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cijurcl) of tyt d^raal

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=fa .

^titotn Cfmrd) of (Sraal

Hegentis anD

tfje

Considered in their Affinity with Certain Mysteries

of Initiation and other Traces of a Secret

Tradition in Christian Times

BY

ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE

sanctum mfanit, foel sanctum facit

LONDON REBMAN LIMITED

129 SHAFTESBURY AVENUE, W.C. 1909

fti

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON 6^ Co. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh

PREFACE

IF deeper pitfalls are laid by anything more than by the facts of coincidence, it is perhaps by the intimations and suggestions of writings which bear, or are held to bear, on their surface the seals of allegory and, still more, of dual allusion ; as in the cases of coincidence, so in these, it is necessary for the historical student to stand zealously on his guard and not to acknowledge second meaning or claims implied, however plausible, unless they are controlled and strengthened by independent evidence. Even with this precaution, his work will remain anxious, for the lineal path is difficult to find and follow. Per- haps there is one consolation offered by the gentle life of letters. In matters of interpretation, if always to succeed is denied us, to have deserved it is at least something.

Among our aids there is one aid which arises from the correspondences between distinct systems of allegory and symbolism. They are important within their own sphere ; and it is by subsidiary lights of this nature that research can be directed occasionally into new tracks, from which unexpected and perhaps indubitable results may be derived ultimately. When the existence of a secondary and concealed meaning seems therefore inferentially certain in a given department of literature — if ordinary processes, depending on evidence of the external kind, have been found wanting — its purpose and intention may be ascertained by a comparison with other secret litera- tures, which is equivalent to saying that the firmest hermeneutical ground in such cases must be sought in evidence which inheres and is common to several depart-

Preface

ments of cryptic writing. It is in this way that the prepared mind moves through the world of criticism as through outward worlds of discovery.

I am about to set forth after a new manner, and chiefly for the use of English mystics, the nature of the mystery which is enshrined in the old romance-literature of the Holy Graal. As a literature it can be approached from several standpoints ; and at the root it has a direct consanguinity with other mysteries, belonging to the more secret life of the soul. I propose to give a very full account of all the considerations which it involves, the imperfect speculations included of some who have preceded me in the same path — writers whose interests at a far distance are not utterly dissimilar to my own, though their equipment has been all too slight. I shall endeavour to establish at the end that there are certain things in transcendence which must not be sought in the literature, and yet they arise out of it. The task will serve, among several objects, two which may be put on record at the moment — on the one hand, and quite obviously, to illustrate the deeper intimations of Graal literature, and, on the other, certain collateral intimations which lie behind the teachings of the great churches and are, in the official sense, as if beyond, their ken. Of such intimations is all high seership. The task itself has been undertaken as the initial consequence of several first-hand considerations. If I note this fact at so early a stage as the preface, it is because of the opportunity which it gives me to make plain, even from the beginning, that I hold no warrant to impugn preconceived judgments, as such, or, as such, to set out in search of novelties. In my own defence it will be desirable to add that I have not written either as an enthusiast or a partisan, though in honour to my school there are great dedications to which I must confess with my heart. On the historical side there is much and very much in which some issues of the evi- dence, on production, will be found to fall short of demon- stration, and, so far as this part is concerned, I offer it at

vi

Treface

its proper worth. On the symbolical side, and on that of certain implicits, it is otherwise, and my thesis to those of my school will, I think, come not only with a strong appeal, but as something which is conclusive within its own lines. I should add that, rather than sought out, the undertaking has been imposed through a familiarity with analogical fields of symbolism, the correspondences of which must be unknown almost of necessity to students who have not passed through the secret schools of thought.

It will be intelligible from these statements that it has not been my purpose to put forward the analogies which I have established as a thesis for the instruction of scholar- ship, firstly, because it is concerned with other matters which are important after their own kind, and, secondly, as I have already intimated, because I am aware that a par- ticular equipment is necessary for their full appreciation, and this, for obvious reasons, is not found in the consti- tuted or authorised academies of official research. My own investigation is designed rather for those who are already acquainted with some part at least of the hidden knowledge, who have been concerned with the study of its traces through an interest proper to themselves — in other words, for those who have taken their place within the sanctuary of the mystic life, or at least in its outer circles.

