular romance of Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. At length the light of science and reason was re-kindled; the talisman was broken; the visionary fabric melted into air; and by a natural though un­just reversal of public opinion the severity of the present age is inclined to question the existence of Arthur."2 Skene, the Welsh writer says: "I do not hesitate to receive the Arthur of Nennius as the his­toric Arthur, the events recorded of him being not only consistent with the period but connected with localities that can be identified and with most of which his name is still associated.3

 

The twelfth-century chronicler Giraldus Cambren­sis, declared that he saw the tomb of Arthur opened at Glastonbury by order of Henry II; that he saw the hero's bones and his famous sword Excalibur and read the inscription on the tombstone that this verily was King Arthur's grave; and in the sixteenth century two celebrated antiquarians and historians, John Cleland and William Camden vouched that the tomb and inscription were still there and had been seen by them.4

 

Knyghton and Bromton both gave an account of the discovery of the tomb of King Arthur in the reign of Henry II, one of whom stated that he had posi­tively seen and touched it. Richard I (when on Cru­sade) presented to the king of Sicily King Arthur's famous sword Excalibur.5

 

The quaint Fuller, writing in 1634, says: "The best evidence that once Arthur lived in Britain is because it is certain he died in Britain, as appears undeniably by his corpse, coffin and epitaph taken out of his monument in Glastonbury in the reign of Henry II whereof many persons of quality were eyewitnesses."

 

Many of the early British kings and queens were buried at Glastonbury (hallowed by its associations with early Christianity), King Cod, father of Queen Helena amongst them. But by far the most illustrious of the mighty dead was Britain's renowned warrior, King Arthur.

 

Besides holding his kingly office, Arthur was a Gule­dig, or war-chieftain and as such is commemorated in the Welsh triads and bardic records. "The Welsh scholars assign these bardic effusions to the sixth century. Some are probably of later date, but if we may accept what is now generally believed, we must attribute some of these poetic remnants to a time when Arthur was a recent memory, and give credence to them as at least founded on fact."6

 

Also founded on fact is Morte D'Arthur, it is no flight of Sir Thomas Malory's fancy. For Margaret of Richmond, the most learned lady of the day, and the patroness of learning at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, had specially employed the old Welsh knight, at her own cost, to collect, sift and garner material from Welsh MSS. then extant, traditions and the legends in Wales and Cornwall, and historical data wherever he could find it concerning the British King Arthur, "the first of the most Christian worthies of the world" (see Caxton's preface to the Morte D'Arthur, "from whom her son Henry Tudor, the heir-presumptive to the throne, was lineally descended".7

 

Sir Thomas Malory entitled his work the "noble and joyous history of the Grete conqueror and excel­lent Kynge Arthur, some time Kynge of this royalme, then called Bretagne"—a work pronounced by Sir Walter Scott to be "the best prose romance the Eng­lish language can boast of".8

 

Nennius, the eighth century historian, tells of Arthur and his exploits; it is the earliest extant work in which the name of Arthur is recorded.9

 

According to William of Malmesbury Arthur "up­held the sinking state and raised the broken spirit of his country-men to war - he was a man worthy to be celebrated not by idle fiction but by authentic his­tory",10 and Henry of Huntingdon calls him "the mighty warrior general of the armies, and chief of the kings of Britain.11

 

So much of legend and absurd fable has grown around the historic Arthur, that, in modern days, the question has been asked "Who is this regal personage that stalks athwart the path of history as a shadowy apparition clothed in the mists of legend?"

 

It is said that the boy-king Arthur possessed in a remarkable degree a magnetic personality, and suc­ceeded where his uncle Aurelius, and his father Uthyr Pendragon had failed, in winning the allegiance of the petty princes of the realm.

 

In the "Ancient Chronicles of the Kings of Britain", Arthur's pedigree, appearance, character and actions are thus described: "Arthur ap Uthyr Pendragon was made King of all Brittain when he was but young of fifteen years of age, but he was faire and boulde and doughtie of bodie and to meek folk he was good and courteous and tardy of spending and made him wondrously well-beloved among all men."12

 

Windsor Castle "built and founded by King Arthur13 on the historic table-mound where after­wards Edward III built his Round Tower. Here, Chaucer tells us "Arthur built his Castle", and accord­ing to a tradition mentioned by Froissart was the exact spot upon which Arthur held his Court and assembled his Knights.

 

Of the many titles to fame which Arthur might claim that which interests us most in the present quest is his institution of "The Order or Society of St. George and the Round Table" which the young king made his instrument for the defence of the realm against "Rome and the heathen" and for purifying the world. His knights were bound by the strictest vows of truth, purity, loyalty and self-devotion.

 

"To reverence the King as if he were

Their Conscience, and their conscience as their King;

To break the heathen and uphold the Christ;

To ride abroad redressing human wrongs

To speak no slander, no nor listen to it;

To honour his own word as if his God's

To lead sweet lives of purest chastity."

 

It was about two hundred years after the martyr­dom of the soldier-saint when our British king, Arthur, set about the founding of his Order of Chivalry to which he gave the name "The Round Table". He adopted St. George, the "Champion Knight of Christendom" as the Patron and Protector of his goodly fellowship. From this time the example of the "Victorious One" became the high ideal of every British knight. St. George's fearless intercession with Diocletian made him specially popular in liberty- loving Britain.

 

The Round Table Assembly was kept at several places, especially at Caerleon in Monmouthshire, at Winchester, Windsor and at Camelot in Somerset. The chief place of meeting was at Winchester, where King Arthur caused a great round table to be made, at which the knights at Whitsuntide did sit. Whitsun­tide, the Feast of Pentecost, is for ever associated with Arthur, for it was then in his Court at Camelot that "marvels were shown to him".14

 

The knights sat at their Round Table and every knight while he did eat had at his back a squire with his armour in waiting. No seat was thought to be of more dignity that the rest, yet one seat was called the seat perilous (peerless) reserved for that knight who did excel the rest in virtue. That place by consent of all the knights was allotted to King Arthur, who for his valour surpassed all other knights and professors of arms. According to Malory King Arthur but re­modelled the Round Table on Christian lines, it being originally constructed by Merlin for Uthyr Pen- dragon, who presented it to Leodogran, but that on Arthur's marriage with Leodogran's daughter, the Table and a hundred knights with it were sent to Arthur and Guinevere as a wedding gift that should please him more than a great deal of land.

 

Arthur's vision of a Round Table of Fellowship, embodying the spirit of humility, patience, chivalry and service was truly noble. It was a step forward in practical Christianity, an object lesson to the nation which has never been forgotten. From the Table the knights went into the world to redress wrongs or assist others it was the centre of their service to man.

 

The oldest and most authentic copy of the Rules of the Round Table is in a fifteenth century MS. in the Harleian collection, British Museum.

 

The following are the "Oathes of the Knights of the Table Round in the time of the Noble King Arthur":

 

(I) Not to put off your armour from your bodies but for requisite rest in the night.

 

(2) To search for marvellous adventures whereby to attain bruit and renown.

