PREFACE. XVII
bilindly the corrupt forms of Greek names given in the “Uoptic text. The summary of the life and death of George the Mar-
- yr’ as given by the-Coptic texts is as follows:—
In the days of the impious emperor Diocletian the devil saw that the belief in Christ was spreading throughout the _whole world and causing the worship of idols to cease. He then entered inte the emperor's heart and made him raise up
_ a terrible persecution against the Christians. 'Then Diocletian
_ prepared instruments of torture of the most devilish nature,
-and published two edicts. By the first he summoned the
“governors of every province to his presence to discuss
with him what steps should be taken to prevent the increase
‘of the worship of “Him that Mary bore”, and by the
'second, published after seventy governors had come to his _ presence, he utterly forbade any person to utter the name of Christ, or to worship Him under pain of torture by the
wheel, the wooden horse, the flesh scrapers and many other
instruments of torture: thus three years passed by before
any dared to confess that he was a Christian. At the end
of this time, George, a native of Melitene, a city in the very”
far east of Cappadocia, came to Dadianus and desired to
1 For other accounts of Saint George see Acta Sanctorum, April 23 ; ‘Butler, Lives of the Saints, April 23; Baring Gould, Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, pp. 266—316; Heylyn, The History of that most famous Saynt and Souddier of Christ Jesus, 8S. George of Cappaducia, London, 1633; Milner, An Historical Enquiry into the Evxistence of 8. George, Jiondon, 1792. For a summary of the Mediaeval Legends of 8. George see the article ‘George’ by the Rev, G. J. Stokes, M. A., in Smith’s
Dictionary of Christian Biography. c