In so far as I have put forward my thesis under the guidance of the sovereign reason, I look for the recogni- tion of scholarship, which in its study of the literature has loved the truth above all things, though its particular form of appreciation has led it rather to dedicate especial zeal to a mere demonstration that the literature of the Graal has its basis in a cycle of legend wherein there is neither a Sacred Vessel nor a Holy Mystery. This not- withstanding, there is no scholar now living in England whose conditional sympathy at least I may not expect to command from the beginning, even though I deal ulti- mately with subjects that are beyond the province in which

vii

Preface

folk-lore societies can adjudicate, and in which they have earned such high titles of honour.

After accepting every explanation of modern erudition as to the origin of the Graal elements, there remain various features of the romances as things outside the general horizon of research, and they are those which, from rny standpoint, are of the last and most real importance. A scheme of criticism which fails to account for the claim to a super-valid formula of Eucharistic consecration and to a super-apostolical succession accounts for very little that matters finally. I have therefore taken up the sub- ject at the point where it has been left by the students of folk-lore and all that which might term itself authorised scholarship. Ut adeptis appareat me illis parem et fratrem, I have made myself acquainted with the chief criticism of the cycle, and I have explored more than one curious tract which is adjacent to the cycle itself. It is with the texts, however, that I am concerned only, and I approach them from a new standpoint. As to this, it will be better to specify from the outset some divisions of my scheme as follows : ( i ) The appropriation of certain myths and legends which are held to be pre-Christian in the origin thereof, and their penetration by an advanced form of Christian Symbolism carried to a particular term ; (2) the evidence of three fairly distinct sections or schools, the diversity of which is not, however, in the fundamental part of their subject, but more properly in the extent and mode of its development ; (3) the connection of this mode and of that part with other schools of symbolism, the evolu- tion of which was beginning at the same period as that of the Graal literature or followed thereon ; (4) the close analogy, in respect of the root-matter, between the catholic literature of the Holy Graal and that which is connoted in the term mysticism; (5) the traces through Graal romance and other coincident literatures of a hidden school in Chris- tianity. The Graal romances are not documents of this school put forward by the external way, but are its rumours at a far distance. They are not authorised, nor

viii

^Preface

are they stolen ; they have arisen, or the consideration of that which I understand with reserves, and for want of a better title, as the Hidden Church of Sacramental Mystery follows from their consideration as something in the intellectual order connected therewith. The offices of romance are one thing, and of another order are the high mysteries of religion — if a statement so obvious can be tolerated. There are, of course, religious romances, and the Spanish literature of chivalry furnishes a notable instance of a sacred allegorical intention which reposes on the surface of the sense, as in the Pilgrim s Progress. Except in some isolated sections, as, for example, in the Galahad Quest and the Longer Prose Perceval, the cycle of the Holy Graal does not move in the region of allegory, but in that of concealed intention, and it is out of this fact that there arises my whole inquiry, with the justification for the title which I have chosen. The existence of a concealed sanctuary, of a Hidden Church, is perhaps the one thing which seems plain on the face of the literature, and the next fact is that it was pre-eminent, ex hypothesis in its possession of the most sacred memorials connected with the passion of Christ. It was from the manner in which these were derived that the other claims followed. The idea of a Graal Church has been faintly recognised by official scholarship, and seeing, therefore, that there is a certain common ground, the question which transpires for consideration is whether there is not a deeper significance in the claim, and whether we are deal- ing with mere legend or with the rumours at a distance of that which " once in time and somewhere in the world " was actually existent, under whatever veils of mystery. Following this point of view, it is possible to collect out of the general body of the literature what I should term its intimations of sub-surface meaning into a brief schedule as follows : (#) The existence of a clouded sanctuary ; (£) a great mystery ; (c) a desirable communication which, except under certain circumstances, cannot take place ; (d} suffering within and sorcery without, being

ix

Preface

pageants of the mystery ; (e) supernatural grace which does not possess efficacy on the external side ; (/) healing which comes from without, sometimes carrying all the signs of insufficiency and even of inhibition ; (^) in fine, that which is without enters and takes over the charge of the mystery, but it is either removed altogether or goes into deeper concealment — the outer world profits only by the abrogation of a vague enchantment.