 

(3) To defend to your power and might the poor and simple people in their right.

 

(4) Not to refuse aid to them which shall ask a just quarrel.

 

(5) Not to hurt, offend or play any lewd part the one to the other.

 

(6) To fight for the protection, defence and wel­fare of Britain.

 

(7) Not to perseugh any or particular profit, but honour and your title to honesty.

 

( Not to break your promise or service for any reason or occasion whatsoever.

 

(9) To prove your life to maintain the honour of the country.

 

(10) Sooner choose to dye honestly than to fly shamefully.

 

That there was an earlier Round Table Fellowship, as mentioned by Malory, is revealed by a study of the "Legends of the Holy Grail". The Legends have as a starting point the tradition that Joseph of Arimathea came to Britain accompanied by a little band of early converts to the Christian Faith. These were the "Quidam advanae" the "certain strangers" or Culdees of the early British Church.15

 

"Some recent writers, among them Miss L. Weston who speaks with authority, have given it as their opinion that the legend of the Holy Grail, although of British origin, has certainly been sophisticated by Oriental or alien ideas . . . in its early form it is demonstrably of British origin."16

 

The Oriental influence is well explained by Mr. J. W. Taylor; he clarifies much of the "mystery" which surrounds the simple story. He says : "All the extensive literature of the Grail quest, which dates from 1200 onwards, is grouped around the tradition of St. Joseph of Arimathea and his companions bringing the Holy Cup of the Last Supper with them to Glastonbury, and it is full of the idea that these were the ancestors of those great knights who formed the flower of Arthur's court.

 

"In the 'Grand St. Grail' one of the earliest of these histories, we are told that after the death of St. Joseph and his son Josephes, the keeping of the Holy Grail was confided to Alain, the son of Brons, and cousin of Josephes. At Alain's death his brother Josue became Grail keeper, and after him six kings, the last of whom was Pelles.

 

"The daughter of King Pelles had a son named Galahad, who becomes the special hero of the Holy Grail. His father is said to have been Lancelot and this makes him ninth or tenth from the time of St. Joseph.

 

"Galahad is one of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table, and it is worthy of note that the ten generations described as intervening between the times of St. Joseph (A.D. 60-90) and King Arthur (A.D. 500) are seriously consistent with such measure of history as may well underlie the romance.

 

"In the most readily accessible books of the 'San Grail' (apart from the Morte D' Arthur) 'The High History of the Holy Grail' which was probably com­piled about A.D. 1220 from the book of Josephes in the Abbey Library at Glastonbury, and has been translated by Dr. Sebastian Evans, it is impossible not to recognise the important and essential part played by this Hebrew lineage or descent. Every book bears witness to this, and the very names of many of the knights or their associates seem to imply their Jewish (Israel) origin. Eli-nant of Escavalon, Joseph, Josephes, Lot, Joseus, Josiuos, Petrus, Brons or Hebron, Bruns Brandalis, Urien, Jonas, Pelles and Pelleas and Ban may be taken either as examples of Hebrew names or as indicating some special Hebrew association.17 However apocryphal many of the legends may be regarding them, their names are, I believe, the names of historical persons, and the stories of their lives are in rough harmony with that imperfect militant Christianity which was, not only the ideal of the medieval compilers, but may well have been the actual achievements of these distant des­cendants of the Judean Maccabees.

 

"In the Morte D'Arthur which contains almost entire the 'Quest of the San Grail' we find curious and startling digressions regarding King David, King Solomon, and Judas Maccabeus. These are mixed with the legends of the Arthurian Knights, and no direct explanation is offered or has been offered for their presence. But if, as many of the old writers affirm, King Pelles, Sir Percival, Lancelot and Gala­had might be considered as descendants of these Hebrew kings, their chief ancestors being Joseph of Arimathea and the Brons or Hebron who married the sister of Joseph, not only do these interpolations be­come less unintelligible, but the fusion of cultivated Hebrew with Celtic stock may to some extent account for that wonderful achievement in moral ideal and Christian chivalry which characterises the story of King Arthur's Court and the quest of the Holy Grail.

 

"Mr. Alfred Nutt who has made a special study of the Grail legends, considers them to be essentially British in origin, and suggests that they were carried from Britain to France at the time of the Celtic immi­gration into Brittany, between the fourth and sixth centuries. He professes to trace their beginnings from pre-Christian times in Britain, but recognises that the Joseph of Arimathea history is undoubtedly one of the conversion of Britain - He appears to acknowledge an historic King Arthur, but attempts nowhere to explain that insistence on Hebrew lineage and wonderful atmosphere which may be regarded as among the distinguishing features of the legends of the Holy Grail. In the 'High History' this Hebrew relationship is repeatedly mentioned. Sir Perceval; his mother Y'Glais, his sister Dindrane; Sir Lancelot, the hermit Knight; Joseus; King Pelles, the Fisher King; and the King of the Castle Mortal, are all represented as being directly of the lineage of Joseph, and in one or two passages this appears to include King Arthur also. In the grand St. Grail we read that Gawain was the son of Lot of Orcaine (Orkney) and that King Lot was descended from Petrus. If so (as Gawain was the nephew of King Arthur) the King himself and nearly all his Table Round are repre­sented as having Hebrew relationship and being for the most part of Hebrew lineage.

 

"If the medieval writers had not found the histori­cal ground work of their writings already recorded for them they would never have dreamed of Hebrew characters as types of British knighthood; there was not so much love for the Jew in medieval times that his people, or the descendants of Briton and Jew should be exalted as the greatest heroes of contem­porary fiction. The medieval romancers only invented new and prolonged adventures for recognised heroes whose reputed lineage and even names they did not dare to alter. There is, after all, but little reason to disbelieve the tale we are told by the compiler of the `High History' viz. that the Latin original, written by a scribe named Josephus, was in the Abbey Library of the Isle of Avalon (or Glastonbury) where the bodies of King Arthur and Guinevere were buried, and that relationship of the chief actors and the main outlines, of their adventures were regarded as histori­cal and worthy of belief."18

 

It is not a little remarkable that in the Legends of the "Holy Grail", Brons or Hebron sailing from Palestine, is said to have floated across on a garment taken from Joseph's son. That there is some histori­cal truth hidden in this legend we cannot doubt. Mr. Alfred Nutt believed that Pelles, the name of the Fisher King had a significance now lost. In view of the age-long custom of the Israelites to take the name of territory with which they had some connection it is a striking fact that it was from Pella the Christian Israelites had their last view of the Holy Land from the East, that is from Trans-Jordania. Somewhere on the slopes of Gilead, near the scene of Jacob's first view of the land of his descendants and of the capital of the exiled David, was Pella, so called by the Macedon Greeks from its springing fountain. This was the city well known in Christian history as the refuge of the little band which here took shelter when the armies of Titus (A.D. 70) gathered round Jeru­salem. From Pella these refugees caught their last glimpse of the hills of Palestine; it was the "last sigh" of the Hebrew exile.19 They had obeyed the Divine injunction to "flee to the mountains"20 The proba­bility is that the name of Pelles, the Fisher King, had its derivation in this Pella of Gilead.

