later times, it hath been dishonourably entertained by two kinds of fantastics; the one, who so superstitiously doat on it that they adore it like their God; the other, who so unchristianly detest it, that they slander the most godly and ancient use thereof in our first initiating unto Christ, as if it were some devilish idol. But the true soldiers of such a captain, need not to be ashamed to bear his ensign.’ “There is also yet another historical reason given why the Red Cross of St. George should be so often adopted in England; for it is related, that when Robert, Duke of Normandy, the son of our King William I., was prosecuting his victories against the Turks, and laying siege to the famous City of Antioch, A. D. 1098, it was almost relieved by a considerable army of Saracens. In this difficulty there appeared the beatific vision of St. Demetrius, St. Mercurius, and St. George, coming down from the mountains of Syria; the latter being clothed entirely in white, and bearing a Red Cross on his banner, and, at the head of an innumerable reinforcement; which miraculous interference not only reanimated the Christians, but also caused the infidels to fly, and the Crusaders to possess themselves of the City. This legend is related by Matthew Paris, a Monk of St. Albans, in the 13th century, in his ‘_Historia Major_,’ Paris, 1644, folio, page 29: and it consequently made St. George to become exceedingly famous at that time; and to be esteemed a patron, not of the English only, but of Christianity itself.