The unversed reader may not at the moment follow the specifics of this schedule, yet if the allusions awaken his interest I can promise that they shall be made plain in proceeding. But as there is no one towards whom I shall wish to exercise more frankness than the readers to whom I appeal, it will be a counsel of courtesy to inform them that scholarship has already commented upon the amount of mystic nonsense which has been written on the subject of the Graal. Who are the mystic people and what is the quality of their nonsense does not appear from the statement, and as entirely out- side mysticism there has been assuredly an abundance of unwise speculation, including much of the heretical and occult order, I incline to think that the one has been taken for the other by certain learned people who have not been too careful about the limits of the par- ticular term to which they have had recourse so lightly. After precisely the same manner, scholarship speaks of the ascetic element in the Graal literature almost as if it were applying a term of reproach, and, again, it is not justified by reasonable exactitude in the use of words. Both impeachments, the indirect equally with the overt, stand for what they are worth, which is less than the solar mythology applied to the interpretation of the literature. My object in mentioning these grave trifles is that no one at a later stage may say that he has been entrapped.

It is indubitable that some slight acquaintance with the legends of the Holy Graal can be presupposed in my readers, but in many it may be so unsubstantial that

Preface

I have concluded to assume nothing, except that, as indicated already, I am addressing those who are con- cerned with the Great Quest in one of its departments. There is no reason why they should extend their dedi- cated field of thought by entering into any technical issues of subjects outside those with which they may be concerned already. I have returned from investiga- tions of my own, with a synopsis of the results attained, to show them that the literature of the Holy Graal is of kinship with our purpose and that this also is ours. The Graal is, therefore, a rumour of the Mystic Quest, but there were other rumours.

In order to simplify the issues, all the essential materials have been so grouped that those for whom the bulk of the original works is, by one or other reason, either partially or wholly sealed, may attain, in the first place, an accurate and sufficing knowledge of that which the several writers of the great cycles understood by the Graal itself, and that also which was involved in the quests thereof according to the mind of each successive expositor. I have sought, in the second place, to furnish an adequate conversance with the intention, whether manifest or con- cealed, which has been attributed to the makers of the romances by numerous students of these in various countries and times. In the third place there is presented, practically for the first time — pace all strictures of scholiasts —the mystic side of the legend, and with this object it has been considered necessary to enter at some length into several issues, some of which may seem at first sight extrinsic. In pursuance of my general plan I have en- deavoured in various summaries : (#) To compare the implied claim of the Graal legends with the Eucharistic doctrine at the period of the romances ; (<£) to make it clear, by the evidence of the literature, that the Graal Mystery, in the highest sense of its literature, was one of supernatural life and a quest of high perfection ; (c) to show, in a word, that, considered as a mystery of illumina- tion and even of ecstasy, the Graal does not differ from

xi

'Preface

the great traditions of initiation. Whatever, therefore, be the first beginnings of the literature, in the final development it is mystic rather than ascetic, because it does not deal with the path of detachment so much as with the path of union.

It must be acknowledged assuredly that the first matter of the legend is found in folk-lore, antecedent, for the most part, to Christianity in the West, exactly as the first matter of the cosmos was in the TOHU, BOHU of chaos ; but my purpose is to show that its elements were taken over in the interest of a particular form of Christian religious symbolism. That advancement notwithstanding, the symbolism at this day needs re-ex- pression as well as the informing virtue of a catholic interpretation, showing how the Graal and all other traditions which have become part of the soul's legends can be construed in the true light of mystic know- ledge.

