St George: Hero, Martyr and Myth

Preface

St George is the archetype of a figure who is instantly recognisable but little understood. In the early years of the twenty-first century his image and emblem are all around us, everyday sights whose true meanings are rarely considered and, when they are, may often seem elusive. He is now invariably shown in combat with a dragon, a motif that frequently appears on items such as coinage and commercial insignia, while his flag, the red cross on a white ground, flutters on church towers and is painted on the faces of soccer fans. He is invoked by English nationalists, even claimed as a native of this country on occasion, and his encounter with the dragon is commonly used as a paradigm of the eternal struggle of good against evil, doubtless in the hope that the saint's victory indicates that good will eventually prove triumphant. English people are all familiar with the idea of him as their patron saint, their emblematic special protector, but few have any real idea of how and why he came to hold this position in English consciousness.

This book sets out to examine not only the 'truth' about St George - who he was, when he lived and what happened to him - but also when and why he came to be recognised as England's patron saint. Furthermore, it examines the wide range of meanings associated with him during the late medieval period, the time when his role in England's conception of itself was consolidated. The focus is primarily on the period between 1300 and 1550, a time of huge social, political and religious change across Europe which witnessed events such as the Black Death, a pandemic of the plague that killed between a third and a half of the population of Europe and reached England in 1348, and the Reformation, the theological quarrel sparked off by Martin Luther's 'Ninety-Five Theses' of 1517. These events had far-reaching social, political, religious, economic and psychological consequences, which included such fundamental issues as the end of feudalism and the rise of the middle classes towards one end of our time-frame, and, at the other, the break-up of the established Roman Church and the radical reappraisal of many social mores, such as the importance of marriage and family life. This book obviously does not aim to offer an analysis of these hugely important events, or to present an overview of the changing dynamics of English society and religious beliefs during these years. However, it must be recognised that the cult of St George did not develop, and could not have developed, inside a vacuum. Individuals' devotion to this saint was undoubtedly affected by these far-reaching historical changes: part of the function of a saint is surely to act as a steadfast figure of refuge, offering the hope of intervention or succour during the trials of human existence. Thus large-scale events such as wars, outbreaks of disease, the deaths of monarchs and religious and social changes form a kind of backdrop - seldom referred to yet present none the less - to the much smaller-scale narrative played out in these pages.

Some developments do play a more important role, however, and of these we should perhaps make special note of the rise of lay literacy, which is now recognised as an important aspect of the later Middle Ages. To a great extent this phenomenon seems to have been a concomitant of the development of an educated, and relatively affluent, middle class who were able to indulge both their pieties and their ostentation through the purchase, display and use of Books of Hours and other devotional manuscripts. An ability to read (although not necessarily also to write) opened up a whole world of religious possibilities to the devout lay man or woman, since reverence of God, in all his forms, the Virgin Mary and the saints no longer needed to be mediated through a priest. Rather, we encounter for the first time a clear desire of people outside the cloister to form a personal relationship with the objects of their veneration as well as the increasing availability of means by which this could be achieved.

In the early medieval period God had often seemed to be a remote and rather threatening figure of majesty and wrath, but as the later Middle Ages developed it is clear that new forms of devotion were arising within the Roman Church which encouraged a view of Christ as truly human as well as truly divine. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this trend was the movement now known as 'mariolatry', a cult that identified the Virgin Mary as a figure of importance in her own right, rather than simply as a convenient functionary of God the Father. By identifying the Virgin as a human being, albeit a perfect one conceived - according to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception - without the stain of Original Sin, late medieval people were able to approach their God in the knowledge that this human intercessor would help their case if only they called on her with sufficient fervour and proved their devotion through prayers, pilgrimages, the veneration of her images and the giving of alms in her name. Saints could also be called upon to aid their human devotees, particularly when an individual saint was identified as being powerful healer in cases of a specific disease, for example. The possibility of visiting conveniently located relics would undoubtedly have encouraged the cults of particular saints, but it will become clear that other factors seem to have been at work as well.

Another important development in late medieval society which should also be borne in mind is the rise of the guilds - groupings of lay people, sometimes retaining their own priest - which originally were purely religious in nature but soon came to be important in the control of both trade and civic government. The guilds were often, but not always, associated with a patron saint: as we shall see, the role of St George guilds seems to have been crucial in the urban social scene.

The conclusions suggested by this survey of St George's appearances in late medieval literature, historical sources and the visual arts are often surprising and sometimes unsettling, with apparently conflicting readings occurring with disconcerting regularity. We can perhaps view the cult of St George as indicative of late medieval society as a whole: many-layered and multifaceted, with an ability to give easy credence to apparently contradictory ideas. In the manner of Lewis Carroll's White Queen, believing six impossible things before breakfast was perhaps less of a challenge to the fifteenth-century English man or woman than it would be to a modern person, especially when those beliefs appear to be set up in opposition to each other. Hence St George will be considered in these pages as symbolic of both fertility and chastity; as a tortured martyr oppressed by a heathen ruler as well as a figure of noble authority; as a symbol of English nationhood in general but also a representative of quite discrete parts of English society. Even his very identification as the patron saint of this country is questioned, with an examination of his special relationship with several other countries and peoples.

The book opens with an examination of the earliest sources on St George and an overview of the ways that his legend and cult develop throughout the medieval period. This is followed by a detailed appraisal of those aspects of the saint's life and legend which seem to have been most salient to late medieval people, and we end with a review of post-medieval developments in the cult of St George in England and beyond. The ultimate aim is to facilitate a deeper understanding of this saint's position in the English psyche, while also uncovering some of the ways in which late medieval societies seem to have used religious figures as a vehicle for exploring aspects of their own lives and belief systems. We should, however, venture at the outset of this study to ask a few questions about the very nature of such an inquiry, and to define our terms of reference.

The study of sainthood is a field beset with difficulties. No aspect of it is without controversy, particularly when the modern-day writer seeks to reconstruct the mind-set of long-dead individuals and communities by utilising what may seem to amount to little more than a few oblique references in obscure texts or artworks. Even the very nature of what may and may not be discussed is open to debate: is hagiography, the writing and rewriting of a saint's life and supposed miracles, something that says more about the concerns of the individual writer and his or her community than about the 'facts' of a saint's existence? Is the search for the original, or ur, text the only worthwhile task, or are the later variations, subtractions and additions of equal, or even greater, value? Should hagiology, the study of saints and their cults, necessarily include or exclude less tangible evidence, such as slight references to images or practices long since destroyed or forgotten? For instance, a particular altar, image or votive light of a saint may be mentioned in only one will, made by an otherwise obscure benefactor. One such example is John Sayntmaur (or 'de St Maur'), who bequeathed a cow, valued at 10s., in his will of 1485, the profit of which (probably derived from the sale of the animal and subsequent investment of the proceeds) was to fund a wax taper to be burnt on Sundays and feast days before an image of St George in his local parish church of Rode (Somerset). Is it really desirable to cite this reference as evidence of a local cult of St George when we have no idea how large or valuable the image was, how many other people expressed their devotion to the saint...