Caiaphas, immured in a tower without light or food, where the Saviour, in a great brightness, appears to him,' comforts him, and restores to him the Vessel, instructs him to whom he is to transmit it, and teaches him the "secrets which are said in the great sacrament which is made on the Graal, that is to say, on the chalice." The vessel is to supply Joseph sole and sufficient support and heavenly refection during his captivity, which terminates in the following way. 2 The Emperor Titus in Rome comes to hear of Christ's life and miracles from a "chevalier" who has just returned from a "pilgrimage," and who had seen the cures wrought by Him. Titus hereupon despatches a commission to Judæa to inquire into Pilate's conduct, and the truth of the story, and also to bring back some article which had belonged to Christ, which as this knight assured him would have virtue to heal the emperor's son Vespasian from the leprosy with which he is afflicted, the pilgrim knight being meanwhile confined as a hostage for the truth of his story.3 Pilate clears himself before the commissioners, who bring back with them to Rome an old woman, Verrine, who had preserved the towel with which she had wiped Christ's face. Vespasian is healed by looking upon this towel, and he and Titus proceed in force to Judæa, where they institute inquiries, and arrest numerous Jews, who, as they cannot produce Christ's body, are burned. One Jew, however, on condition of being spared, conducts Vespasian to Joseph's dungeon. Vespasian descends into it and is prophetically recognized by the captive. The Jew is not indeed actually 1 Gospel of Nicodemus, chaps. ix. and xi. 2 Vindicta Salvatoris, where the imprisonment of Joseph is also narrated. 3 This returned pilgrim is, in the Greater Graal, called a "Knight of Capernaum;" instead of being confined, he is himself commissioned by Titus to Judæa, where he instructs Felix (not Pilate), the governor, to issue a proclamation, in consequence of which "Marie la venissienne " produces the veronica, or divinely-impressed portrait. It is this woman who, in the Greater Graal, denounces the abettors of the crucifixion, and it is Joseph's wife (Helyab) who begs for her husband's deliverance, while Caiaphas discloses the dungeon where Joseph is imprisoned, on condition of having his life spared. Joseph, to whom his forty two years' captivity have seemed but as one day, indicates the culprits concerned in the crucifixion, and they are condemned to the stake; Caiaphas is cast adrift in a boat. put to death, but is with his family committed to the mercies of the sea in an open boat. Thus far the main features of the narrative are based upon extant apocryphal writings which date from a high antiquity. Of the subsequent portion we have no earlier form. It is in the Shorter Graal almost wholly mystic and spiritual, but in the Greater Graal is largely expanded by the wars and knightly deeds of prowess of a number of personages unknown to the shorter romance. Joseph, his sister Enysgeus (Enigée), and her husband Brons, with a number of their kinsfolk and other proselytes, now receive baptism at the hands of St. Clement, and set out for a distant country where they settled. Many natives were converted, and the colony prospered a while, then everything went ill-famine reduced them to extremity-they were being visited for a great sin, "et cil péchiez estoit luxure sanz raison." [He]brons is consulted, and refers to Joseph, who prays before the Holy Vessel for enlightenment, and is inspired by Heaven with a test whereby to discover the sinner. "Remember," he is told in a vision, "that at the Last Supper, at the house of Simon, I said that he that was eating and drinking with Me would betray Me. The guilty man knew these words applied to him, he was ashamed and drew away, and his place has never been filled, but shall be, at another table." Joseph is instructed to make a table, and to direct Brons-who is a wise man and one of whom many a wise man shall be descended-to catch a fish. This fish is to be laid next the Graal which is set before Joseph's place at the table. When the company sit, one vacant place is left on the right of Joseph and left of Brons, and this represents Judas's place, and shall only be filled by the grandson of Brons and Enygeus. Joseph tells his people if they believe in the Trinity and the Commandments, to sit down to the Grace of God. Some sat, others refrained, the table, ex 1 In the Greater Graal the part of Brons is filled by "Josephes," "Josaphe," or "Josephe," Joseph's son. He and his kinsfolk, as also Vespasian with his company, these secretly, are baptized by St. Philip. St. Clement is not mentioned in the metrical Shorter Graal, in which the forms Hebron, Hebrons, Hebrun, as well as Brons, occur-both circumstances which seem in favour of its anteriority. See supp. note. cept the Judas place, being full.' One of the sitters, Petrus, says that if the abstainers do not feel that grace and bliss which fills those who are seated at the table, it is because of the sin, and they withdraw in shame. Joseph bids the company reassemble daily at the hour of Tierce to the "service" of the vessel. The sinners desiring to know the name of the vessel, are told that it is properly called Graal (or Gréal), as none shall see it but those who are agreeable to it. Par droit Graal l'apelera ; One of the sinners, Moses, a hypocrite and everything else that is bad besides, begs to be let remain; Joseph says nothing can prevent him if he is as good as he pretends to be-he endeavours to seat himself in the vacant place: but, lo! the earth opens and engulfs him. Aleyn is, in commemoration of the fish, henceforth known as the Rich Fisher." (Riche Pecheour.) 