I have demonstrated at the same time that among the romancers, and especially the poets, some spoke from very far away of things whereof they had heard only, and this darkly, so that the characteristic of the Graal legend is, for this reason, as on other accounts, one of in- sufficiency. Yet its writers testify by reflection, even when they accept the sign for the thing signified and confuse the flesh with the spirit, to a certain measure of know- ledge and a certain realisation. It is only in its mystic sense that the Graal literature can repay study. All great subjects bring us back to the one subject which is alone great ; all high quests end in the spiritual city ; scholarly criticisms, folk-lore and learned researches are little less than useless if they fall short of directing us to our true end — and this is the attainment of that centre which is about us everywhere. It is in such a way, and so only, that either authorised scholar or graduating student can reach those things which will recompense knowledge concerning the vision and the end in Graal literature, as it remains to us in the forms which survive — in which

xii

'Preface

forms the mystery of the Holy Cup has been passed through the mind of romance and has been deflected like a staff in a pool.

I conclude, therefore, that the spirit of the Holy Quest may be as much with us in the study of the literature of the Quest as if we were ourselves adventuring forth in search of the Graai Castle, the Chalice, the Sword and the Lance. Herein is the consecrating motive which moves through the whole inquiry. So also the mystery of quest does not differ in its root-matter, nor consider- ably in its external forms, wherever we meet it ; there are always certain signs by which we may recognise it and may know its kinship. It is for this reason that the school of Graal mysticism enters, and that of necessity, into the great sequence of grades which constitute the unified Mystic Rite.

If there was a time when the chaos magna et infirmata of the old un- Christian myths was transformed and assumed into a heaven of the most holy mysteries, there comes a time also when the criticism of the literature which enshrines the secret of the Graal has with great deference to be taken into other sanctuaries than those of official scholarship ; when some independent watcher, having stood by the troubled waters of speculation, must either say : " Peace, be still " ; or, indifferently, " Let them rave" — and, putting up a certain beacon in the darkness, must signal to those who here and there are either acquainted with his warrants by certain signs, which they recognise, or can divine concerning them, and must say to them : "Of this is also our inheritance."

So much as I have here advanced will justify, I think, one further act of sincerity. I have no use for any audience outside my consanguinities in the spirit. As Newton's Principia is of necessity a closed book to those who have fallen into waters of confusion at the pons asinorum of children — and as this is not an impeachment of the Principia — so my construction of the Graal literature will not be intelligible, or scarcely, to those who have not

xiii

Treface

graduated in some one or other of the academies of the soul ; it is not for children in the elementary classes of thought, but in saying this I do not impeach the construction. The Principia did not make void the elements of Euclid. I invite them only for their per- sonal relief to close the book at this point before it closes itself against them.

I conclude by saying that the glory of God is the purpose of all my study, and that in His Name I undertake this quest as a part of the Great Work.

xiv

CONTENTS

PAGE

PREFACE v

BOOK I

THE ROOTS OF THE HOUSE OF MEANING

SECT.

I. SOME ASPECTS OF THE GRAAL LEGEND ... 5

II. EPOCHS OF THE LEGEND. 12

III. THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE GRAAL LITERATURE . 17

IV. THE LITERATURE OF THE CYCLE .... 47 V. THE IMPLICITS OF THE GRAAL MYSTERY . 61

BOOK II

MTSTERIES OF THE HOLT GRAAL IN MANI- FESTATION AND REMOVAL

I. A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF CERTAIN ROOT-SECRETS

INCLUDED IN THE WHOLE SUBJECT ... 79

II. THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS, AND, IN THE

FIRST PLACE, A GENERAL INTRODUCTION CON- CERNING THEM 84

III. THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS, AND, SECONDLY,

THE VARIATIONS OF THE CUP LEGEND . . 89

IV. THE GRAAL VESSEL CONSIDERED AS A BOWL OF

PLENTY 104

V. THE LESSER HALLOWS OF THE LEGEND . . .114

(a) The Summary of these Matters ; (b) Legends of the Sacred Lance ; (c) The Broken Sword ; (d) The Dish.