 

The main source whence the legend writers drew their knowledge of Joseph of Arimathea was the Evangelium Nicodemi. In England it was known as far back as the latter quarter of the eighth century. "Whence this knowledge and popularity of this apocryphal gospel in England centuries before it entered prominently into the literature of any other European people?"21

 

The Holy Grail in some of the romances is des­cribed as a cauldron, again as a dish or cup. The vessel which King Arthur and his companions recover is described in the Taliesen poem as a cauldron, the rim of which is set with pearls.

 

In view of the Hebrew influences discovered in the romances it is interesting to note that the Jewish rabbis were fond of comparing God's Law with a ring set with pearls. The ring was thus the whole of the Law and the pearls the separate commandments. The text (Matt. vii, 6) could be read "Give not the ring to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine".

 

In the time of King Arthur the meaning of the symbolism underlying "The Holy Grail" and every­thing connected with it was not yet lost, and much that is "mystery" in modern times was by our ances­tors clearly understood.

 

We are, however, aware that the Cup used at the Last Supper was the original of the legends of the "Holy Grail", fantastic though these legends had be­come by the Middle Ages, but the Hebrew connection and atmosphere never entirely disappeared and, un­doubtedly, kept alive that reverential attitude to the Sacred Cup which was so strong a feature of early British Christianity.

 

In the "High History of the Holy Grail" Alain le Gros "had eleven brethren, right good Knights like as he was himself. And none of them all lived in his Knighthood but twelve years, and they all died in arms, for their great hardiment in setting forward of the Law that was made new."

 

There were twelve brethren:

 

"Alain le Gros was the eldest (or first).

Gorgalians was next.

Brans Brandalis was the third.

Bertholez le Chanz the fourth.

Brandalis of Wales was the fifth.

Elinant of Exavalon was the sixth.

Calobrutus was the seventh.

Meralis of the Palace Meadow was the eighth.

Fortunes of the Red Launde was the ninth.

Melaarmaus of Abanie was the tenth.

Galians of the White Tower was the eleventh.

Alibans of the Waste City was the twelfth."

 

"All these died in arms in the service of the Holy Prophet that had renewed the Law by His death and smote His enemies to the utmost of their power. Of these two manner of folk, whose names and records you have heard, Josephus the good clerk telleth us, was come the good Knight Sir Perceval, he was of the lineage of Joseph of Arimathea."22

 

No stretch of imagination is required to see that these twelve knights, brethren in arms and religious belief, were martyrs, and in the order set forth in the ancient records. All, or most of them fell, most probably, in the Diocletian persecution and the variety of their names indicates that all were not of British origin. The second on the list, Georgalians, would appear to be none other than St. George, one of the best known victims of the persecution. Nor need it cause surprise that a Palestinian was included in this list for in view of the Hebrew origin of many of the knights, George of Lydda, descended from "the saints that dwelt at Lydda" who were sons of Israel and not Gentiles, would quite naturally be given a place among the twelve pattern knights who "all died in arms for their great hardiment in setting forward of the Law which was made new".

 

As further evidence of St. George's Israel origin it may be noted that Galerius in condemning the saint to death, addressed him as "Chief of the Galileans."

 

Numerous Eastern writers speak with an intimate note concerning the constant connection between the churches in Palestine and remote Britain.23 It is not, therefore, surprising to learn that Eastern usages con­tinued in the British Church for centuries.24

 

The tenth on the list, Melaarmaus of Abanie is quite evidently Melior, Bishop of Carlisle, a native of Southern Scotland. While the twelfth, Alibans of the Waste City, is clearly St. Alban of Verulam, which city was laid waste by the Saxons and many precious Celtic MSS. destroyed.25 It is a well-known fact of history that Melior and Alban suffered in the Diocle­tian persecution.

 

Dr. Mortimer Wheeler in his "Verulamiam" quotes a poem published in 1627 and headed "In Verula­mium, A forgotten Citie". It runs:

 

Stay thy foot that passest by

Here is wonder to decry

Churches that interr'd the dead,

Here themselves are sepulchred,

Houses where men slept and wak't

Here in ashes under-rak't

In a word to allude;

Here is come where once Troy stood;

Or more fully home to have,

Here's a Citie in a grave

Reader, wonder thinke it then

Cities thus would die like men;

And yet wonder thinke it none

Many Cities thus are gone.

 

The learned Ussher says of King Arthur : "He re­formed the celebration of Divine worship, which had been nearly destroyed in the cities, villages and towns; he restored the churches which had been destroyed by the pagan Saxons, or were going to decay, and he took care to have proper bishops and pastors ap­pointed to watch over the Churches, and to devote themselves to the study of religion."26

 

The Church government was that of presbyters and deacons acting in conjunction with their bishop. "From the honour and respect we paid in the earliest periods to the presbyters, acting in conjunction with their bishop, who scarce did anything in the administration and government of the Church without the advice, consent and amicable concurrence of his pres­byters, it arose that they were allowed to sit together with the bishop in the Church, and their seats were dignified, with the name of thrones as the bishop's was; only with this difference, that his was the high and theirs the second ones; whence Constantine, fol­lowing the custom of the Church, summoning Chres­tus, Bishop of Syracuse, to the Council of Arles, bids him bring with him two of the second throne, that is the Presbyters."27

 

When the British ecclesiastics who were summoned by Constantine to the Council of Arles returned, they would bring with them for compliance in their churches the decision of the Council to adopt St. George as "The Champion Knight of Christendom". They would also bring many details, now lost, con­nected with the life and martyrdom of the soldier- saint which would be received in liberty-loving Britain with admiration and reverence. The Council was held but ten years after the martyrdom, and when, two hundred years later King Arthur adopted St. George as the "Patron and Protector" of his "Goodly Fellowship" he chose one whose name was already well known among the people, and whose example of courage and Christian service was upheld by the Churches as a beacon to urge on the faithful to greater endeavour. We have here valuable evidence of the sturdy character of the early British Church.

 

King Arthur's Charge to his Knights is clearly one of unselfish devotion to duty in which gentleness and valour are at once inculcated.

 

The Charge

Given by King Arthur to his Knights when they were invested

 

God make you a good man and to fail not of beauty.

 

The Round Table was founded in patience, and in humility and in meekness.

 

Thou art never to do outrageously, nor murder, and always to flee treason, by no means to be cruel and always to do ladies, damosels and gentlewomen succour.

 

Also to take no battles in a wrongful quarrel for no law nor for no world's goods.

 

Thou must keep thy word to all and not be feeble of good belief and faith.

 

Right must be defended against might, and the dis­tressed must be protected.

 

Thou must know good from evil and the vain glory of the world, because great pride and great bobance maketh great sorrow.

 

Should anyone require ye of any quest so that it is not to thy shame, thou should'st fulfil the desire.

