'^jj^^i^i THE MYSTIC VISION IN THE GRAIL LEGEND AND IN THE DIVINE COMBD V UC-NRLF B ^ oae 775 LIZETTE ANDREWS FISHER Submitted in Partial Fulfilment op the Requirements FOR THE Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty ov Philosophy, Columbia U;^IIVERSITY if I13eto gotb COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1917 i COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN ENGLISH AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE THE MYSTIC VISION IN THE GRAIL LEGEND AND IN THE DIVINE COMEDY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS SALES AGENTS New York: LEMCKE & BUECHNER 30-32 West 27th Street London : HUMPHREY MILFORD Amen Corner, E.G. C?cr0cncu Frontispiece of the Rosarium Celenlis carue et patrice triumphalis, Jacob Locher, Nuremburg, 1517. From licnaissance uri'l Humanismii^ , Ltidwig (leiger, 1882. THE MYSTIC VISION IN THE GRAIL LEGEND AND IN THE DIVINE COMEDY BY LIZETTE ANDREWS FISHER Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements FOR the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the Faculty of Philosophy, Columbia University If3eto gork COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS 1917 Copyright, 1917 By Columbia University Press Printed from type, March, 1917 This Monograph has been approved by the Department of English and Comparative Literature in Columbia University as a contribution to knowledge worthy of publication. A. H. Thorndike, Executive Officer PREFACE The addition of even a single page to the voluminous criticism of the Grail Legend and the Divine Comedy can be justified only by the hope of suggesting a fresh interpreta- tion in the light of hitherto unnoticed facts. But they have been examined from so many different points of view that it would seem impossible to find any line of thought explanatory of questions in either, much less one which clears up problems in both. Nevertheless such a line of thought is, I believe, to be found in the history of the doctrine of transubstantiation, which from the controversies of the ninth century to its culmination in the Lateran Council of 1215 seems, strangely enough, to have received little attention from the standpoint of its literary influence, though it needs but a moment's reflection to perceive that a dogma so closely coimected with the life and thought of the later Middle Ages must have affected contemporary literature. Emphasis on the sacra- mental system of the church as its great agent of salvation, and the special glorification of the eucharist as chief among sacraments, received authoritative recognition in the decree of this council, which declared transubstantiation an article of faith, and placed it at the beginning of its confession in immediate connection with the fundamental doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation. WhUe the religious fervor thus evidenced found outward expression in elaboration of eucha- ristic ritual and in the feast of Corpus Christi, its spiritual influence is no less marked in the mysticism of the day. 358454 Vlll PREFACE The eucharist was one means, and not the least important, by which man might achieve union with God. Through it the soul entered into union with God Incarnate, His splendor being sacramentally veiled in mercy to finite powers, and the intuitive knowledge of transubstantiation, conceived as the miracle whereby the special presence of God was invoked, was claimed as a part, at least, of the mystic vision. Though it is manifestly impossible that so stupendous a belief could have been without its effect on contemporary literature, it was not from the doctrinal point of view that this study had its beginning, but rather from a desire to , understand certain unexplained features of the closing '^ cantos of the Purgatory. The point of departure was the cry of greeting to Beatrice as she appears in the Earthly Paradise, Benedictus qui venis, words which not only hailed the entry of Christ into Jerusalem but which day by day in the mass herald the expected coming of Christ to the altar at the moment of consecration. Dante, fully aware of the eucha- ristic association with the words, must have been conscious that by their use at this point he was suggesting an alle- gorical connection between the coming of Beatrice and the sacramental coming of Christ. Such an allegory, with all its ceremonial detail, is not only entirely consistent with the belief and worship familiar to Dante, but leads also to a genuinely organic interpretation of the whole episode. Just as the eucharistic presence of Christ vouchsafed to the church is foretaste and pledge of the final vision of God, so the revelation of Beatrice in the Earthly Paradise is the foreshadowing of the revelation of God with which the Divine Comedy closes. The application of the theory to the Grail legend came about, almost accidentally, through the questions which arise in regard to those glimpses of the Earthly Paradise which j appear now and again in its background. That the influence of the dogma of transubstantiation might offer an explana- PREFACE IX tion of the knottiest point of the whole Grail problem, that of the fusion of the Celtic story of the Quest and the Christ- ian legend of Joseph of Arimathea, was at the outset far from the thought of the writer, who can honestly deny having fitted facts into a previously conceived theory. On the contrary, the tendency of all the facts as they were col- lected and compared to point to one conclusion and to answer many and diverse questions was viewed at first with the suspicion always aroused by extraordinarily detailed and minute correspondence. So many good theories have snapped when stretched to cover too many points! This study is offered for the consideration of those who are interested in the question of the meaning of literature to those for whom it was created, in this case a medieval audience unconscious of "sources" but greatly liking an implied moral. Though the present work is an investiga- tion into the influence of eucharistic teaching and practice in a circumscribed field, there are undoubtedly other literary questions which may find an answer in the same influence and which may therefore repay study from the same point of view. In the matter of acknowledgment and thanks my credi- tors are many and words a most inadequate repayment. To Professor J. B. Fletcher, in whose seminar I learned to value Dante's background of religion and philosophy, my obligation is not to be measured, and extends beyond public teaching to private advice and encouragement. To Professor W. W. Lawrence I owe the enrichment of my own meagre acquaintance with medieval romance from his ample store. Both have given endless patient consideration to the work of criticism and suggestion. To other members of the department of English and Comparative Literature of Co- lumbia University, notably to Professor A. H. Thorndike, I am grateful for immediate attention to the first presen- tation of my theory, and for generous and unflagging interest X PREFACE in its development. This interest has also been shared by- many fellow-students, some of whom have given valuable assistance in the correction of proof. For the books required I am indebted not only to the authorities and staff of the Library of Columbia University, of the New York Public Library, and of the Peabody Library, Baltimore, but also to those of the General and Union Theological Seminaries, New York, for without their special collections such a study could not have been made at all. I should like also to make special mention of the monu- mental work of MM. Rohault de Fleury from whose study of the archeology of the mass all the illustrations, except the frontispiece, have been taken. L. A. F. Columbia University, December, 1916. CONTENTS Introduction 1 Transxjbstantiation in History, Theology and Devotion . 7 The Mystic Vision in the Legend of the Grail .... 29 The Mystic Vision in the Divine Comedy 85 Appendices 117 Bibliography 139 Index 145 INTRODUCTION The modern student of history is admittedly more inter- ested in the thoughts than in the deeds of the past. Looking to the former for the explanation of the latter, he grudges no time spent in understanding the mental attitude of a period, in reconstructing it with all possible sympathy for its peculiarities and without any trace of condescension to its limitations. Students of letters have been somewhat slower to realize that literature no less than history must involuntarily reflect contemporary thinking and feeling, but they are now very generally agreed that the background of ideas and sentiment must be reconstructed before we can hope to know what any literature meant to the audience for which it was produced. In the work of such reconstruction the method employed has been, for the most part, based on the theory of evolu- tion. Ever conscious of the idea of development, students have sought to find the key to all things in their origins rather than in their contemporary associations; in other words, in their heredity rather than in their environment. Scholarly energy has largely been devoted to the study of sources in literature and history as well as in language. In the field of folk lore and popular story scholars have zeal- ously followed every clew and preserved every tale lingering anywhere on the lips of the people, and when we read the carefully arranged results of their labors we are startled to find therein the germs of every story that has ever been told. Investigation of primitive worship, custom, and art has thrown light into many a dark corner of history and letters, and has afforded a clew to more than one tangle. 