VI. THE CASTLE OF THE HOLY GRAAL . . . .128

VII. THE KEEPERS OF THE HALLOWS . . . .134

VIII. THE PAGEANTS IN THE QUESTS . . . .138

xv

Contents

SECT. PAGE

IX. THE ENCHANTMENTS OF BRITAIN, THE TIMES CALLED ADVENTUROUS AND THE WOUNDING OF THE

KING 144

X. THE SUPPRESSED WORD AND THE MYSTIC QUESTION 152

XI. THE HEALING OF THE KING 157

XII. THE REMOVAL OF THE HALLOWS . . . 161

BOOK III

THE EARLY EPOCHS OF THE QUEST

I. THE ANTECEDENTS OF THE LEGEND IN FOLK-LORE . 171 II. THE WELSH PERCEVAL 181

III. THE ENGLISH METRICAL ROMANCE OF SYR PERCY-

VELLE 193

IV. THE CONTE DEL GRAAL 198

(a) Preliminary to the whole Subject ; (b) The Poem of Chretien de Troyes ; (c) The Extension of Gautier ; (d) The Con- clusion of Manessier ; (e] The Alternative Sequel of Gerbert ; (/) In which Sir Gawain is considered briefly as a Companion of the Holy Quest.

BOOK IV

THE LESSER CHRONICLES OF THE HOLT GRAAL

I. THE METRICAL ROMANCE OF JOSEPH OF ARIMATH^A 245 II. THE LESSER HOLY GRAAL 255

III. THE EARLY HISTORY OF MERLIN .... 258

IV. THE DIDOT PERCEVAL 265

BOOK V THE GREATER CHRONICLES OF THE HOLT GRAAL

I. THE BOOK OF THE HOLY GRAAL, AND, IN THE FIRST

PLACE, THE PROLOGUE THERETO BELONGING . 281

II. A NEW CONSIDERATION CONCERNING THE BRANCHES

OF THE CHRONICLE 287

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Contents

SECT. PAGE

III. THE MINOR BRANCHES OF THE BOOK OF THE HOLY

GRAAL ........ 308

IV. SOME LATER MERLIN LEGENDS . . . .316

(a) The Vulgate Merlin ; (b) The Huth Merlin.

V. THE GREAT PROSE LANCELOT 330

VI. A PREFACE OR INTRODUCTORY PORTION APPERTAINING

TO ALL THE QUESTS . . . . . . 340

VII. THE LONGER PROSE PERCEVAL 344

VIII. THE QUEST OF THE HIGH PRINCE .... 352

IX. THE WELSH QUEST OF GALAHAD .... 365

BOOK VI

THE GERMAN CYCLE OF THE HOLT GRAAL

I. THE PARSIFAL OF WOLFRAM VON ESCHENBACH . 375 II. GLEANINGS CONCERNING THE LOST QUEST OF GUIOT

DE PROVENCE ....... 397

III. SIDELIGHTS FROM THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE

QUESTS 404

IV. THE CROWN OF ALL ADVENTURES . . . .407 V. THE TITUREL OF ALBRECHT VON SCHARFENBERG . 415

VI. THE DUTCH LANCELOT 421

BOOK VII

THE HOLT GRAAL IN THE LIGHT OF THE CELTIC CHURCH

I. STATEMENT OF A POSSIBLE IMPLICIT ACCOUNTING FOR

ALL CLAIMS 433

II. THE FORMULA OF THE HYPOTHESIS SCHEDULED . 436

III. IN WHAT SENSE THE PLEA MUST BE HELD TO FAIL . 446

IV. THE VICTORY OF THE LATIN RITE . . . -459

xvii b

Contents

BOOK VIII

MYSTIC ASPECTS OF THE GRAAL LEGEND

SECT. PAGE

I. THE INTRODUCTORY WORDS 469

II. THE POSITION OF THE LITERATURE DEFINED . .476

III. CONCERNING THE GREAT EXPERIMENT . . .481

IV. THE MYSTERY OF INITIATION 488

V. THE MYSTERY OF FAITH 493

VI. THE LOST BOOK OF THE GRAAL .... 498 VII. THE DECLARED MYSTERY OF QUEST. . . . 507

BOOK IX

SECRET TRADITION IN CHRISTIAN TIMES

I. PRELIMINARY TO THE WHOLE SUBJECT . . .521 II. SOME ALLEGED SECRET SCHOOLS OF THE MIDDLE AGES 524

III. THE LATIN LITERATURE OF ALCHEMY AND THE HER-

METIC SECRET IN THE LIGHT OF THE EUCHARISTIC

MYSTERY 533

IV. THE KABALISTIC ACADEMIES ..... 550 V. THE CLAIM IN RESPECT of TEMPLAR INFLUENCE . 555

VI. THE GRAAL FORMULA IN THE LIGHT OF OTHER

GLEANINGS FROM THE CATHOLIC SACRAMENTARY 566

VII. THE Lapis Exilis 571

VIII. THE ANALOGIES OF MASONRY . . . . -576

(a) The Assumption of the Building Guild ; (/>) Masonry and Moral Science ; (c} A Theory of Hermetic Interference ; (d) One Key to the Sanctuary.