 

Ever it is a worshipful knight's need to help an­other worshipful knight when he seeth him in great danger, for ever a worshipful man should be loath to see a worshipful man shamed, for it is only he that is of no worship and who fareth with cowardice that shall never show gentleness nor no manner of goodness when he seeth a man in any danger, but that always a good man will do ever to another man as he would be done to himself.

 

It should never be said that a sworn brother hath injured or slain another brother.

 

Thou should'st not fail in these things : charity, abstinence and truth.

 

No knight shall win worship but if he be of worship himself, and of good living and that loveth God and dreadeth God and that he getteth no wor­ship be he ever so hardy.

 

An envious knight shall never win worship for an it happeth an envious man once to win worship he shall be dishonoured twice therefore, and for this cause all men of worship hate an envious man and will chew him no favour.

 

Do not, nor say not, anything that will in any way dishonour the fair name of Christian Knight­hood, for only by stainless and honourable lives and not by prowess and courage shall the great goal be reached.

 

Therefore be a good knight and so I pray to God so ye may be, and if ye be of prowess and of worthiness ye shall be a knight of the Table Round.28

 

The death of King Arthur took place at Camlan in Cornwall in the year A.D. 542. His body was taken to Glastonbury for interment, "Queen Guinevere bade at her death that his body should be set beside her own when he shall end. Hereof have we the letters and her seal in this chapel of Glastonbury, and this place made she be builded new on this wise or ever she died."29

 

From Froissart, the court chronicler of the time, we learn that it was a romantic pilgrimage Edward HI and his young Queen Phillipa made to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere's tomb at Glastonbury which determined the Plantagenet monarch to refound the British Order of the Round Table, the Assemblies of Arthurian days and once again make Windsor the centre of European chivalry.

 

CHAPTER VI

EDWARD III

 

IT was in the reign of Edward III that the martyred St. George received his most lasting and enduring memorial in the refounding of the Order of St. George and the Garter. The idea, however, was that of his predecessor Richard Coeur de Lion. On the eve of his departure for the Crusades Richard held a council in the Great Hall at Winchester, and, assem­bling his barons around King Arthur's table delivered, for guidance in his absence, the interests of his king­dom to the keeping of William Longchamps. To dis­tinguish his band of valiant knights from the other Crusaders Richard adopted the novel device of caus­ing to be fastened to their legs blue thongs, "being what they had in readiness, by means of which, being minded of their future glory they might be stirred up to behave themselves valiantly".

 

It was natural that in the land of Palestine the renown of St. George should take fresh hold upon the minds of the Crusaders. "King Richard vowed to re-found the old British Order and make those of his followers 'Companions of St. George' who succeeded in a desperate attempt to scale the walls of Jerusalem. The cry Tor St. George' aroused the Crusaders to renewed energy and they advanced under the banner bearing his device, a red cross on a white ground, now first used by Richard I as the British ensign. 'From this time', states the Chronicle, 'all soldiers entering battle shall have their common word and cry "St, George forward" or "Upon them St. George".' From Coeur de Lion's time to the sixteenth century the Red Cross of St. George was borne as a badge over the armour of an English soldier. Richard II son of the Black Prince and Henry V issued orders that every soldier should be distinguished by wearing the Red Cross of St. George."

 

As a thank offering for victory over the Moslems Richard Coeur de Lion rebuilt Constantine's Church at Lydda over the tomb of St. George which had been destroyed by the Persians and rebuilt by Justinian; destroyed by the Saracens and rebuilt by Richard, who replaced the ancient structure by an edifice 250 feet long and zoo feet wide. This Church was kept in repair with oak from the royal forests down to the time of Edward IV.

 

The photograph of the remains of Constantine's and Coeur de Lion's Church taken by the Palestine Exploration Society in 1875 is of exceptional interest now as these picturesque ruins are no longer visible.

 

The structure which replaced the original Church was probably that mentioned by Samuel Brett, one of the party, who recorded the "Travels of Fourteen Englishmen to Jerusalem in the year 1669". Upon taking their departure from Jerusalem to proceed to Bethlehem the writer says: "At a distance we saw St. George's Church where the Fathers say the chains remain wherewith St. George was bound."

 

Richard in 1190 remained for six weeks with his army at Lydda and passed through it the next year when returning from Jerusalem. He did not live to return to England and it was left to Edward III to carry out his predecessor's cherished scheme for re- founding the old British Order.

 

At the first Crusade the Conqueror's nephew, the Count of Flanders, received from the English under him the appellation "Fitz St. George" (son of St. George)—evidence not only of his soldierly qualities but of the knowledge of St. George and the veneration in which he was held in the army.

 

Edward I renewed the tournaments which had fallen into abeyance, and his Round Table at Kenil­worth with a hundred knights clad in silk revived the ancient glories of King Arthur's Court.

 

Following Coeur de Lion's precedent the new Cru­sader king, Edward I, on the eve of his departure for the Holy Land assembled his knights in Council around Arthur's Table. At this Council the decision was taken and the order given that for the better pre­servation of this historic relic around which they were assembled it should be encircled with an iron tyre, and further that the Table should be placed in the gable of the Great Hall at Winchester Castle for a permanent memorial of those days of chivalry. There it remains today.1

 

The Table is seventeen feet in diameter and is one of our national treasures. In the centre is the rose of Sharon, which has always been associated with St. George.

 

"The modern Round Table conferences are a sur­vival of this ancient form of procedure when impor­tant matters arise for discussion in the conduct of the state."2

 

About one hundred years later Edward III modelled his "Order of St. George and the Garter" on the lines of King Arthur's Fraternity of Knighthood, having for its purpose "good fellowship". Richard Coeur de Lion's "blue thongs" were adopted as the badge of the "Most Honourable Order of Chivalry in Europe". The "blue thongs" took the form of a blue garter and remains the badge of the Order. Here we have the origin of the Order of the Garter; an origin far removed from that given it in the legend which connects it with the Countess of Salisbury having dropped a garter at the dance.

 

But there must have been a memory, a tradition, or a certain knowledge of an earlier society with the garter for its badge; in an ancient bardic poem the following lines appear:

 

"Drink; off Drink,

In honour of the great Pendragon.

Neighbours, welcome the elected

Man of the garter; leader of your ranks.

To the tything, honoured institution

Make a libation all its men.

To the illustrious Pen-dyke,

Illustrious leader, man of garter and collar."

 

Edward III empire and institution builder, estab­lished George of Lydda Patron Saint of England.