2 INTRODUCTION But, after all, while the antecedents o*" every vital thing, idea, or person are niwa-^s interesting and to be reckoned with in acquiring knowledge of it, the great force which moulds it is its own living present. It is a part of all that it has met even more than it is a consequence of its origins. In the study of Uterature, the literature of the Middle Ages especially, the importance of the immediate environ- ment has been recognized, and a good deal of recent research has been devoted to geographical and historical setting, to contemporary manners, customs, and superstitions. Much less of zeal and interest has been expended on the study of contemporary theology. The religion of the Middle Ages has too often been dismissed rather curtly with casual men- tion of "medieval theology" or "monkish notions," and treated as a static, undisputed body of behef, fixed and immutable from the sixth century to the sixteenth. One reason for this is probably that while the average modern man has drifted too far from dogmatic theology to recognize its mfluence instinctively it is still too close to him to arouse attention and stimulate interest. It would, however, be ad- mitted that no department of human activity remains unchanged throughout the centuries, and that for the thousand years of the Middle Ages the best intellectual capacity and attainment were devoted to questions of God and the soul, and the relation between them. On the answers to these questions and on the dutiful acceptance of them depended man's salvation; that is, his rescue from literal damnation and his ultimate attainment of heaven. By religion alone could he hope to be saved, and religion was entrusted to the church. So all life was viewed through the glass of theology, the church's dogmatic expression of reli- gion, and it is impossible to conceive of anything more closely related to conduct or more hkely to be reflected in all forms of literature. INTRODUCTION 6 In the religion of the Middle Ages, as indeed in all religion whatsoever, there is the element of mysticism. To use the words "mystic vision" in a title is to involve oneself in an apology at the outset. The word "mystic" has as wide a mantle as charity and covers a multitude of follies if not of sins. Mysticism is only too often a loose term for any spiritual manifestation difficult of explanation, and in con- sequence is dismissed by many people as synonymous with moonshine. It is applied to everything outside the plainest matter of fact, from Piers Ploughman's vision to the latest fashion in eastern cults. But, as has been well said, a man is not a visionary when he has" a vision, but only when he has nothing else, and the genuine mystic is usually a sur- prisingly direct person, his mysticism, to himself, really a very simple (one wants to say practical) matter. Accepting the proposition that to know God is the chief end and aim of existence, he finds that such knowledge comes to him by other faculties than the rational. It is by intuition that he attains the mystic vision in which he claims to realize absolute truth and to taste absolute blessedness. This spiritual attitude is peculiar to no age, nationality, nor form of religion. There have always been those who did not even try "by searching to find out God." To them, when ripe for the experience, there came direct, intuitive knowledge of Him. There are, of course, degrees of illumina- tion; souls vary in their capacity to receive light, and an inferior capacity may be increased by means of contempla- tion and spiritual exercises; but in each degree the mystic vision is the nearest approach to the final vision of God attainable by man while still in the flesh. It is an endow- ment akin to the artistic gift — that intuitive, uninstructed, unexplainable choice of the true color, the right line, the harmonizing note, the inevitable word: God has a few of us whom He whispers in the ear: The rest may reason and welcome. 4 INTRODUCTION Neo-Platonic ecstasy was such an experience, as was also the gnosis of Alexandria. Such, too, is the top rung of the ladder of contemplation and the "inner light" of the fol- lowers of George Fox. But always and everywhere it is the foretaste of the fruition of God. Though the mystic approach to the divine is a spiritual experience, widespread and persistent, its manifestations are as varied as those of every other human experience. Broadly speaking, the mystic is a soul apart; his revelation is direct; a way is opened before him. Those who attempt to follow in his footsteps, lacking the direct light, are misled by wandering fires. There are, however, exceptions to this state of isolation, and one of the best defined is the mystic school of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The school, often called by historians of medieval phi- losophy that of the scholastic mystics,^ is remarkable not only because it may be called a school at all, but because its representatives united fervent mystical devotion not only to orthodoxy, but to one of the most rigid of all ex- pressions of it, the scholastic theology consummated in the work of Aquinas. The manifestations of this particular form of mysticism must later be discussed at some length, but at this point we may say that it found one way of attaining its goal, the knowledge of God, in the means of grace afforded by the church, especially in its sacramental system. These scholastic mystics lived at the time when the sacraments of the church were attaining a position of very great impor- tance in theological discussion. Chief among sacraments is the eucharist, for in it sign and thing signified are one, even Christ, and so by its means man attains on earth to communion with God. Controver- sies as to the exact nature of Christ's presence in the sacra- ment of the altar took the place of the controversies over 1 Cf. W. R. Inge, Christian Mysticism, p. 140; M, de Wulf, History oj Medieval Philosophy, tr. Coffey, p. 215. INTRODUCTION 5 the Trinity and the Incarnation which engrossed the early church, and, as a result of these controversies, the eucharist became for the later Middle Ages the focus of all worship as well as the supreme means of grace and of participation in the divine life. Eucharistic devotion colored all ritual and influenced all forms of art. The daily mass was the daily miracle of the presence of God, and was so accepted, in some sense or other, by every christened man, — peasant, priest, or knight. Around it gathered much gross super- stition, it is true, but also much artistic expression and poetic fervor. Mysticism is an attitude of the human spirit, ubiquitous and perpetual, and by the thirteenth century it had adjusted itself to the sacramental system of the church. It was a vital part of human experience, and as such must be reflected in contemporary literature; its omission would require far more explanation than its inclusion. But before we can dis- cuss intelligently specific instances of literary influence we must examine the evidence for the conspicuous importance of eucharistic devotion in the rehgious life of the time, and trace the development of the doctrine concerning the eu- charist chiefly responsible for such importance; the doctrine, namely, of transubstantiation. TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY, THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION Se nascens dedit socium, Convescens in edulium, Se moriens in pretium, Se regnans dat in praemium. O salutaris hostia, Quae coeli pandis ostium, Bella premunt hostilia, Da robur, fer auxilium. — Thomas Aqxjinas TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY, THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION In the month of November, 1215, there assembled in Rome the twelfth ecumenical council, historically known as the Fourth Lateran, but commonly cited in canon law as "the general Council of the Lateran" without further quali- fication, or again, as " the Great Council." ^ It came together at the call of Innocent III, who had long dreamed of pre- siding over such a gathering, and it was at once the climax and conclusion of his career — he died a few months later — and the supreme moment of the papacy as an unques- tioned authority in European affairs. Innocent HI (Lotario de'Conti di Segni, c. 1160-1216) was of noble birth and educated in the most approved manner of the Middle Ages. After his early training in Rome he went to the university of Paris, where, under Peter of Corbeil, he laid the foundations of his profound knowledge of scholastic philosophy; later, at Bologna, he acquired as thoroughly canon and civil law. He seemed preeminently a scholar, and, though he attained some eminence in church affairs, he did not advance beyond the diaconate, having been created cardinal-deacon by his uncle Clement HI. His uncle was succeeded by Celestine HI, who belonged to the rival family of the Orsini, so Lotario withdrew from active affairs and devoted himself to study. In his retire- ment he produced, among other works, six books under the title, Mysterium evangelicae legis ac sacramenti eucharistiae, interesting in view of his subsequent official pronouncement * Cf. H. Leclercq, Cath. Enc., Art. Lateran. 10 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY in regard to eucharistic doctrine. After the death of the Orsini pope he was unanimously elected to the papacy, and, in order to qualify for it, passed through the stages of priest and bishop on successive days. Thus, when less than forty, he found himself qualified by birth, training, and position to assert afresh the papal supremacy claimed by Hildebrand, and by force of character and personality to make the claim a reality. After most imposing ceremonies of accession, which in- cluded a great procession. Innocent turned his attention to the affairs of Rome. He reduced the warring factions to order and induced the populace to forego in his favor its ancient claim to elect the senate. He vested the executive powers of the senate in a single senator, directly or indirectly selected by himself. He found Italy restless and sullen under the imperial rule of Henry VI, and, taking advantage of the strife between rival factions after the early death of that emperor, he cleared the great Italian fiefs of German feu- datories, deposed the imperial prefect in Rome itself, and saw to it that his own redores governed the patrimony of St. Peter.^ So within one year of his election to the papacy he succeeded in putting pope above emperor in Italy, in token whereof he managed to be appointed guardian of the infant son of Henry VI, the future Frederick II. From this secure standing point he proceeded to make his authority felt all over Europe. His quarrel with England is the best known instance of this assertion of papal rights. There he used interdict and excommunication to support his claim to bestow preferment, enforcing his contention with a high and heavy hand, the weight of which was never forgotten. The English episode is, however, only one among many. He excommunicated Alfonso I of Leon for marry- ing within the forbidden degrees, and for similar reasons ^ Cf. Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, Bk. IX. THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 11 annulled the marriage of the crown prmce Alfonso of Portu- gal. Pedro II of Aragon submitted as the pope's vassal and received coronation at his hand. He was arbiter between two rival claimants to the throne of Norway, and acted in the same capacity in Sweden. He prepared a crusade against the Moors in Spain, and undertook the Fourth Crusade while doing his utmost for the Latinization of the Eastern Empire. As champion of orthodoxy he instituted the crusade of obliteration against the Albigenses. If not the originator of the famous comparison of the spiritual power to the sun and the temporal to the moon, so bitterly discussed by Dante,^ he was its undaunted champion. His profound knowledge of both civil and canon law furnished him the machinery for his purpose: the driving power came from his sincere belief in theocracy "^ and his own indomitable will and per- sonality. Says Gregorovius, "The spectacle of a man who, if only for the moment, ruled the world according to his will in tranquil majesty is sublime and marvellous." ^ No greater opportunity to display this majesty can be conceived than that afforded by a General Council, which was for a pope of the Middle Ages what a great feudal gath- ering was for king or emperor.* The pope's imperious sum- mons to Christendom was issued more than two years before the actual assembling, and excuses were not well received. Prelates were to come to Rome if possible; but if age or infirmity could be pleaded they were commanded to ^ De Monorchia, III: iv. ^ To the ambassadors of Philip Augustus he said: "To princes power is given on earth, but to priests it is attributed also in heaven; the former only over bodies, but the latter also over souls. Whence it follows that by so much as the soul is superior to the body, the priest- hood is superior to the kingship." — Cit. W. A. Phillips, Enc. Brit., Art. Innocent III. 3 Op. cit. Bk. IX: III: i. * Cf. A. Luchaire, Innocent III et le quatrieme concile de Latran, Rev. historique, XCVII: 225-263. 12 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY send responsible representatives under threat of canonical discipline. The urgency of the summons and the length of time allowed in which to obey it account in part for the vast size of the gathering, perhaps the greatest ecclesiastical assembly the world has ever seen. Over four hundred bishops were in attendance, and many others were represented by high ecclesiastics. Eight hundred abbots and the Latin patri- archs, established in the East by Innocent, appeared. There were also representatives of the Emperor Frederick II, the Latin emperor of Constantinople, the kings of England, France, Aragon, Hungary and Jerusalem. The scene of the council, the Lateran, to Dante "supreme above all mortal things," ^ was a fitting background for the pomp of the gathering. The three great sessions, about a fortnight apart, were held in the basilica of St. John Lateran. ^ In it a raised throne had been erected for the sovereign pontiff, who, says Rich- ard, "showed himself coming forth as a bridegroom from his chamber, and ascending, took his seat on the tribunal to which centurions and tribunes advanced." ^ A fanfare of trumpets proclaimed silence when the ruler of rulers would speak, a necessary measure, probably, in view of the size of the audience. The crowd at the opening service was ^ "quando Laterano Alle cose mortali ando di sopra." Paradiso, XXXI: 35, 36. * For details of this council I am indebted to the article by Lu- chaire to which I have ab-eady referred, p. 11. He gives as his chief authority on the council Richard de St. Germano, notary to Frederick II. "II assista au concile et I'a decrit en t6moin qui sait voir et en- tendre." p. 236. * "Se manifestavit . . . egrediens tamquam sponsus de thalamo suo et ascendens sedit pro tribunali, cui centviriones suberant et tri- buni." On this Luchaire comments (p. 240): "Expressions classiques par lesqueUes le notaire de Frederic II, qui a fait ses humanit^s, d^signe sans doute les gardes pontificaux." THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 13 SO great that it is said one ecclesiastic, the bishop of Araalfi, fell in the press and was trampled to death, and that on another occasion one or more delegates were smothered. It was, however, at the third session, November 30, that the Pope read the seventy canons which he had prepared. It is generally admitted that there was no discussion and that the council, without more ado, promulgated the canons as matters of faith.^ In the very first of them the orthodox faith was proclaimed, and for the first time the doctrine of the eucharist was brought into the proceedings of a Gen- eral Council.^ After the statement of the great Christian mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation, the canon pro- ceeded to the assertion that outside the universal church of the faithful none can be saved. In it priest as well as sacri- fice is Christ Himself, whose body and blood are contained in that sacrament of the altar under the species of bread and wine, transubstantiated, the bread into the body and the wine into the blood, by divine power, in order that for the completion of the mystery of unity we may ourselves receive of His what He received of ours.^ "What is important here," says Harnack, "is that the doctrine of the eucharist is immediately attached to the confession of the Trinity and Incarnation. In this way it is represented even in the symbol as having a most intimate relation to these doctrines, as, indeed, forming with them a ^ "The fathers of the council did little more than approve the seventy decrees presented to them; this approbation, nevertheless, sufficed to impart to the acts thus formulated and promulgated the value of ecumenical decrees." Cath. Enc, Art. Lateran. * Cf. Hastings' Enc., Art. Councils and Synods. ^ "Una vero est fideUum universalis ecclesia, extra quam nullua omnino salvatur. In qua idem ipse sacerdos, et sacrificium Jesus Christus; cujus corpus et sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur; transubstantiatis, pane in corpus, et vino in sanguinem, potestate Divina, ut ad perficiendum mysterium unitatis accipiamus ipsi de suo quod accepit ipse de nostro." — Mansi, XXII: 982. 14 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY unity . . . the real presence obtained the same value as the Trinity and the two-nature doctrine, so that every one was regarded as an ecclesiastical anarchist who called it in question." Harnack goes on to say that "the n^l^lty in the symbol — the direct attachment of the eucharist dogma to the Trinity and Christology — is the most distinctive and boldest act of the Middle Ages. Compared with this immense inno\Kation the addition of the 'filioque' weighs very lightly." ^ The doctrine of transubstantiation was thus explicitly and finally estabhshed as the orthodox belief of all Christian men, and to deny it was to read oneself out of the church militant and triumphant. Innocent had not only demon- strated the authority he had asserted, but had secured an immense backing for the points of doctrine and discipline which he wished to emphasize. ^ Richard says it was in honor of the Trinity that the pope completed the council on the third day,' but whatever the motive, the great pope, using as a mouthpiece the greatest ecclesiastical assembly the world has ever seen, took three days to end the con- troversies of three centuries, and to declare definitely and authoritatively the consecrated host identical with Christ, and so the cornerstone of the church.^ ^ A. Harnack, History of Dogma, VI: 53 ff. 2 Cf. Luchaire, op. cit. 227. " L'assemblee europ^enne de 1215 a 6t6 le signe visible, ^clatant, de la suprematie spirituelle et temporelle conquise sur le monde par la monarchie romaine, telle que I'avait faite Innocent III. Mais il y a autre chose. Le programme de concile comportait des resolutions a prendre d'une telle importance qu'il fallait que l'universalit6 des fideles Mt la pour donner les sanctions n6cessaires." 3 "Sicque propter causam Trinitatis pontifex sanctam synodum trina sezione complevit." — Cit. Luchaire, page 241. * "If there was one doctrine upon which the supremacy of the medieval church rested, it was the doctrine of transubstantiation. It was by his exclusive right to the performance of the miracle which was wrought in the mass that the lowliest priest was raised high above princes." — J. R. Green, History of the English People, Bk. IV: iv. THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 15 II Considering that the "breaking of bread" with "prayers" ^ was from the beginning the central act of Christian wor- ship and privilege of initiation, it is not surprising that dis- cussion as to the nature of Christ's presence in the eucharist and the means whereby it is effected should give rise to con- troversy, and if the records of the controversies themselves are voluminous, comment on the controversies is literally interminable. We are here concerned chiefly with the dis- putes arising in the middle of the ninth century, which continued, with more or less intermittent fervor, until their official and triumphant settlement at the Great Council. Any outline of them must condense scores of years and volumes of argument into sentences, but it is worth while to make the attempt to gain an idea of the clash of opinion which was effectively ended in 1215, only to be renewed by the teaching of Wyclif . In the ninth century Paschasius, a monk of Corbey, maintained that in the eucharist the bread is converted into the very body of Christ. Ratramnus of the same abbey defended the opinion that there is no conversion of the bread and that though the body of Christ is present, it is in a spiritual way. "Scotus Erigena had supported the view that the sacraments of the altar are figures of the body of Christ; that they are a memorial of the true body and blood of Christ." 2 But it was only in the eleventh century that the whole matter attained a very fury of controversy as a con- sequence of the teaching of Berengarius, director of the Cathedral School at Tours.. He adopted the spiritualized theory of Ratramnus and Scotus, holding that the whole body of Christ is received by the heart, not by the mouth.