IX. THE HALLOWS OF THE GRAAL MYSTERY RE-DISCOVERED

IN THE TALISMANS OF THE TAROT . . . 600

BOOK X

THE SECRET CHURCH

I. THE HERMENEUTICS OF THE HOLY GRAAL . .615

II. THE GOOD HUSBANDMAN 620

III. THE CATHOLIC SECRET OF THE LITERATURE . . 626

xviii

Contents

SECT. PAGE

IV. THE MYSTERY WHICH is WITHIN .... 639

V. THE SECLUDED AND UNKNOWN SANCTUARY . . 642 VI. THE TRADITION OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE AND OTHER

TRACES OF A HIGHER MIND OF THE CHURCH . 66 1

VII. THE CONCLUSION OF THIS HOLY QUEST . . . 668

APPENDIX

THE BIBLIOGRAPHT OF THE HOLT GRAAL

PART I THE TEXTS

PART II

SOME CRITICAL WORKS

PART III PHASES OF INTERPRETATION

xix

BOOK I

THE ROOTS OF THE HOUSE OF MEANING

THE ARGUMENT

Heads of a General Summary of the whole subject, with the analysis thereof, including: — I. SOME ASPECTS OF THE GRAAL LEGEND. — The word which came forth out of Qalilee — The sacramental vessel — Its history and the quests thereof— The Graal in the books of chivalry — The Graal in modern poetry — The composite elements of the Legend — The Graal as a reliquary . II. EPOCHS OF THE LEGEND. — The higher understanding of the Quest — The outlook of roman- ticism— The attitude of poetry — The direction of archeology — The prospect which is called spiritual — The consideration oj the present thesis — The hidden motives of the literature — Its critical difficulties — Concerning the interpretation of Books. III. THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE GRAAL LITERATURE. — The Catholic Doctrine of the Eucharist — The passage of Transubstantiation into Dogma — The Cultus of the Precious Blood — Relics of the Passion, and, in the first place, concern- ing those of the Precious Blood — The discovery of the Sacro Catino — The invention of the Lance at Antioch — The Sword of St. John the Baptist — The state of the Official Church — The Church in Britain — The Holy Wars of Palestine — The higher life of Sanctity and its annals in the Graal period — The sects of the period. IV. THE LITERATURE OF THE CYCLE. — Its various modes of classification and that mode which is most proper to the present inquiry — The places of the Graal Legend — The Welsh Peredur and the English Syr Percyvelle — The Conte del Graal— The Lesser Chronicles of the Holy Graal — The

3

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal

Greater Chronicles of the Holy Graal — The German cycle— The question which is posed for consideration. V. THE IMPLICITS OF THE GRAAL MYSTERY. — The first considera- tion concerning a concealed sense of the literature — The Secret Words of Consecration and what follows therefrom, namely, that a true Mass has never been said in the world since the Graal was taken away — The super-apostolical succession, the peculiar Divine Warrant and ecclesiastical pre-eminence claimed for the Graal Keepers — That these claims must be distinguished from errors of doctrinal confusion and theo- logical ignorance, of which there is evidence otherwise — That any concealed sense must be held to co-exist with manifest insufficiency, even within its own province, and more especially regarding the Eucharist — That there is no intention to present the Graal Mystery as that of a secret process at work outside the Church — The Lesser Imp ii cits of the literature.

BOOK I

THE ROOTS OF THE HOUSE OF MEANING

I

SOME ASPECTS OF THE GRAAL LEGEND

THE study of a great literature should begin like the preparation for a royal banquet, not without some solicitude for right conduct in the King's palace — which is the consecration of motive — and not without recol- lection of that source from which the most excellent gifts derive in their season to us all. We may, there- fore, in approaching it say : 'Benedic, Domine, nos et h<ec tua dona, qu<e de tua largitate sumus sumpturi.

