norant of their holy companion. Pope Gelasius, (A. D. 494,) the first
Catholic who acknowledges St. George, places him among the martyrs
"qui Deo magis quam hominibus noti sunt." He rejects his Acts as the
composition of heretics. Some, perhaps, not the oldest, of the spurious
Acts, are still extant; and, through a cloud of fiction, we may yet
distinguish the combat which St. George of Cappadocia sustained, in the
presence of Queen Alexandria, against the magician Afhanasius.]

[Footnote 125: This transformation is not given as absolutely certain,
but as extremely probable. See the Longueruana, tom. i. p. 194.
----Note: The late Dr. Milner (the Roman Catholic bishop) wrote a tract
to vindicate the existence and the orthodoxy of the tutelar saint of
England. He succeeds, I think, in tracing the worship of St. George up
to a period which makes it improbable that so notorious an Arian could
be palmed upon the Catholic church as a saint and a martyr. The Acts
rejected by Gelasius may have been of Arian origin, and designed to
ingraft the story of their hero on the obscure adventures of some
earlier saint. See an Historical and Critical Inquiry into the Existence
and Character of Saint George, in a letter to the Earl of Leicester, by
the Rev. J. Milner. F. S. A. London 1792.--M.]

[Footnote 126: A curious history of the worship of St. George, from the
sixth century, (when he was already revered in Palestine, in Armenia
at Rome, and at Treves in Gaul,) might be extracted from Dr. Heylin
(History of St. George, 2d edition, London, 1633, in 4to. p. 429) and
the Bollandists, (Act. Ss. Mens. April. tom. iii. p. 100-163.) His fame
and popularity in Europe, and especially in England, proceeded from the
Crusades.]

About the same time that Julian was informed of the tumult of
Alexandria, he received intelligence from Edessa, that the proud
and wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of the
Valentinians, and committed such disorders as ought not to be suffered
with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without expecting the slow
forms of justice, the exasperated prince directed his mandate to the
magistrates of Edessa, [127] by which he confiscated the whole property
of the church: the money was distributed among the soldiers; the lands
were added to the domain; and this act of oppression was aggravated
by the most ungenerous irony. "I show myself," says Julian, "the true
friend of the Galilaeans. Their admirable law