^ 1 Ads, II: 42. ^ G. M. Sauvage, Cath. Enc, Art. Berengarius. ^ "Christi corpus totum constat accipi ab interiore homine, fide- lium corde, non ore." 16 TRANBUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY Berengarius more than once signed retractions only to attack them, and it is difficult to make a clear statement of his teaching. A summary from the Roman Catholic point of view is, therefore, of special value. "In order to understand his opinion, we must observe that, in philosophy, Berengarius had rationalistic tendencies and was a nominalist. Even in the study of questions of faith, he held that reason is the best guide. Reason, how- ever, is dependent upon and is limited by sense perception. Authority, therefore, is not conclusive; we must reason according to the data of our senses. There is no doubt that Berengarius denied transubstantiation (we mean the sub- stantive conversion expressed by the word; the word was used for the first time by Hildebert of Lavardin) ; it is not absolutely certain that he denied the real presence, though he certainly held false views concerning it. Is the body of Christ present in the eucharist, and in what manner? On this question the authorities appealed to by Berengarius are, besides Scotus Erigena, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine. These fathers taught that the sacrament of the altar is the figure, the sign, the token of the body and blood of the Lord. These terms, in their mind, apply to what is external and sensible in the holy eucharist, and do not, in any way, imply the negation of the real presence of the true body of Christ. (St. Aug. Serm. 143, n. 3: Gerbert, Lihellus de Corp. e Sang. Domini, n. 4. Migne, CLXXXIX: 177.) For Berengarius the body and blood of Christ are really present in the holy eucharist; but the presence is an in- tellectual or spiritual presence. The substance of the bread and the substance of the wine remain unchanged in their nature, but by consecration they become spiritually the very body and blood of Christ. This spiritual body of Christ is the res sacramenti; the bread and the wine are the figure,, the sign, the token, sacr amentum." ^ ^ Sauvage, op. cit. 1^ THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 17 Berengarius made final retraction and died in union with the church in 1088, but the influence of his principles was widespread, for pupils had come to him from all parts of France, and his teaching was attacked by leading theolo- gians, among them Lanfranc, Durandus, and the Benedic- tines. "The transmutation theory of Paschasius . . . was further developed by the opponents of Berengar,^ First, the mystery was conceived of still more sensuously, at least by some (manducatio infidelium) ; secondly, there was a beginning, though with caution, to apply to dogma the 'science' that was discredited in the opponent. The crude conceptions (which embraced the total conversion) were put aside and an attempt was made to unite the older deliver- ances of tradition with the new transmutation doctrine, as also to adopt the Augustinian terminology, by means of dialectic distinctions, to the still coarsely reaUstic view of the subject." ^ The Roman Catholic view of this development is as follows: "The error of Berengarius, as is the case with other heresies, was the occasion which favored and even necessi- tated, a more explicit presentation and a more precise for- mulation of Catholic doctrine about the holy eucharist. . . . The Council of Rome, in 1079, in its condemnation of Berengarius, expresses more clearly than any document before it the nature of this substantial change. . . . Though the feast of Corpus Christi was officially established only in the thirteenth century, its institution was probably occa- sioned by these eucharistic controversies. The same may be said of the ceremony of the elevation of the host after the consecration of the holy sacrifice of the mass." ^ And again: ^ "Yet everything acquired settled form only in the thirteenth century; the questions resulting from the new doctrine are innu- merable." Harnack, op. dt., VI: 51n. ^ Harnack, op. cit., VI: 51. * Sauvage, op. dt. 18 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY "After the Berengarian controversy the blessed sacra- ment was in the eleventh and twelfth centuries elevated for the express purpose of repairing by its adoration the blas- phemies of heretics and strengthening the imperilled faith of Catholics. In the thirteenth century were introduced for the greater glorification of the Most Holy, the theophoric processions . . . and also the feast of Corpus Christi." ^ Whether this shift of emphasis and consequent supreme exaltation of the eucharist be viewed as innovation or repa- ration, there can be no question that in the later Middle Ages the eucharist was viewed not only as the continual extension of the Incarnation and the centre of Christian worship, but was also the supreme expression of all spiritual life and the focus of devotional expression, poetry, and drama.2 III We come now to the relation of this preeminent impor- tance of the eucharist to that mysticism which, ut semper, ^ J. Pohle, Cath. Enc, Art. Eucharist. * "Worship and adoration found a striking and noble expression in the medieval mass, and in the prayers contained in some of the popu- lar books of instruction. To the men of the Middle Ages the mass was the mystery par excellence of the church. Around it there gathered all the splendor which art and music could provide. . . . The medieval mass kept the memory of the passion of Christ vividly before the minds of the worshippers. The popular books of devotion and the mystical commentators on the mass ahke emphasize the conception of the mass as a sacred drama exhibiting and rehearsing again and again the story of the Lord's passion 'until He come.'" — J. H. Shrawley, Hastings' Enc. of Religion and Ethics, Art. Eucharist to End of Middle Ages. "In the sacrament of the Supper and the doctrine regarding it, the church gave expression to everything that it highly prized — its dogma, its mystical relation to Christ, the fellowship of believers, the priest, the sacrifice, the miraculous power which God had given to His church, the satisfaction of the sensuous impulse in piety, and so forth." — Harnack, op. cit. VI: 233 f. THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 19 uhique et ah omnibus, concerns itself with the immediate contact of the soul with the divine. Varying in its expres- sion with various religions, with various conceptions of the soul and God, it is always somewhere in the life of man. Always there are some to whom it is given to experience while still in the flesh some of the freedom of the released soul, to realize the love of God and to become one with Him. The ecstasy of Platonic love takes the soul back to the divine from which it came; and Philo, Hellenized Jew, found in contemplation the means of putting the soul into that way of return, the path of direct, intuitive knowledge of God. Plotinus, though he developed this contact with God into coalescence with Him, found material existence an estrange- ment, and was forced to admit that even for the most expert these times of union must be brief and occasional. To the Christian Platonists of Alexandria this direct knowledge, or gnosis, was above faith, which they regarded as the cut and dried expression of truth, sufficient for those who, for lack of direct knowledge, must needs take it at second hand. It is not specially difficult to see that while in the higher type of men such theories produce characters of the loftiest virtue, there are likely to be also exceedingly unlovely results. The notion of one's own private enlightenment and law entirely demoralizes the wilful soul, who finds in it justification for breaking all bounds of ethics and morals, and so spiritual freedom rapidly degenerates into carnal license. It is, therefore, not surprising to find the law- abiding Roman mind distrusting mystic philosophy and laying stress on the reality of sin and the need of forgiveness: only by process of repentance and amendment of life is one entitled to expect union with God. For Augustine the love of God is not only the means of knowing Him, but the motive of obedience to His laws. The rare moments in which man, losing himself, finds God, whose fruition is the essence of eternal life, must needs have the effect of convincing the 20 TRAN SUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY favored soul that sin will automatically cut him off from such fulfilment here and hereafter. The speculative mysticism of Neo-Platonism found expres- sion in terms acceptable to practical western Christianity in the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius, which were of course believed to date back to the age immediately following that of the apostles. Chief of these is the Celestial and Ecclesi- astical Hierarchy, of which the first part treats of the way to God, leading from the lower creation up through the angels in all their ranks. These favored beings attain the end of all created things, the knowledge of God, by means of direct intuition; they perceive the divme essence accord- ing to the laws of their existence as pure intelligences. Dionysius explains that the second part of his work is called the Ecclesiastical rather than the Earthly Hierarchy because it, no less than the Celestial, has for its goal the knowledge of God, but of God as revealed in Christ incar- nate. As man is by nature incapable of the direct intuition of God vouchsafed to the heavenly orders, he is entirely dependent on material symbols, by means of which he may attain such contemplation of God as his capacity allows. These material symbols are the sacraments intrusted to the hierarchy of the church, and so by sacerdotal functions he is led to the knowledge of God. Dionysius emphasizes three symbolic sacraments: baptism, representing purifica- tion; the eucharist, illumination; the holy chrism, perfec- tion. Through the translation of Erigena (c. 800-c. 877), the theories of Dionysius had an important place in the religious thinking of the western church, and through them the entirely independent and individual ecstasy of the Neo-Platonist was brought within the bounds of ecclesias- tical discipline.^ In the eleventh century, which saw Hildebrand develop- ing the claim of the church to rule in matters temporal; and 1 For citations from Dionysius, vide. App. p. 119. THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 21 adapting all the methods of statecraft and politics to the support of that claim, and which heard religious discourse reduced for the most part to the dialectic of the schools, Bernard of Clairvaux fanned into glowing life the undying embers of mystic contemplation and knowledge of God. His mysticism was of his age. As a schoolman he admitted certain externally imposed truths on which reason may act even if they may not be rationally understood, but within their limits man may, by the grace of God, know God and be united to Him. He too based "the ascent of the soul towards perfection on supernatural grace, the communi- cation of which begins in the present life," ^ and he never doubted that this communication of grace comes through the church and its ordinances. Vindicator of orthodoxy against the great Abelard, he escaped the suspicion with which ecclesiastical authority is wont to regard those who claim direct — and undirected — vision, and so came nearer founding a school than any other of the great mystics.