But in respect of the subject which concerns us we may demand even more appropriately : Mens<e ccelestis participes facial nos, Rex <etern<z gloria. In this way we shall understand not only the higher meaning of the Feeding-Dish, but the gift of the discernment of spirits, the place and office of the supersubstantial bread, and other curious things of the worlds within and without of which we shall hear in their order. Surely the things of earth are profitable to us only in so far as they assist us towards the things which are eternal. In this respect there are many helpers, even as the sands of the sea. The old books help us, perhaps above all things, and among them the old chronicles and the great antique legends. If the hand of God is in history, it is also in folk-lore. We can scarcely fail of our term, since lights, both close at hand and in the unlooked-for places, kindle everywhere about us. It is difficult to say any longer that we walk in the shadow of death when the darkness is sown with stars.

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal

Now there are a few legends which may be said to stand forth among the innumerable traditions of humanity, wearing the external signs and characters of some inward secret or mystery which belongs rather to eternity than to time. They are in no sense connected one with another — unless, indeed, by certain roots which are scarcely in time and place — and yet by a suggestion which is deeper than any message of the senses each seems appealing to each, one bearing testimony to another, and all recalling all. They kindle strange lights, they awaken dim memories, in the antecedence of an immemorial past. They might be the broken fragments of some primitive revelation which, except in these memorials, has passed out of written records and from even the horizon of the mind. There are also other legends — strange, melancholy and long haunting— which seem to have issued from the depths of abori- ginal humanity, below all horizons of history, pointing, as we might think, to terrible periods of a past which is of the body only, not of the soul of man, and hinting that once upon a time there was a soulless age of our race, when minds were formless as the mammoths of geological epochs. To the latter class belongs part of what remains to us from the folk-lore of the cave-dwellers, the traditions of the pre-Aryan races of Europe. To the former, among many others, belongs the Graal legend, which in all its higher aspects is to be classed among the legends of the soul. Perhaps I should more worthily say that when it is properly understood, and when it is regarded at the highest, the Graal is not a legend, but an episode in the aeonian life of that which " cometh from afar"; it is a personal history.

The mystery of the Graal is a word which came forth out of Galilee. The literature which enshrines this mystery, setting forth the circumstances of its origin, the several quests which were instituted on account of it, the circumstances under which it was

6

The Roots of the House of Meaning

from time to time discovered, and, in fine, its imputed removal, with all involved thereby, is one of such considerable dimensions that it may be properly de- scribed as large. This notwithstanding, there is no difficulty in presenting its broad outlines, as they are found in the texts which remain, so briefly that if there be any one who is new to the subject, he can be in- structed sufficiently for my purpose even from the beginning. It is to be understood, therefore, that the Holy Graal, considered in its Christian aspects and apart from those of folk-lore, is represented invari- ably, excepting in one German version of the legend, as that vessel in which Christ celebrated the Last Supper or consecrated for the first time the elements of the Eucharist. It is, therefore, a sacramental vessel, and, according to the legend, its next use was to receive the blood from the wounds of Christ when His body was taken down from the Cross, or, alternatively, from the side which was pierced by the spear of Longinus. Under circumstances which are variously recounted, this vessel, its content included, was carried westward in safe guardianship — coming, in fine, to Britain and there remaining in the hands of successive keepers, or, this failing, in the hands of a single keeper, whose life was prolonged through the centuries. In the days of King Arthur, the prophet and magician Merlin assumed the responsibility of carrying the legend to its term, with which object he brought about the institution of the Round Table, and the flower of Arthurian chivalry set out to find the Sacred Vessel. In some of the quests which followed, the knighthood depicted in the greater romances has become a mystery of ideality, and nothing save its feeble reflection could have been found on earth. The quests were to some extent preconceived in the mind of the legend, and, although a few of them were successful, that which followed was the removal of the Holy Graal. The Companions of the Quest asked, as one may say, for

7

"The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal

bread, and to those who were unworthy there was given the stone of their proper offence, but to others the spiritual meat which passes all understanding. That this account instructs the uninitiated person most imperfectly will be obvious to any one who is acquainted with the great body of the literature, but, within the limits to which I have restricted it inten- tionally, I do not know that if it were put differently it would be put better or more in harmony with the general sense of the romances.

