Page:Curious myths of the Middle Ages (1876).djvu/328

 helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word or power of God.

The hideous monster against whom the Christian soldier is called to fight is that “old serpent, the devil,” who withholds or poisons the streams of grace, and who seeks to rend and devour the virgin soul, in whose defence the champion fights.

If the warfare symbolized by this legend be carried out in life, then, in Spenser’s words— “Thou, amongst those saints whom thou doest see, Shall be a saint, and thine owne nations frend And patrone: thou Saint George shalt called bee, Saint George of mery England, the sign of victoree.”