^ The Victorines made use of all the logical apparatus of the day to systematize the mystic emotion of Bernard and so developed a complete code of the laws which govern the ascent of the soul to God. Bonaventura, continuing and developing that which the Victorines had laid down, carried to its highest pitch the union of great dogmatic theologian and fervent contemplative mystic. But even Aquinas, who stands as the embodiment of the scholastic system, reveals glowing mystic devotion in his hymns and prayers. It would be expected that in this school of orthodox mysticism the special emphasis of the day on sacramental grace in general and particularly on that bestowed by the eucharist would have its effect, and, as a matter of fact, the names which are associated with the opposition to Beren- 1 de Wulf, op. cit., p. 215. * For discussions of scholastic mysticism, vide. Inge, Christian MyS' ticism, p. 140, and de Wulf, op. cit., pp. 212-218. 22 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY garius, and which are noted as authorities on eucharistic doctrine and worship, are those of the forerunners of the school, — Anselm of Canterbury, Hildebert of Lavardin, and, especially, Honorius of Autun. But it is to Hugh of St. Victor that we must look for the fullest and most impor- tant expression of the relation of sacramental grace to mys- tical experience, — a relation which, as we have seen, is found in germ in the work of Dionysius. The final blessedness of man is the visio Dei, but to this he may not attain without the grace of God received through the sacraments. Of these the eucharist is the supreme means of attaining the end, for in it figure and essence are one and the same, even Christ, Who is on the altar, though hidden beneath the veil, and Who is sacramentally received into the soul.^ It is very much easier to make a general statement of this devotion and its expression than to convey any real con- ception of its fervor and enthusiasm. But even a slight ^ "Since mystics have, as a rule, the extreme susceptibihty to sug- gestions and impressions which is characteristic of all artistic and creative types, it is not surprising to find that their ecstasies are often evoked, abruptly, by the exhibition of, or concentration upon, some loved and special symbol of the divine. Such symbols form the rally- ing points about which are gathered a whole group of ideas and intui- tions. Their presence — sometimes the sudden thought of them — will be enough, in psychological language, to provoke a discharge of energy along some particular path. . . For the Christian mystics, the sacra- ments and mysteries of faith have always provided such a point d' appui; and these symbols often play a large part in the production of their ecstasies." — Underbill, Mysticism, p. 434, 5. "God enkindles in the souls of contemplatives the light of contem- plation which represents the manner and design by which the body of Christ exists under the sacramental species, as a king on his throne with a curtain or veU intervening, as a glorious sun shaded by the passing clouds, as a fountain of Paradise hidden by the leaves of the sacramental species, from which issue forth fom* rivers of grace, of mercy, of charity and piety, to irrigate, delight, and fructify the church and the hearts of the faithful who drink of the waters." — Godinez, cit. A. Devine, A Manual of Mystical Theology, p, 72, THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 23 acquaintance with the thought of these men is worth acquir- ing, for it helps in placing our minds, as far as may be, in a line with theirs. Hildebert of Lavardin found in the eucharist the food of the pilgrim on his way to the fatherland, the banquet of man with angels, perpetual strength, and the union of the creature with the Creator. Through it is the soul worthy to be found among the sheep, chosen with the good fish, gathered into the garner of the Lord.^ At the supreme point of his great work, De Sacramentis, Hugh of St. Victor thus summarizes the position of the eucharist: " The sacrament of the body and blood of Christ is that in which salvation is chiefly to be found, and it is singular among them all because from it is all sanctification. For this is the victim per- petually offered for the world's salvation; this gives efficacy to all sacraments before and after it."^ The same mystic in one of his sermons ' declares the eucharist to be the mystery which mitigates the inner sorrow of the living, heals wounds, drives out the enemy, deHvers from evil, strengthens righteousness. It lessens the guilt of the dead, remits their punishment, opens heaven, and assures eternal life. The whole emotional nature of Aquinas, "venerabilis sacramenti laudator Thomas summus," was poured out in eucharistic devotion. Not only was he the composer of the office for Corpus Christi day, with its series of unsurpassed eucharistic hymns, but his prayer before communion glows with mystical fervor. " O most merciful Lord, grant that I may so receive the body of Thy only begotten son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which He took of the Virgin Mary, that I may be worthy to be incorporated into His 1 Sermo, Migne, CLXXI: 604. 2 II: viii. Migne, CLXXVI: 461. » Sermo XCIY, Sermones Centum, Migne, CLXXVII: 1195. 24 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY mystical body and reckoned among its members. O most loving Father, grant me that Him Whom I, on my pilgrimage, now pur- pose receiving beneath a veil, I may behold with unveiled face throughout eternity." ^ The same note of the eucharist as a pledge of ultimate bliss is struck in the prayer after communion: "I pray thee that this holy communion may not be to me an oc- casion of guilt but may plead for my salvation: that it may be my armor of faith and shield of good will . . . my firm defence against the evil of all enemies, \'isible and invisible . . . my un- shakable cleaving to Thee, the true and only God, and at the last my happy consummation. And I pray Thee, that Thou wilt hold me worthy to attain to that ineffable festival where Thou with Thy Son and the Holy Spirit, art the true light of the saints, fuU satisfaction, joy fulfilled, and everlasting felicity.* The eucharistic prayer of Bonaventura is even more im- passioned. To him the eucharist is bread of angels, refresh- ment of holy souls, our daily bread as well as bread of heaven, having all savor. By means of it the soul shares in the source of life, of wisdom and knowledge, the fountain of eternal life, the torrent of joy, the riches of the house of God.^ The eucharistic prayer incorporated in the Ancren Riwle expresses the same idea, adopting the very words of St. Paul as to the enigmatic earthly vision which is the pledge of that which shall be face to face: "Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that Him Whom we see darkly and under a different form, and on Whom we feed sacra- mentally on earth, we may see face to face, and may be thought worthy to enjoy Him truly and really as He is in heaven."^ ^ Bremarium Romanum. * lb, ' lb. * Tr. Morton. "Concede, quesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut quern enigmatice et sub aliena specie cernimus, quo saeramentaliter cibamur in terris, facie ad faciem eum videamus, eo sicuti est veraciter et realiter frui mereamur in ccElis." THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 25 Eucharistic rapture is met with very frequently in records of mystic experience at this period. The Blessed John of Ruysbroeck, swooning at mass, explained, "Even today Jesus Christ appeared to me, filling my soul with delicious- ness all divine; He said to my heart 'Thou art Mine and I am thine.'" ^ Catherine of Siena claimed knowledge of the Trinity in eucharistic transport,^ and the Blessed Angela of Foligno, speaking of her mystic states, said, "One of the works which God Himself wrought in my soul is a power of comprehending, with great capacity and delight, how it is that God comes into the sacrament of the altar with that great and noble union." ^ Hildebert of Lavardin preached that the mystery of the conversion of the bread and wine, and of the grace conferred by it, could be contemplated by intuition, could be heard without sound of voice. * While the inexplicable and unspeakable vision of God belongs to the higher type of mystic contemplatives, those on a lower plane always require a sign, and such signs are common in the religious experience of some mystics.^ The crucified Christ of St. Gregory ^ is one of these, as is also the vision of a child or a lamb on the altar. Veronica of Binasco saw a marvellous light hovering over the chalice, Catherine of Siena saw Christ at different ages on the altar, Marie of Oignys saw at times a lamb, at others a dove, and visions like that of St. Gregory were vouchsafed to many people at Douay.'' ^ Dom Vincent Scully, C. R. L., A Medieval Mystic, pp. 40, 41. 2 Dialogue, Ch. CXI. tr. Thorold. ^ Cf. Algar Thorold, Catholic Mysticism, p. 159. * "Solus hsec intuitu quodam contemplatur: audit sine etrepitu vocis: de longe odorans, leniter tangens, avide gustans." Sermo, Migne, CLXXI: 604. 6 Infra, p. 82. 6 Infra, p. 78. ' Cf. Gorres, Die Christliche Mystik, II: 107. Also Csesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum, Bk. IX. 26 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY Thus the mystics of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- turies found the foretaste of the vision of God, the union with Him, within the bounds of holy church, consummated in the eucharist, in which banquet they knew both the joys of redemption and those of the heavenly country.^ IV There remains the question as to how this matter of the development of a religious dogma with its bearing on worship and conduct concerns the student of literature. Why go into a mass of controversy which interests very few people today, and into devotional expression the undying part of which is incorporated into the general body of religious lit- erature? So much of it seems to the modern reader exotic and exaggerated in feelmg. But, surely, any literature worth studying must have been closely related to the life of the age which made it: nothing human is alien to it. As well conceive the literary production of the early nineteenth century uninfluenced by the theories of the rights of man as to consider the literature of the later Middle Ages apart from the sacramental system which received each man in infancy, which had a place for all the events of his life, and without which no man in Christendom willingly faced death. The climax of the system, the elevation of the host, was the heart of his Sunday and festival worship, and its hold on the popu- lar mind is shown by the prayers and hymns for the elevation in various vernaculars.