It might appear at first sight almost a superfluous precaution, even in an introductory part, to reply so fully as I have now done to the assumed question : What, then, was the Holy Graal ? Those who are unacquainted with its literature in the old books of chivalry, through which it first entered into the romance of Europe, will know it by the Idylls of the King. But it is not so superfluous as it seems, more especially with the class which I am addressing, since nominally this has other concerns, like folk-lore scholarship, and many answers to the question made from distinct points of view would differ from that which is given by the Knight Perceval to his fellow- monk in the poem of Tennyson : —

" What is it ?

The phantom of a cup which comes and goes ? — Nay, monk ! What phantom ? answered Perceval. The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord Drank at the last sad supper with his own. This, from the blessed land of Aromat . . . Arimathaean Joseph, journeying brought To Glastonbury. . . . And there awhile it bode ; and if a man Could touch or see it, he was heal'd at once, By faith, of all his ills. But then the times Grew to such evil that the holy cup Was caught away to Heaven and disappeared."

This is the answer with which, in one or another of its forms, poetic or chivalrous, every one is expected

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The Roots of the House of Meaning

to be familiar, or he must be classed as too unlettered for consideration, even in such a slight sketch as these introductory words. But it is so little the only answer, and it is so little full or exhaustive, that no person acquainted with the archaic literature would accept it otherwise than as one of its aspects, and even the enchanting gift of Tennyson's poetic faculty leaves — and that of necessity — something to be desired in the summary of the Knight's reply to the direct question of Ambrosius. Those even who at the present day discourse of chivalry are not infrequently like those who say: "Lord, Lord!" — but for all that they do not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven or the more secret realms of literature. And this obtains still more respecting the chivalry of the Graal. In the present case something of the quintessential spirit has in an obscure manner evaporated. There is an allusiveness, a pregnancy, a suggestion about the old legend in its highest forms : it is met with in the old romances, and among others in the longer prose chronicle of Perceval le Gallois, but more fully in the great prose Quest, which is of Galahad, the haut prince. A touch of it is found later in Tennyson's own poem, when Perceval's sister, the nun of " utter whiteness," describes her vision : —

" I heard a sound As of a silver horn from o'er the hills. . . .

The slender sound

As from a distance beyond distance grew Coming upon me. . . .

And then

Stream'd thro* my cell a cold and silver beam, And down the long beam stole the Holy Grail, Rose-red with beatings in it."

And again : —

" I saw the spiritual city and all her spires And gateways in a glory like one pearl. . . . Strike from the sea ; and from the star there shot A rose-red sparkle to the city, and there Dwelt, and I knew it was the Holy Grail."

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"The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal

So also in the chivalry books the legend is treated with an aloofness, and yet with a directness of circumstance and a manifoldness of detail, awakening a sense of reality amidst enchantment which is scarcely heightened when the makers of the chronicles testify to the truth of their story. The explanation is, according to one version of the legend, that it was written by Christ Himself after the Resurrection, and that there is no clerk, however hardy, who will dare to suggest that any later scripture is referable to the same hand. Sir Thomas Malory, the last and greatest compiler of the Arthurian legend, suppresses this hazardous ascription, and in the colophon of his seventeenth book is contented with adding that it is <ca story chronicled for one of the truest and the holyest that is in thys world."

But there is ample evidence no further afield than Sir Thomas Malory's own book, the Morte cT Arthur, that the Graal legend was derived into his glorious codification from various sources, and that some ele- ments entered into it which are quite excluded by the description of Sir Perceval in the Idylls or by the colophon of Malory's own twelfth book, which reads : " And here foloweth the noble tale of the Sancgreal, that called is the hooly vessel, and the sygnefycacyon of the blessid blood of our Lord Jhesu Cryste, blessid mote it be, the whiche was brought in to this land by Joseph of Armathye, therefor, on al