 

"The people of the Holy Land have always held St. George in great honour, and to this day the picture of him slaying the dragon is found in every Church. It was from them we English learned to honour him too for the Crusaders took him as their Patron or Chief Saint of England, and "St. George for England" became the battle cry with which English soldiers charged to victory again and again. St. George lies buried at Lydda where his grave can still be seen. All the old pilgrims went to visit it and a great Feast was held there every year, the Feast of St. George, and it is kept up to this day. At one time Edward the Con­fessor was the Patron Saint of England, but King Richard, our great English Crusader altered that. It was well done, for certainly St. George the soldier is a better Patron of a fighting race than the meek and silent Confessor. And because he belonged first and still belongs to Palestine, having him for our Patron Saint is another link in the golden chain that joins the history of our England with that of the Holy Land.3

 

Having chosen the martyr-saint to be the guardian of his soldiers "Edward III caused his likeness to be painted mounted upon a lusty courser holding a white shield with a red cross, and gave to every one of his soldiers a white coat or cassock with a cross on each side, so that it was a seemly and magnificent thing to see the armies of the English to sparkle like the rising sunne, soldierie of other countries having no habit either to distinguish or adorn them."4

 

Froissart relates that on his return to England from France Edward III determined to carry out his solemn vow made at the tomb of King Arthur at Glastonbury to rebuild and embellish the great Castle of Windsor which King Arthur had founded, and whence so many knights had gone forth to display their prowess to all the world. He further desired to found an Order of Knighthood to be called the "Knights of the Blue Garter". The Knights were to be twenty-six in number and according to report and estimation the most valiant men in Christendom. Edward issued orders that the Feast of his new Fraternity should be celebrated every year at Windsor upon St. George's Day. His nobles heard it with great pleasure for it appeared to them highly honourable and capable of increasing love and friendship. On the surcoat and hood worn by the founder at the great celebration of St. George's Day in A.D. 1344 one hundred and sixty-eight garters with buckles and pen­dants were embroidered.5

 

The Order of the Garter originally included ladies who were known as "dames de la confraternitè de St. George".

 

The Chapel of the Order, St. George's Chapel, upon which Edward III expended much care in every detail of its construction and for which this royal organiser "secured religious liberty for his Fraternity by obtaining from Pope Clement VI in 1348 a papal bull declaring the chapel of St. George a free Chapel, i.e. free of papal control and jurisdiction".

"Two years later in 1350 on St. George's Day, April 2 3 rd, at the altar of the newly built chapel of the Order, five and twenty knights of England, headed by their gallant sovereign offered their arms to God and dedicated themselves to His service."6

 

Dean Hook describes the opening religious and dedicatory ceremony: "At the west door of St. George's Chapel the Primate of all England, Simon Islip, in full pontificals and wearing the pall, was standing to receive the Sovereign and the twenty-five Knights Companions who in solemn procession had issued forth in grand array bare-headed from the Round Tower. The Archbishop there pronounced that blessing on the Institution which still attaches to the Order, that everything was ordained to remind the Knights of their being Christian men engaged to maintain, wherever they may be, the cause of Christ. The Garter was to represent the importance of unity among the Knights, and each Knight was to bind it on his knee to be warned that in battle he should never flee. The motto was to suggest to them that nothing unseemly was to be done by a Knight, while the image of St. George was to instigate him to the acts of a hero. His purple robe indicated that the Knight was the equal of Kings; the collar always of the same weight with the same number of links was a witness of the bond of faith, of peace, of unity. They were called Companions of the Order to declare their readiness in peace and war to act as brethren and with one accord, The King with the Knights received the Holy Communion, devoting themselves to the service of God and the maintenance of truth and the resistance of all wrong doers."7

 

The formula used by the King at the ceremony of initiation bears out the high ideals to which the Knights were urged to aspire : "In the name of God and Saint George I dub thee Knight, loyally to uphold faith and justice, and to protect the Church, and women, widows and orphans."

 

Our forefathers, it is clear from historical records, brought religion to bear upon every action of their lives, and in the customs which contributed to the term "Merrie England" there was ever the recognition of duty to God and service to their country.

 

The Order of the Garter as instituted by Edward III included canons and other church dignitaries, and also poor knights pensioners who were to be main­tained at Windsor.8

 

Hepworth Dixon says of Windsor Castle : "The heights all around the Norman keep are capped with fame; one hallowed by a saint, another crowned with song, St. George is hardly more a presence in the place than Chaucer and Shakespeare, Edward and Victoria. Edward III in introducing a new Patron Saint to Windsor removed his own lodging and renounced the lower ward entirely to St. George. First came the Chapel of St. George, next came the College of St. George, then came the Canons of St. George, lastly came the Poor Knights of St. George."9

 

It is recorded that every Companion of the Order of St. George was enjoined to wear his mantle from the first vespers on St. George's Eve until the second vespers on the morrow wheresoever he might be, whether in the country or without. No knight might enter St. George's Chapel or assist at a chapel of the Order without wearing his "liverie".

 

"On St. George's Day, 1553, Edward VI the frail spiritually minded young monarch of sixteen sat in a room at Greenwich overlooking the river. Ill health had prevented his attendance at the service held in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. In accordance with the original rules of the Order when a Knight-Com­panion was prevented attending the feast in person `wheresoever he might be 'all his paraphanalia' was laid out before him, his habit and blue velvet mantle, and the 'jewels' as the garter and collar were called. The office of the Order was said before the pious Edward. The King, after the sermon, said to those about him : 'My lords, pray ye, what saint is St. George that we have so honoured him?'" The Marquess of Winchester then told him the legend of St. George slaying the dragon with his sword. The King fell a laughing and could not for a while speak. Probably Edward VI had succeeded as Sovereign to be a Knight-Companion of the Order without going through the formal investiture in St. George's Chapel and had never heard the beautiful words of admoni­tion said when the collar was put about the neck of a knight. The collar of the Order is said to have had its origin in the chain put around Joseph's neck by Pharaoh. Be that as it may the collar is the oldest form of personal decoration in the world.

 

Henry VII proved to be one of the most zealous of the English kings in support of St. George and the Order of the Garter, which had undergone slight changes in the centuries since Edward III's time in the costumes and organisation.10

 

Charles I is said to have been the "Great Increaser of the honour and renown of this most illustrious Order" and to have studied every detail of King Arthur's method, as well as that of Edward III for inculcating courtesy and good manners.11

 

Of the "Order of St. George and the Garter" Shakespeare wrote

:

"When first this Order was ordained, my lords

Knights of the Garter were of noble birth.

Valiant and virtuous, full of haughty courage

Such as were grown to credit in the wars;

Not fearing death, nor shrinking for distress

But always resolute in most extremes.

He that is not furnished in this sort

Doth but usurp the sacred name of knight,

Profaning this most Honourable Order."

 

The Order of St. George and the Garter remains the highest Order of Knighthood in Great Britain. The original number of knights, twenty-six, is still retained except that by statute passed in 1786 princes of the blood are admitted as supernumerary members.

 

The Garter was originally light blue silk, with the motto set in pearls, rubies and diamonds. It is now of dark blue velvet about an inch wide with the motto set in gold letters. The mantle has on the shoulder the badge of the Order, namely, a velvet escutcheon charged with the red cross of St. George and encircled with the garter and motto. The costume is very rich and is completed by a chain that consists of twenty- six pieces in which interlaced knots of cords interlace with roses (the rose of Sharon), each surrounded with the garter and its motto. Pendant from one of the roses is St. George piercing the dragon.

 

The oath taken when a knight is invested:

 

"You being chosen to be one of the honourable Company of the most noble Order of the Garter shall promise and swear by the Holy Evangelists, by you here touched, that wittingly and willingly you shall not break any statute of the said Order, or any article in them contained, the same being agreeable and not repugnant to the Laws of Almighty God and the laws of this realm, as far forth as to you belongeth and appertaineth, so help you God and his Holy Word."