^ 1 Cf. a sermon ascribed to Hugh of St. Victor {Migne, CLXXVII: 956 ff ) . In festivitate Paschali et corporis Christi, in which the Passover supper is allegorized in detail. The eating of the passover in haste is thus considered with a play on words: "Comedamus festinanter ut mandata Dei, mysteria redemptionis, gaudia patrice coelestis cum fes- tinatione cognoscamus. . . . Festinanter ergo comedamus, id est ad solemnitatem patriae coelestis anhelemus." 2 Vide Mone, Hymni Latini Medii jEvi, I: 286, 293, THEOLOGY, AND DEVOTION 27 For the very reason that eucharistic doctrine and worship were so pervasive and enveloping, the literary records of them are seldom dogmatic explanations. It is not to poets and story-tellers that one looks for detailed theology, though one may safely assume for them a working knowledge of the church's teaching and an implicit faith in it. Just as in the illuminated missal the recurrent and familiar parts are indi- cated by two or three words, quite sufficient for the priest [/^ who knew it all by heart, so a very slight hint, the mere mention of a custom associated with eucharistic worship, a phrase indissolubly associated with the mass, a bit of the liturgy which could have but one meaning, an allusion to a popular belief or superstition — any one of these would suffice to show an audience of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in which direction edification was to be sought. One of the many examples of this is the passage in the Perlesvaus describmg the taking of the Grail Castle. "The virtue of Our Lord, and the dignity of the banner, and the goodness of the white mule and the holiness of the good hermits that made their orisons to Our Lord so struck the knights that they lost all power over themselves."^ This sounds like hopeless confusion and conveys no idea at all, unless we know that in popular speech, whatever subtleties the theologians might premise, the consecrated host is literally and locally Christ, that it was often carried in processions of intercession, and that a white mule was the animal preferred for such ceremonies.- Then our eyes too may see the picture which the romancer meant to call up to his audience, — the soberly clad group of hermits, probably singing their "orisons to Our Lord" as they moved slowly forward, the banner in the hands of Joseus the hermit, which indicated the coming of a King, a "vexillum regis," 1 Tr. Sebastian Evans, High History of the Holy Grail, XVIII: xxxii. 2 Cf. Catalani, Pont. Rom. II: 313. 28 TRANSUBSTANTIATION IN HISTORY Perceval, knight of the Grail, bearer it would seem of the host, which at that date would be contained in a ciborium, or covered cup,^ centre of the whole proceeding, the mean- ing and power of it so well known that even the foul knights of the King of the Castle Mortal quailed before it. No treatise on transubstantiation could show more clearly the place and force of the doctrine in medieval life. Explicit mention of the theology concerned is not needed: we do not ask that writers after 1859 mention the Origin of Species before we admit that they are more or less influenced by the theory of evolution. The burden of proof would rest on those who denied such influence. The two following chapters are the result of an attempt to trace the bearing and influence of this most important feature of the daily life of the later Middle Ages, secular as well as spiritual, in two literary monuments. Both are concerned with religion, but, without any undue desire for classification, they may be taken to represent respec- tively the faith and devotion of the people and of the theo- logians — the Legend of the Holy Grail and the Divine Comedy. * Vide infra, p. 59. THE MYSTIC VISION IN THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL Li preudons " commencha la messe. Et quant il ot faite sa beneichon si prest corpus domini et fait eigne a bohort quil viegne auant. Et il si fait sagenoille deuant lui. Et quant il i est venus li preudons li dist — bohort vois tu ce que ie tieng. Sire fait il oi bien. Je voi que vous tenes mon salueor et ma redemption en samblance de pain. . . . Mais mi oeU sont si terrien qml ne peuent veoir les espirituels choses . . . lors commencha a plorer trop durement." — Queste del St. Graal. THE MYSTIC VISION IN THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL The Grail quest is with us yet, as alluring and as illusory as at first, and the modern fellowship of the Grail, though composed not of knights but of scholars, is a large one. Perhaps the very fact that the questers are so numerous attracts new devotees. A problem which has so long in- terested so many must be worth solving, and as one after another the outer knots of the tangled skein are unravelled the chance of finding the master clew improves. It is not surprising that such a possibility brings newcomers to the task. It would probably be admitted by all workers in the field that any theory of the Grail story, its origin and meaning, will have to reckon with numerous features which not only do not fit in with the theory but are in real or apparent contradiction to it. But it may also be admitted that the professional entertainers, empty singers of an idle day, who gave to the story the literary form which we know, were neither theologians nor literary historians. Their verse was perhaps at the disposal of monastic patrons and so adapted to a special propaganda, but their minds were stocked with the common properties of story-telling, and their task was to incorporate a certain amount of edification with a narra- tive sufficiently varied to command attention from an au- dience which asked only the beguiling of long hours. It is not hard to understand that any familiar phrase would bring up a host of images, the ''sources" of which are prob- ably much better known to the modern scholar than to the 32 THE MYSTIC VISION IN medieval poet. Knights-errant might not arrive at their goal without toil and test; so into the story of their adven- tures the narrator put any telling point, any emotional interest, any decorative touch which the stored memory happened to bring up.^ In short, details of the Grail story may have pedigrees of their own, respectable, even inter- esting, which are however merely hung on the family tree, not really organically part of it. Because, for instance, some elements can be shown to have close afiinities with eastern legend the origin of the whole matter need not be sought in crusading influences. Or because a substructure of fertility rites may be discerned beneath the Christian ritual we are not thereby justified in inferring that the element of primi- tive worship is conscious or vital. Though this study is chiefly concerned with the influence of Christian doctrine and ritual on the Grail legend, it is no brief for a Christian origin of the quest story. It would be a difficult matter to shake the strong case made out by the supporters of a Celtic origin of the story of a quest and a fated question, associated with a magic vessel producing food and a lance dripping blood. But this story was un- doubtedly combined with another of an entirely different origin, — that of Joseph of Arimathea, his care for Christ's body, his guardianship of the holy vessel containing Christ's blood, and his mission to Britain. The motive for the com- bination of two such elements, as far from each other in character as in origin, has never been adequately explained. It is this problem of the fusion of two stories that will be ^ This ia naively admitted in Perlesvaus (XX: xii), where we are told that the very character of the country changed from time to time so that knights might not weary of their quest. "Car, quant il avoient entr6 en une forest ou en une ille oH il avoient trouv4 aucune aventure, se il i venoient autre foiz, se trouvoient il recez et chastiax et aventure, d'autre maniere, que la poigne et U travaua ne lor ennuiast." One suspects that variety was as important to the audience as to the knights. ^ THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 331 discussed in the present study, and the thesi^o be main- tained is that Robert de Borron, or a writer in Latin prose whose work was adapted to romantic purposes by de Borron, desiring to set forth the doctrine of transubstantiation and to estabhsh certain local claims, combined the Celtic story , of the quest with that of Joseph of Arimathea, derived from Christian legend. It required but a slight addition to the latter to identify the vessel in which Joseph received the sacred blood with the one used by Christ at the Last Supper, and such an addition may well have been suggested by the food-producing power of the magic talisman.^ The change from a magic to a holy vessel would thus be pivotal. An attempt to survey the whole Grail literature, even in the most summary fashion, would leave both author and reader with as little time as inclination for further pursuit of the subject. But as the texts are voluminous, and have, moreover, received various names at the hands of successive editors, it is absolutely essential to clear argument that the field involved be defined and that, for the purpose of this essay, one title for each version be fixed. A descriptive list of the various versions of the Grail legend with the name (in italics) under which they will hereafter be mentioned seems unavoidable. II Nutt's twofold division of the Grail romances is gen- erally accepted. "In the first, the chief stress is laid upon the adventures con- nected with the quest for certain talismans, of which the Grail is ^ This trait which Miss Weston considers a hopelessly pagan feature persisting into the highly Christianized forms of the story (Quest of the H. G., p. 64) seems to me the very feature to attract those seeking a romantic story as a vehicle for eucharistic teaching. Vide infra. p. 121. 34 THE MYSTIC VISION IN only one, ancAipon the personality of the hero who achieves the quest; in the second, upon the nature and history of these tahs- mans. The first may be styled the Quest, the second the Early History versions; but these designations must not be taken as implying that either class is solely concerned with one aspect of the legend." ^ QUEST VERSIONS Conte del Graal. A vast poetic compilation in Old French. It was begun by Crestien de Troies and continued by other hands. The parts are usually designated by the names of their authors. Crestien's work c. 1180. Crestien de Troies (Crestien) Wauchier de Denain (Wauchier) Pseudo-Wauchier (Ps-Wauch) Interpolation Ps-Wauchier {Inter. Ps-Wauch) Manessier (Manessier) Gerbert (Gerhert) Peredur, son of Evrawc (Peredur) A Welsh romance preserved in a MS. of the thirteenth . century. It was translated by Lady Charlotte Guest and included in her volume of the Mahinogion. Nutt estimates Peredur as in the main the oldest form of the Perceval story, but thinks that the form in which we*^ have it is comparatively late (say 1230-1250), and that it has been influenced by the writings of Crestien .