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GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 736 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GEORGE, See also:SAINT (d. 303) , the See also:patron saint of See also:England, See also:Aragon and See also:Portugal. According to the See also:legend given by Metaphrastes the See also:Byzantine hagiologist, and substantially repeated in the See also:Roman Acta sanctorum and in the See also:Spanish See also:breviary, he was See also:born in See also:Cappadocia of See also:noble See also:Christian parents, from whom he received a careful religious training. Other accounts See also:place his See also:birth at Lydda, but preserve his Cappadocian parentage. Having em-braced the profession of a soldier, he rapidly See also:rose under See also:Diocletian to high military See also:rank. In See also:Persian See also:Armenia he organized and energized the Christian community at Urmi (Urumiah), and even visited See also:Britain on an imperial expedition. When Diocletian had begun to See also:manifest a pronounced hostility towards See also:Christianity, George sought a See also:personal interview with him, in which he made deliberate profession of his faith, and, earnestly remonstrating against the persecution which had begun, resigned his See also:commission. He was immediately laid under See also:arrest, and after various tortures, finally put to See also:death at See also:Nicomedia (his See also:body being afterwards taken to Lydda) on the 23rd of See also:April 303. His festival is observed on that anniversary by the entire Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church as a semi-duplex, and by the Spanish Catholics as a duplex of the first class with an See also:octave. The See also:day is also celebrated as a See also:principal feast in the Orthodox Eastern Church, where the saint is distinguished by the titles peyaXopaprvp and r•porratorbOpos. The See also:historical basis of the tradition is particularly unsound, there being two claimants to the name and See also:honour. See also:Eusebius, Hist. eccl. viii.

5, writes: " Immediately on the promulgation of the See also:

edict (of Diocletian) a certain See also:man of no mean origin, but highly esteemed for his temporal dignities, as soon as the See also:decree was published against the churches in Nicomedia, stimulated by a divine zeal and excited by an ardent faith, took it as it was openly placed and posted up for public inspection, and tore it to shreds as a most profane and wicked See also:act. This, too, was done when the two Caesars were in the See also:city, the first of whom was the eldest and See also:chief of all and the other held See also:fourth grade of the imperial dignity after him. But this man, as the first that was distinguished there in this manner, after enduring what was likely to follow an act so daring, preserved his mind, See also:calm and serene, until the moment when his spirit fled." Rivalling this See also:anonymous See also:martyr, who is often supposed to have been St George, is an earlier martyr briefly mentioned in the Chronicon Pascale: " In the See also:year 225 of the See also:Ascension of our See also:Lord a persecution of the Christians took place, and many See also:succession of See also:great See also:French mathematicians, for example, G. See also:Monge, Geometrie descriptive (1800); J. V. See also:Poncelet, Traite See also:des proprietes projectives des figures (1822); M. See also:Chasles, AperQu historique sur l'origine et le developpement des methodes en geometric (Bruxelles, 1837), and Traite de geometrie superieure (See also:Paris, 1852) ; and many others. But the See also:works which have been, and are still, of decisive See also:influence on thought as a See also:store-See also:house of ideas relevant to the See also:foundations of See also:geometry are K. G. C. von Staudt's two works, Geometrie der Lage (Nurnberg, 1847) ; and Beitrdge zur Geometrie der Lage (Nurnberg, 1856, 3rd ed. 1860). The final See also:period is characterized by the successful See also:production of exact systems of axioms, and by the final See also:solution of problems which have occupied mathematicians for two thousand years.

The successful See also:

analysis of the ideas involved in serial continuity is due to R. Dedekind, Stetigkeit and irrationale Zahlen (1872), and to G. Cantor, Grundlagen einer allgemeinen Mannigfaltigkeitslehre (See also:Leipzig, 1883), and Acta math. vol. 2. See also:Complete systems of axioms have been stated by M. Pasch, loc. cit. ; G. Peano, loc. cit. ; M. Pieri, loc. cit. ; B. See also:Russell, Principles of See also:Mathematics; O.

Veblen, loc. cit.; and by G. Veronese in his See also:

treatise, Fondamenti di geometria (See also:Padua, 1891; See also:German transl. by A. Schepp, Grundzuge der Geometrie, Leipzig, 1894). Most of the leading See also:memoirs on See also:special questions involved have been cited in the See also:text; in addition there may be mentioned M. Pieri, " Nuovi principii di geometria projettiva complessa," Trans. Accad. R. d. Sci. (See also:Turin, 1905); E. H. See also:Moore, " On the Projective Axioms of Geometry," Trans. Amer.

Math. See also:

Soc., 1902; O. Veblen and W. H. Bussey, " Finite Projective Geometries," Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 1905; A. B. See also:Kempe, " On the Relation between the Logical Theory of Classes and the Geometrical Theory of Points," Proc. Lond. Math.

Soc., 1890; J. Royce, " The Relation of the Principles 'of See also:

Logic to the Foundations of Geometry," Trans. of Amer. Math. Soc., 1905; A. Schoenflies, " Ober See also:die Moglichkeit einer projectiven Geometrie bei transfiniter (nichtarchimedischer) Massbestimmung," See also:Deutsch. M.-V. Jahresb., 1906. For See also:general expositions of the See also:bearings of the above investigations, cf. Hon. See also:Bertrand Russell, loc. cit. ; L. Couturat, See also:Les Principes des mathematiques (Paris, 19o5); H.

Poincar6, loc. cit. ; Russell and See also:

Whitehead, Principia mathematica (See also:Cambridge, Univ. See also:Press). The philosophers whose views on space and geometric truth de-serve especial study are See also:Descartes, See also:Leibnitz, See also:Hume, See also:Kant and J. S. See also:Mill. (A. N.

End of Article: GEORGE, SAINT (d. 303)

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