 

The portrait of the founder of the Order in the vestry of the Royal Chapel of St. George has, on the frame, a Latin inscription "Edward the Third, the unconquerable King of England. Founder of this Chapel and of the Most Noble Order of the Garter"

It is significant that the King's sword thrust through two crowns and with the one on his head a third are the British King Cod's arms at Colchester. An histori­cal link is thus made with King Cod's daughter, the Empress Helena and her son Constantine and with St. George whose staunch friend Constantine was, and through whose proposal and influence the memory of the noble saint's life remains with us to this day.

 

Dean Baillie in his Foreword to St. George's Chapel states: "I think the most romantic thing of all is the great sword which hangs huge and stark behind the Altar, in the Ambulatory. The sword of Edward III, the man who stood at the moment in English history when Saxons, and Normans and Danes became Englishmen in the strenuous efforts of his wars; the man who founded the Order to which the Chapel belongs, and left his mark on English thought and purpose in the idea of chivalry which he enshrined in the whole foundation."12

 

A more perfect knowledge of the individuality and character of George of Lydda reveals that this great hero is worthy to have his memory perpetuated in the Order to which by hereditary right our monarchs belong. When the peasant natives of countries under Eastern influence are interrogated as to the origin of the great and stately buildings of which astonishing and interesting ruins still remain they declare that they are the work of Genii. In like manner the un­taught of our own land believe that the tradition of St. George is a relic of a magical figure whose memory is kept alive more because of the picturesque than for any solid historic truth behind the tradition.

 

The dignity inherent in the "Order of the Garter" has, to educated minds, secured to our Patron Saint a position far transcending the legends of mythical heroes and medieval saints.

 

CHAPTER VII
ST. GEORGE THE PATRON

 

"For thou amongst those saints whom thou doest see

Shalt be a saint and thine own nation's friend

And Pdtrone; thou St. George shalt be

St. George of merry England, the signe of victory."1

 

In old State and Civic records and Corporation and Church accounts endless references are found to the cult of St. George.

 

The first Order in which St. George is said to have been honoured is described by Ashmole (A.D. 1672) and is called "The Order of Constantinian's Angelic Knights of St. George".2

 

St. George had a place in an Anglo-Saxon ritual of Durham assigned to the sixth century and mentioned by Bede.3

 

In pre-conquest times a monastery and church dedicated to St. George at Fordington in Dorset is mentioned in King Alfred's will. The monastery at Thelford founded by Canute was dedicated to St. George.

 

In A.D. 1072 Robert D'Oyley, a Norman noble who had been granted large estates in Oxfordshire by William the Conqueror built near his castle a parish

 

church dedicated to St. George. This further indicates that the Normans were acquainted with the history of St. George before their arrival in England.

 

In A.D. 1222 St. George's Day, April 23rd, was ordered to be kept as a holiday of the lesser rank. In 1415 his festival was made a major double feast and was ordained to be observed like Christmas Day.

 

The red cross of St. George was written large across the countryside of medieval England. The influence of his cult was not confined to the nobles but acted upon by the whole people.

 

The memory of the soldier-martyr is perpetuated in the British National Flag of which the red cross of St. George is the foundation; overlaid with the cross of St. Andrew and the cross of St. Patrick. Com­menting on this C. J. Marcus expresses the truth that this complete symbol is the most glorious under which a Christian nation can reach its destiny.4

 

The Guilds of St. George celebrated their saint by processions or "Ridings"5 The national devotion to St. George is reflected in the plays of Shakespeare and also in the arts and crafts of the people. The inventory of the Earl of Leicester's chattels in 1588 contains the following item: "a knyfe case. George on horseback of woode painted and gilte, with a case for knyves in the tail of the horse and a case for oyster knyves in the breast of the dragon".6

 

A favourite name for an inn was very properly that of the Patron Saint. The "George" Inn at Glaston­bury dates from the fifteenth century. Many in Sussex belong to the sixteenth century, and in Kent over sixty inns are called after St. George.

 

The soldier-saint is depicted over the Royal entrance to the House of Lords and on the ceiling of the main corridor leading to the House of Commons.

 

In the realm of numismatics our Patron Saint finds a place of honour. The noble, a gold coin of the value of six shillings and eight pence issued in the reign of Edward III was re-issued in the reign of Henry VIII at the same value and named the George-noble from the figure of St. George slaying the dragon depicted on the obverse. This coin was, perhaps, the most notable contribution in this reign to the soldier-saint's memory.

 

In the first prayer-book of Edward VI, April 23rd was a red-letter day and had a special epistle and gospel appointed, but this was changed in the revision, and presently the King promulgated certain statutes severing the connection between the saint and the Noble Order of the Garter, keeping the Order but making an attempt to separate the romantic features from the religious. On the accession of Queen Mary these statutes were at once abrogated as "impertinent and tending to novelty". The festival then continued to be observed until 1567 when the ceremonies being thought incompatible with the reformed religion Queen Elizabeth ordered its discontinuance.

 

The cavaliers would have revived the celebrations of St.George's Day but this was prevented by the Civil War. It was long the fashion for gentlemen to wear a blue coat on St. George's Day in imitation of the blue mantle worn by the Knights of St. George, but this custom was never strongly revived.

 

At the time of the Reformation it became the custom to laugh at the saints and deny their existence. The fact that St. George was held in the highest esteem in many countries in Europe made him most obnoxious to Martin Luther (1483-1546). Calvin called him a "hobgoblin".7

 

"It is a little surprising that these irate theologians, who must have been very learned men, did not take the trouble to examine the history of St. George criti­cally and show in a cool and judicial fashion the absurdities of many of the legends which had gathered about and overlaid the story of his martyrdom."8

 

St. George having been classed as a mythical saint by Calvin and others began to decline in popularity; the views of the Reformers were very widely adopted by Protestants.

 

Peter Heylyn (A.D. 1633) who wrote for Charles I as an Anglican apologist to prove that St. George was not a mere myth, undertook "To clear the history of St. George from all further questions", and continues, "In this more neat and curious age, there are many who do peevishly reject these ancient stories which are commended to us in the best and gravest authors. I say not this to blunt the edge of any virtuous endeavours—only I say'd it a little to take downe, if possible, that height of selfe-conceit and stomacke wherewith too many of us do affront those worthies of former days."

 

In England there are one hundred and sixty-two churches dedicated to St. George, a fact which, alone, would keep the memory of the soldier-saint alive in our midst. "England has established him throughout the earth; on every ocean we have borne his flag, on every island we have reared his fame. We gave his name to St. George's Channel, the stormy inlet of the Irish Sea. The direst peril on the Atlantic Ocean we have called St. George's Bank. From Behring Straits to Maine, from Florida to Patagonia we have set him up on guard. When we were mapping out the Land of Desolation in the Indian Ocean we named the rockiest headland of that territory Cape St. George, and the old name of Madras was Fort St. George. This nomenclature is not a thing of the past by any means. Penang, Tasmania and Western Australia keep up the memory of the soldier-martyr, St. George, the Patron Saint of England."9

 

The spirit of St. George is with us still; it is seen in the behaviour of our fighting personnel on the sea, on land and in the air, and in the unity of purpose, courage and endurance of our people. Of this the familiar figure, St. George in conflict with the dragon, is a fitting symbol.