^ Syr Percjrvelle (Syr Percyvelle) An English metrical romance preserved in a MS. of the fifteenth century. No mention is made in it of the Grail nor of any other taUsman. Gaston Paris believed that this poem represents the most authentic form of the original Celtic tale. Of its present form he said, 1 Legends of the H. G., p. 5. * Celtic Myth and Saga, Folk Lore, Sept. 1892. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 35 "Le Syr Percyvelle s'appuie certainement sur un poeme anglo-normand perdu, et nous offre un specimen des romans biographiques qui forment la plus ancienne couche des romans frangais du cycle breton." ^ Parzival (Parzival) Written by Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German verse, (early thirteenth century). WoKram claims as source a Provengal poet, Kiot. Of these four Quest versions Nutt says: "One French version (Crestien) speaks of the sword, a bleeding lance and a Grail (a vessel); another (if Wolfram's poem be re- garded as representing a lost French original), of sword and lance ,^ and Grail (a stone) ; the Welsh tale mentions a bleeding lance and a head in a salver; the English romance is silent concerning any tahsman." ^ Diu Crone (Diu Crone) In Middle High German verse, and written by Heinrich von dem Tiirlin. It is largely devoted to praise of Gawain, and includes fragments of very early traditions concerning him. In it the Grail is in one / place a stone, in another a vessel containing the host. EARLY HISTORY VERSIONS Joseph d'Arimathie (Metr. Jos.) (Called also Metrical Joseph and Petit St. Graal). Merlin (Merlin) These two French metrical romances are generally ascribed to Robert de Borron. His work has been dated from 1170-1212: taking political and religious 1 Sodete historique et cercle Saint Simon, Bulletin 2: 99, 1883. Cit. Miss Weston, Sir Perceval, I: xviii. "^ Legends of the H. G., p. 18. 36 THE MYSTIC VISION IN conditions into consideration, I should be inclined to place it in the last decade of the twelfth century. Joseph (Prose Jos.) Merlin (Prose Merlin) Prose versions of de Borron's poems with interpola- tions which Nutt believes were "designed to bring the text into conformity with later developments of the legend." ' Perceval (Prose Perceval) This version appears in two forms, known as Didot Perceval and Modena Perceval. The first copy known is in a MS., which belonged to A. F. Didot, where it fol- lows Prose Jos. and Prose Merlin. Another MS. in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena, is generally considered a su- perior text. Opinions differ as to whether this is a prose version of a lost poem by de Borron, intended to com- plete the trilogy, or whether it is merely an addition at the hand of one of the prose redactors of de Borron, carrying out a supposed intention of his. In any case it seems a logical and much needed conclusion to de Bor- ron's work. For if the Joseph gives the early history of the Grail, the Merlin brings it into connection with Arthur's court. But this is only the prologue to the real romance. It is without meaning except as it provides the "great fool" of the Celtic story with a Christian object for his quest and makes the quest itself an ad- venture of the Round Table. Grand St. Graal (Gr. St. Graal) A very long French prose romance, so rambling and discursive that it never arrives at the accomplishment of the quest. It probably belongs late in the cycle. Queste del St. Graal (Queste) This French prose romance is the most theological and ascetic of the cycle. "It was embodied almost entire, 1 Op. cit., p. 25. / THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 37 by Malory in the Morte Darthur." (Nutt.) ^ As a matter of fact, the omissions indicated by "ahnost" cover most of the spiritual and edifying matter of the Queste. Perlesvaus or Pellesvaus (Perlesvaus) (Called also Perceval le Gallois) The time of greatest interest in the Grail, which is also the time during which the chief versions of the romance developed, may be set roughly as the last quarter of ^ the twelfth century and the first of the thirteenth. This French prose romance has been translated by Hf-^f Evans under the title of the High History of the Holy Grail. Evans, as also Potvin, its first editor, considers it the original version of the Grail romance, but many features, noticeably the change in the character of Per- ceval from lover and husband to cehbate, seem to give the romance a very late place in the cycle. Its relation to the Queste is debatable. Is the celibacy of Per- ceval an imitation of that of Galahad? Or is the Per- lesvaus "the transitional bridge between the knightly hero of Crestien-Guiot and the ascetic hero of the later legend," as Nutt believed? ^ It is extremely important to note the marked difference between the two groups into which the texts fall — that which deals primarily with the Quest of the Grail and that which is most concerned with its Early History. Nutt felt that the diversity in tone and sentiment between the two is so marked *'as to make the reader of the Early History versions feel as though transported into another world." "The chivalric is here subordinated to the Christian/ ascetic element. True, the hero's prowess is insisted upon in set conventional terms, but the centre of interest is shifted from his personality and from the feats and ventures by 1 Op. cit., p. 30. * Op. cit., p. 75. 38 THE MYSTIC VISION IN which it is manifested to the symboHc machinery of the precious vessel and its accompaniments. . . . " These differences in tone and feeling, not to be appre- ciated save by those who read the original text, would alone suflEice to negative the hypothesis that the two sets of ro- mances are the dissevered halves of a homogeneous whole, or variant versions of a common original theme. The dis- tinction between them is far more deeply seated."^ Ill Critical opinion as to the origin of the story falls inevit- ably into two classes as sharply divided one from the other as the Quest from the Early History versions. In one are those who hold that the Celtic vessel of increase and the adventures connected with it were gradually and almost accidentally affected by Christian teaching introduced in successive redactions of the story by Christian narrators. In the other class are the exponents of a purely Christian origin of the vessel. They hold that it was from the begin- ning the vessel of the holy blood, and that its story, in some quite unexplained way, was contaminated by elements which are traceable to Celtic story-telling. Nutt's studies are the most important contributions to the first theory, while Birch-Hirschfeld is the most conspicuous defender J of that of the Christian origin. Quite recently a third theory has made its appearance, — the so-called "ritual theory." ^ This view "sees in the Grail tradition as preserved to us the confused and frag- mentary record of a special form of nature-worship, which, ^ Nutt, op. dt., pp. 36, 37. 2 It is confusing to narrow the word "ritual" to any special form of worship, primitive or otherwise. Golther's contention that the Grail worship is that of the Byzantine mass is also a "ritual" theory. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 39 having been elevated to the dignity of a mystery, survived in the form of a tradition." This theory is earnestly up- held by Miss J. L. Weston, in whose words the statement above is given,^ and has also a supporter in Dr. Nitze. Miss Weston, however, thinks the fertility rites connected with the worship of Adonis answer most closely to the details of the Grail story, while Dr. Nitze believes those associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries to be most closely affiliated .^ Details of the Grail story have been analyzed intermin- ably. Innumerable studies of the dates of the various texts and their sequence exist. There are vehement con- troversies as to whether Bleheris and Kiot, mentioned in certain texts as sources, are to be regarded as real persons or literary fictions. Some critics are inclined to believe that Walter Map really had something to do with the later forms of the story, but Sommer in his edition of the Grand St. Graal and the Queste has stated his opinion that the as- criptions to Map are without foundation in fact. Many pages have been devoted to establishing the identity of Robert de Borron, without convincing results. To such Celtic scholars as Alfred Nutt and A. C. L. Brown we owe careful study of features which can be par- alleled in Celtic story. The elaborate work of Hagen is one of the latest efforts to determine the significance and value of the traces of the Earthly Paradise legend and other eastern .material, and its possible connection with the Cru- sades. There are many valuable studies of the relation of the Grail ritual to the ritual of the Christian church, espe- cially to that of the eastern branch. Among them may be mentioned those of Heinzel, Newell, Golther, and Miss Peebles. Wolfram's Parzival, with its marked differences from any other version, has called forth much scholarly 1 Quest of the H. G., p. 98. ^ For discussion of this theory and of the relation of fertility rites to eucharistic worship, vide. App., p. 121. 40 THE MYSTIC VISION IN work. The discussions of San Marte, Sterzenbach, and Hertz should be particularly noticed. In all this outpouring of critical scholarship, the fusion of two distinct stories — that of the quest of a magic, food-producing vessel, and that of the vessel of Christ's blood, treasured by Joseph of Arimathea — is almost in- variably regarded as the most important and significant point in the finished narrative, but there have been few attempts to find a credible motive for the combination. Paulin Paris considered that it resulted, directly or indirectly, from the desire of the Glastonbury monks to stand well with Henry II, but he viewed the Grail itself as nothing more than a specially holy relic and so a desirable possession.^ Potvin, who put the beghinings of the whole cycle much earlier than would any critic of the present day, saw in the Perlesvaus an "epic of theocracy," an Iliad of the genius of Hildebrand, whose claim to universal rule was thus upheld by the institutions of chivalry. He believed that Perceval typified civil war on behalf of theocratic govern- ment .