1 It seems possible not only that some of the marvels narrated in the Greater Graal, but also some of the incidents in the earlier story may have been imported from the East by the Crusaders. Taken in connection with the table of Brons, the following passage is curious :—“ Remember when the Apostles said :-O Jesus, Son of Mary, is Thy Lord able to send down a table (mā 'idah, a table, especially one covered with victuals) to us out of heaven? He said, Fear God, if ye be believers. They said: We desire to eat therefrom, and to have our hearts assured; and to know that thou hast indeed spoken truth to us, and we be witnesses thereof. Jesus Son of Mary, said: O God, our Lord, send down a table to us out of heaven, that it may become a recurring festival to us, to the first of us, and to the last of us, and a sign from Thee; and do Thou nourish us, for Thou art the best of nourishers."-Koran, Surah v. 112-114. See also Weil, the Bible, the Koran, etc., p. 227, etc. 2 The office of Tierce used immediately to precede the celebration of mass in conventual establishments. 3 M. Paulin Paris suggests that an allusion to the Fisherman's ring and the Papal power is here intended, in other works of the Graal Cycle it is the Roi Pecheur. The Fisherman's Ring seems to be mentioned about 1265, as applied to private letters of the Pope, but was probably so used for some time previously. (See Waterton in Archæologia, xi. p. 138, 1856.) I think the more probable allusion is to the Fish, a symbol of Christ, retained from the early Church by which it was much employed in the times of persecution on account of the hidden meaning of the Greek letters which compose it, ίχθυς, the initials of ̓Ιησοῦς χριστὸς Θεοῦ υἱὸς Σωτήρ. Joseph is divinely informed that the vacancy representing Judas's place at the Last Supper shall not be filled up before the day of doom. But for his comfort an analogous place at another (Merlin's Round) Table shall be filled by Bron's grandson, and no more shall be heard of Moses until he is found in the abyss by that future occupant of the seat [the "siege perillous "] which he had essayed to usurp. Of the twelve sons of Brons, Aleyn elects to remain celibate,' and to him his married brethren are to be subject by direction of Joseph, who shows him the Graal which is eventually to pass into the custody of Aleyn's son. Petrus receives a letter from heaven, and sets out for the vales of Avaron," where he will remain alive till Aleyn's son come and read that letter and possess the Graal, which meanwhile is confided to the guardianship of Brons, by Joseph, who teaches him the secret words imparted to himself by Christ in the prison of Caiaphas. He is to go to the West, where he will await the coming of Aleyn's son, who is to receive the Holy Vessel. Joseph himself goes to Britain, Aleyn also and his brethren start for foreign lands. 66 The narrative in the Greater Graal is expanded by an almost interminable series of marvellous feats, adventures and voyages, temptations on the rock Perilous, transformations of fair females into foul fiends, conversions wholesale and individual, allegorical visions, miracles and portents. Eastern splendour and Northern weirdness, angelry and devilry, together with abundant fighting and quite a phenomenal amount of swooning, which seem to reflect a strange medley of Celtic, pagan, and mythological traditions and Christian legends and mysticism, alternate in a kaleidoscopic maze that defies the symmetry which modern esthetic canons associate with every artistic production. A large portion of the story is taken up with the wars, conversions, dreams of Evilac and Seraphe, eventually baptized (ix.) by the names respectively of Nasciens and Mordrains, before the transfer of the narrative to Britain, which is reached by Josephes and some of his followers upon his This choice is narrated, in the Greater Graal, before the fish incident. ? See also below in Perceforest, the account of this mission. It is apposite to note that the Norman Mont St. Michel was known to mediæval writers as Mons Scti Michaelis de Periculo Maris. shirt, which bears them over the waters, while the rest follow in a ship that had been preserved, and had been one of Solomon's navy. Once in Britain the adventures extend to Northumbria, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and probably embody reminiscences of early British historical events, but the geography if not purely imaginary is hopelessly vague and confused. In these various regions, all originally peopled by "Saracens," we are presented with a fresh succession of wars, sieges, heaven-aided conquests, alliances, conversions, and prodigies. Here it is the episodes of the fish, and the attempts of Moses to sit in the siege perilous are narrated, and here we find Moses' fate is differently devised. Seven flaming hands from heaven hurl fire upon him and carry him off to a far place burning like a dry bush, where he is found towards the close of the story. The incident of the fish is also differently narrated. The goodlivers go to service and are fed by the Holy Graal. The sinners, on the contrary, not being thus fed, beg Josephes, Joseph's son, to pray for them; and he orders Bron's twelfth son, Aleyn or Alain le Gros, to take the net from the Graal table, and fish with it. He catches one fish, which the sinners say will not suffice. But Aleyn having prayed satisfies them all with it, and is thenceforward called the Rich Fisher. Joseph dies, and his body is buried at "Glay," while his son transmits the Graal to Aleyn. By Aleyn's instrumentality the leper king Galafres, of the land of Foreygne, is converted and christened Alphasan. He is healed by looking upon the Graal, and builds Castle Corbenic, which is to be the repository and shrine of the Holy Cup, as Vespasian was healed by looking on the Veronica. Much is said about the genealogy of some of the chief personages towards the close. "Descendances" is the word used. In the early portion Josephes was miraculously consecrated a bishop, and the same chrism was preserved by an angel, and with it all the Kings of Britain till Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father, are anointed. The stronghold of Corbenic answers to the wood-girt fastness-shrine of Monsalvatsch in the Parzival of Wolfram 1 See Stuart Glennie, Arthurian Localities. |