 

The British temper of self-discipline and restraint, the spirit of generous chivalry and the individual effort for the common weal which marks all great crises in our national life does not weaken with the passage of time; rather is there a strengthening of the spiritual qualities upon which these characteristics are founded.

 

This suggests the hope that under the British flag founded upon the cross of St. George, under the Anglo-Saxon banners, the English-speaking peoples will be led to the victory of the ideals which they all share; the victory will also be shared with the non- English-speaking peoples who will have found in Anglo-Saxon countries Justice, Liberty and Peace.

 

 

"Dumbly their plumage fans the gale

With silent gold their steeds are shod

Who noiseless ride in mystic mail

The immortal chivalry of God.

Each in his office is not slow

To wage the spiritual war

Nor least, where'er the English go

The good Saint George goes on before."

 

Staunch warriors of the Cross would tell

How battling under Syrian skies

As he on whom the mantle fell,

They saw the saint in arms of light

With steed of fire and lance of flame

They saw, and kindling at the sight

Hurled back the heathen in his name.

 

This was the name that greatly rang

When England greatly stood at bay,

And blithe the English bow string sang

On Cressy slope that August day.

This was the flag that danced and flew

Exultant o'er the plunging main,

Where them we spared, the storm wind slew

And wherefor not?

 

Let him deride whose soul with coarser sense is blurred,

For England loves that unseen guide

Sent forth to work his Master's word,

Who sleeplessly by land and wave

Hath kept her, and shall keep her thus,

Strong servant of the God who gave

His angels charge concerning us.10

 

 
 

 

Footnotes


Chapter I

 

1 Petits Bollandistes.

2 F. L. Porter, D.D., Syria's Holy Places.

3 Acts IX: 32-35.

4 Brit. Mus. M.S. Orient. No. 713 (Wright Catalogue, 191).

5 Petits Bollandistes

6 Life of St. George.

7 G. P. Baker: Constantine the Great.

8 Marc Velserus: Res. Vindel. Lib. V.

9 Kurtz: Church History, 22-26.

10 E. P. Baker: Constantine the Great, p. 70.

11 Eus. H.E., Bk. II, Ch.LI.

12 Eus. H.E., Vol. II, p. 264.

13 Ambrose of Milan: Liber Praefationem.

14 Sir Wallis Budge: George of Lydda, p. 23

15 Brit. Mus Orient. MS. No. 686 Fol. 177, C. I. See Sir Wallis Budge: George of Lydda, p. 23.

18 Brit. Mus. Orient MS. 686, Fol. 177, Ch. I.

17 Ibid.

18 Sir Wallis Budge: George of Lydda, p. 6g.

19 Ibid, p. 114

20 Life of St. George.

21 E. O. Gordon: St. George, Champion of Christendom.

22 Eus. H.E., Bk. I, Ch. LIX.

23 Gibbon: Decline and Fall, pp. 132-3.

24 Hardy: Christianity and the Roman Government.

25 Sidonius of Mentz built a church in honour of St. George.

26 Translation from Venantius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poictiers, Sixth Century.

 

Chapter 2

 

1 Sir Wallis Budge: George of Lydda, pp. 32-5.

2 Eus. V. Const., Bk. III, C. III.

3 C. S. Hulst: St. George, p. 22.

4 Ibid, p. T 03.

5 C. J. Marcus: St. George of England

6 Quoted by Gurney Benham in his book of Quotations.

7 G. T. Marcus: St. George of England.

8 C. 2S. Hulst: St. George, p. 39.

 

Chapter 3

 

1 J. Fleetwood, D.D. Lives of the Apostles, p. 417.

2 S. G. W. Benjamin: Persia, p. 185

3 Life of St. George.

4 G. J. Marcus: St. George of England, p. 19.

5 Kurtz: Church History, p. 52-3.

 

Chapter 4

 

1 Geof of Mon. Hist., Ed. J. A. Giles, D.C.L.

2 Epistola, p. 189.

3 Eccles. Hist., Lib. I, Ch. V.

4 Historia Brit., p. 381.

5 Morgan: St. Paul in Britain, p. 165.

6 C. J. Hefele, D.D.: Hist. of the Christian Councils.

7 Eus. V. Con., p. 93.

8 Eus. V. Con. I., 19-20

9 Ency. Brit. 14th Ed.

10 Gibbon: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

11 Triads. XXI. See Cambro-Briton, Vol. I and II.

12 Dean Stanley: Hist. of Eastern Church, p. 195.

13 Mason: The Persecution of Diocletian.

14 Mansi. Concilia Vol. II, pp. 476-477.

15 Dean Stanley: Hist. of Eastern Church, pp. 186-8.

16 Eus. V. Con. C.I. 35.

17 Gibbon (Bury) II., p. 567.

18 Riddles Lat. Dic.

19 Zockler: The Cross of Christ.

20 Kurtz: Church History, 34-4.21

21 Seymour: The Cross in Tradition and History.

22 Facsimile of Bayeaux tapestry in Chapter House, West­minster Abbey.

23 Hardy: Christianity and the Roman Government.

24 Lib. I, Ch. VIII. See English translation.

25 H. W. Blackburne: St. George's Chapel.

26 M. H. Bulley: St. George for Merrie England.

27 J. W. Crowfoot: Early Church in Palestine, p. 145

28 F. F. de San Pietro Agnostinians Saalzo.

29 M. E. Berchen: Early Moslem Architecture, p. 148

30 Dean Stanley: Hist. of the Eastern Church, p. 188.

31 Ibid.

32 Eumenius (Arntzein), p. 373 et. seq.

33 Eus. V. Con., p. 158.34

34 Inferno, XIX, 115. Milton, Prose Works, p.11.

35 Dean Stanley: History of the Eastern Church.

36 Kurtz: Church History. 42-1.

 

Chapter 5

 

1 Sir Thomas Malory: Hist. of King Arthur, p. 109

2 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Ch. XXXVIII.

3 Four Ancient Books of Wales. Vol. 1, p. 51.

4 C. R. Cammell: "King Arthur" in Everybody's.

5 C. P. B. James: Richard Coeur-de-Lion. Vol. 11, p. 250

6 Dr. Dickenson: King Arthur, p. 15.

7 E. O. Gordon: Pre-historic London, p. 158.

8 Printed by W. Copeland in 1556.

9 Historia Britonum.

10 History of the Kings, p.

11 History of England.

12 P. 49.

13 Froissart.

14 E. O. Gordon: St. George, Champion of Christendom.

15 See Celt, Druid and Culdee, p. 87.

16 Lewis Spence: Mysteries of Britain, p. 157.

17 See Apocrypha: I Esdras V, 12-37; IX, 12-34.

18 J. W. Taylor: The Coming of the Saints, pp. 211-16.

19 Dean Stanley: Sinai and Palestine, dd. 330-I.

20 Luke XXI, 20-1.

21 Alfred Nutt: Studies in the Legends of the Holy Grail.

22 High History of the Holy Grail.

23 Tertullian; Origen; Eusebius; Zozomen; Jerome; Theodoret and Socrates.

24 F. E. Warren: Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, p. 55.

24 Beale Poste: Britannic Researches, pp. 191-2.

26 Brit. Eccles. Antiq.

27 Bingham: Antiq. Eccles. Bk. I Ch. 18

28 See Le Morte D'Arthur, Globe Edition, p.

29 65. "High History of the Holy Grail, p. 134.

 

Chapter 6

 

1 E. O. Gordon: St. George, Champion of Christendom,

2 E. O. Gordon: Pre-historic London.

3 Estelle Blyth: Jerusalem and the Crusades.

4 Camden: Britannia.

5 Ashmole: Order of the Garter.

6 E. O. Gordon: St. George, Champion of Christendom.

7 Lives of the Archbishops.

8 Ashmole: Order of the Garter.

9 Royal Windsor

10 Ashmole: Order of the Garter.

11 E. 0. Gordon: St. George, Champion of Christendom.

12 H. W. Blackburne: St. George's Chapel.

 

Chapter 7

 

1 Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queene.

2 Order of the Garter.

3 Lives of the Saints

4 C. J. Marcus: St. George of England, p. 110

5 Hulst: St. George, p. 72.

6 Milton Waldman: : Elizabeth and Leicester, p. 17.

7 De Idol Rom. I cap. 5.

8 Sir Wallis Budge: St. George of Lydda, p. 17.

9 Hepworth Dixon: Royal Windsor.

10 Frank Taylor: The Gallant Way.

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Acts of the Apostles, ix, i8.

Aelfric, Archbishop of York, 15

Ambrose of Milan, Liber Praefatorium, 26 Apocrypha, Esdras, 73

Ashmole, Order of the Garter, go, 92, 93, 97

 

Baker, G. P., Constantine the Great, 22, 25

Bede, Lives of the Saints, g8

Benham, Gurney, Book of Quotations, 43

Benjamin, S. G. W., Persia, 45

Berchen, M. E., Early Moslem Architecture, 62 Bingham, Antiq. Eccles, 82

Blackburne, H. W., St. George's Chapel, 6o

Blyth, Estelle, Jerusalem and the Crusades, 89

Budge, Sir Wallis, George of Lydda, 27, 29, 32, 38, 100

Bulley, M. H., St. George for Merrie England, 6o

 

Calvin, John, De Idol. Rom, 100

Cambro-Briton, Triads, 5t

Camden, William, Britannia, 89

Clapton, Dr., Life of St. George, 22, 33, 45

Crowfoot, J. W., Early Churches in Palestine, 61

 

Dante, Alighieri, Inferno, 63

Dickensen, Dr., King Arthur, 68

Dixon, Hepworth, Royal Windsor, 92, 101

 

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th edition, 51

Eumenius (Arntzein), 62

Eusebius of Caesarea, Vit. Const., 50, 54, 63

Eusebius of Caesarea, Hist. Eccles. 25, 26, 39

Eusebius of Nicomedia, 64

Fleetwood, J., D.D., Lives of the Apostles, 44

Fortunatus, Venantius, 36

Froissart, John, 69

 

Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia, 48

Gibbon, Edward, Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, 35, 51, 54, 67

Gordon, E. O., Prehistoric London, 68, 87

Gordon, E. O., St. George, 34, 70, 87, 9o, 93

Grail, Legends of the Holy, 78, 83

 

Hardy, Christianity and the Roman Government, 35, 38

Hefele, C. J., D.D., Hist. of the Christian Councils, 50

Henry of Huntingdon, History of England, 78

Heylyn, Peter, St. George, Ioo

Hook, Dean, Lives of the Archbishops, 91

Hulst, C. S., St. George, 39, 43

 

James, C. F. B., Richard Coeur-de-Lion, 66

 

King, Rev. James, 43

Kurtz, Church History, 24, 47, 57, 64

 

Luke, St., xxi, 76

 

Malory, Sir Thomas, Hist of King Arthur, 65

Malory, Sir Thomas, Le Morte d'Arthur, 83

Mansi, Concilia, 53

Marcus, C. J., St. George of England, 40, 43, 99

Mason, The Persecution of Diocletian, 52

Melancthon, Epistola, 49

Milton, John, Prose Works, 63

Morgan, Rev. R. W., St. Paul in Britain, 49

 

Nennius, Historia Britonum, 68

Nutt, Alfred, Legends of the Holy Grail, 78

Petits Bollandistes, 17, 21

Porter, F. L., D.D., Syria's Holy Places, 18

Poste, Beale, Britannic Researches, 79

 

Riddle's Latin Dictionary, 54

 

Saalzo, F. F., 61

Seymour, The Cross in Tradition and History, 57

Skene, W. F., Four Ancient Books of Wales, 66

Sozomen, Eccles. Hist., 49, 59.

Spenser, Edmund, The Faerie Queene, 97

Stanley, Dean, Hist. of the Eastern Church, 52, 54, 62, 64

Stanley, Dean, Sinai and Palestine, 77

 

Taylor, Frank, The Gallant Way, 102

Taylor, J. W., The Coming of the Saints, 76

 

Ussher, Archbishop, Brit. Eccles. Antiq., 80

 

Velserus, Marc, 23

Vergil Polydore, Hist. Brit., 49

 

Waldman, Milton, Elizabeth and Leicester, 98

Warren, F. E., Lit. and Rit. of the Celtic Church, 79

William of Malmesbury, Hist. of the Kings, 68

 

Zocker, The Cross of Christ, 55

[Michael K.]

CSR -

I have been mulling my response to this post for days, and  still don't have the right words yet.  But the risk of ignoring this subject grows with time, and I feel like I am being rude if I don't say something since the subject material is so interesting.

The part of it  like, is the scholarly attempt to disambiguate the real, historical Christian king of Britain, Arthur, from his romantic fictional counterpart.  This is so we can see that the real Arthur is worthy of the praise that goes to his name in romance, even if somewhat differently.

I have read Geoffery of Monmouth, but some of the other sources were a revelation to me about the historical subject and made it a worthwhile read to me.  In particular, the actual codes of the Knights are spiritually inspiring by themselves and are worth just reading.

On the other hand, there is an entry given into the realm of the occult speculation concerning Arthur, and as I have read some of that material I can only say beware, in particular of Laurence Garndner and other Grail cult pagans.  The occult Grail has an evil undertone, since the only Grail cult anyone needs is going to Church in the first place and receiving the Christian Sacraments.

But at the end of the day, I still was inspired when I read about those martyr knights who saved their land from spiritual darkness.

P.S. - the vote thing doesn't seem to work.