^ The supporters of the theory of an origin in fertil- ity rites believe that a magic vessel was connected with these rites in pre-Christian Britain, and that a confused memory of this worship was carried over into the rites of the Christian church. IV To offer a theory with the avowed object of twisting many of these threads into a dependable clew to the maze is to display audacity far removed indeed from angeUc hesita- tion. Such a theory must make use of all these lines of research. It may freely admit the Celtic origin and yet have a place for reminiscences of fertility rites and for the 1 Romania, I: 482. 2 Introdiiction to the Conte del Graal. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 41 eastern elements. It must account for the varying form of the Grail, and have an answer for the question of the fusion of the two stories. Yet one ever-present idea, the desire to express one intense conviction, would serve to unite many loose ends, and like a scarlet thread might be followed through all the intricacies of the coil. And such a scarlet thread may well be the glorification of transubstantiation, for by the last quarter of the twelfth century that doctrine, after the long controversy just outlined,^ had become a favorite subject for sermon and exposition, found expression in art, in ritual and in sacred poetry, and lent strength to the power of the keys.^ It was emphasized in England by Lanfranc and his followers, and the Benedictines were par- ticularly active in promulgating it. And during these twenty- five years we find the story of a miraculous vessel called the Grail becoming popular with the romance writers. Com- bined with the Christian legend of Joseph of Arimathea, which for some unknown reason was familiar in England / at an early date, the story acquired in successive retellings an increasingly doctrinal and didactic character. It may fairly be presumed that this steady growth of emphasis on Christian teaching reflects contemporary religious emphasis; and such a presumption leads to the suggestion that the Celtic story, with its symbols, was used as a foundation for the later Grail romances because it was, particularly well suited to the double purpose for which it was intended — the glorification of the dogma of transub- \ stantiation, of very special contemporary importance, and the establishment of the claim of England in general and 1 Vide ut sup., Ch. I. 2 The withdrawal of the eucharist was one of the chief terrors of an interdict. Cf. Dante's accusation of the popes: They take away, now here, now there, the bread The pitying father would lock up from none. Paradiso, XVIII: 128, 129, tr. Johnson. 42 THE MYSTIC VISION IN Glastonbury in particular to early and independent con- nection with the dogma. On this hypothesis the Grail, at least in de Borron's version of its story and in those modelled on him, is the symbol of transubstantiation, the perpetual miracle of the church by which man attains to the closest approximation possible to one still on earth to that final union with God which is the ultimate blessedness of man. In accordance with this theory the quest of the Grail is the aspiration for mystic intuition of the miracle, a direct knowledge which, as we have seen,^ is not faith, though faith is an indispensable condition of its attainment. A chosen few have achieved this sacramental mystic vision; they " know how God comes into the sacrament." - Others, even among the faithful, must be content with faith, and believe in the sacramental presence of Christ. As a symbol of transubstantiation the Grail need not be one definite object: its form may vary. For the romancer's 9 purpose any ritual accessory to the consecration of the ' elements, — chalice, paten, ciborium, tabernacle, or altar stone, — may represent the miracle of transubstantiation. Each story teller may select that which appeals most to his imagination, or which has special interest for him or for his audience. For the actual material object is but a symbol, a \ figure of the thing signified. The true Grail is indeed "chose esperitel," "of wood was it not, nor of any kind of metal nor of stone was it wrought, neither of horn nor of bone." ' This interpretation, it will be seen, offers an explanation of the long discussed question as to why Wolfram described ^. the Grail as a stone, while in other versions it appears as ^ a dish or chalice. This theory as to the significance of the Grail requires support from without as well as from within. External 1 Ut sup. p. 19. 2 Angela of Foligno, vide Thorold, Catholic Mysticism, pp. 158, 159. ^ Prose Lancelot. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 43 evidence is to be sought in the emphasis on the doctrine of transubstantiation at the time of the development of the Grail romances, and the ambition of the Glastonbury monks to identify themselves as heirs of primitive British tra- dition, so that they might offer to Henry II in his struggle' with the papacy such prestige as would accrue from direct knowledge of important doctrinal teaching and from a usage and ritual which claimed entire independence of thel authority of Rome. Study of the texts themselves shows a constant association of the Grail with eucharistic ceremo- nial. It seems to be identified with one and another of the accessories of the mass, and there are striking resemblances between its effects and those of the eucharist. For example, the miracles which were related as evidences of transub- stantiation appear in connection with the manifestations of the Grail. The great charge connected with the possession of the Grail is called its ''secret," and the term suggested to contemporaries the words of consecration of the mass, words which effect transubstantiation, at that period called secreta. The later Grail romancers introduce the require- ment of celibate chastity on the part of the Grail hero: this is done in Perlesvaus by transforming Perceval; in the Queste by the introduction of Galahad. The glorification of celibacy finds a parallel in the purity required of those who are connected with the ministry of the altar and the offering of the mass, a purity on which increasing stress was laid at the time those romances developed. The conspicuous importance of the doctrine of transub- stantiation at the time of the flowering of the Grail romances has been discussed in the previous chapter. When we take up the question of the connection of Glastonbury with the Early History versions, we are at once confronted with the 44 THE MYSTIC VISION IN problem of Robert de Borron and the trilogy of Joseph of Arimathea, Merlin, and Perceval generally attributed to him. Who was he? Hucher was sure he was "homme d'^p^e," in spite of his marked talent for theological expo- sition. Miss Weston claims him as an "initiate." Was he perhaps a jongleur turned monk, like Helinandus, or a jongleur officially attached to the monastery of Glaston-\/ bury, as B^dier would probably prefer to think him? Or was he a knightly singer, familiar with the ambitious claims of Glastonbury as well as with the weak points of the court? Whoever he was, it is hardly disputed that he is responsible for combining the Celtic quest story with the legend of Joseph of Arimathea, and for adding to the latter the iden- tification of the vessel in which Joseph caught the blood of Christ with the dish of the Last Supper. The Metrical Joseph begins with a theological exposition of the fall of man, death as the penalty of his sin, and the Incarnation as the remedy for it. The secret devotion of / i^'^ Joseph, who is represented as an officer of Pilate, is related. The narrative then proceeds to an account of the Last Supper. After it Judas leads the Jews into the house of Simon, where it had taken place, and there betrays his Master. In the confusion the disciples leave behind them the fair vessel with which Christ had instituted His sacra- ment. A Jew, however, picks it up and takes it to Pilate. When Joseph hears of the death of Christ he demands the body from Pilate. Pilate grants the boon and gives Joseph the vessel of the sacrament in which the blood from Christ's wounds is received. The story takes up the persecution of Joseph for alleged resuscitation of Christ, His imprisonment, the vision in prison of Christ bearing the holy vessel, from which a brightness streams. This He entrusts to Joseph after another long review of the fall of man and its remedy in the Incarnation. He also recalls the Last Supper, when the bread and wine were declared His body and blood, and THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 45 promises Joseph that for his tender care of the sacred body the sacrament will never be celebrated without remembrance of him. It is explained that at these celebrations the altar ^ will represent the sepulchre; the vessel in which His body will be consecrated in the form of the host is to be called a chalice, and will represent that in which the sacred blood was received; the paten over the chalice is the symbol of the stone before the sepulchre; the cloth over both will represent the winding-sheet which Joseph used. Christ then teaches Joseph the great, " secret," which is called by^^ the name of the Grail. The next appearance of the Grail is in far distant lands, where it exhibits the power of separating the good from the bad, and we are told that the Grail is so called because it is agreeable to all who see it. There is much confusion as to the conversion of England and the guardianship of the Grail. De Borron's narrative at this point is ambiguous and obscure. At first long passages are devoted to Alain, descendant of Joseph's sister, and he is designated as the Grail- keeper. Yet he disappears from the story without explana- tion, and the chief role is assigned to Brons, husband of Joseph's sister. He is known as the Rich Fisher, is given charge of the Grail, and learns the holy words which the Lord spoke to Joseph in prison. In the metrical version no mention of Joseph as apostle to Britain occurs, though he ^ W. W. Newell, The Legend of the Holy Grail, p. 25, calls attention to a passage in the Gemma Animce of Honorius of Autun, first half of the twelfth century. "When are said the words per omnia scecula sceculorum the deacon comes, raises the cup before him (the priest), puts on the cover, replaces it on the altar, and covers it with the cor- poral, representing Joseph of Arimathea, who deposited the body of Jesus Christ, covered his face with the sweat-cloth, laid it in the tomb, sealed with the stone. Here the oblate and chalice are covered with the corporal, which signifies the pure winding-sheet in which Joseph wrapped the body of Christ. The chalice designates the sepulchre* the plate, the stone which closed the sepulchre." 46 THE MYSTIC VISION IN seems to send missionaries in that direction. But in the prose (Cang6 MS.) Joseph is said to have preached in the land of Great Britain.^ If the Prose Perceval is by de Bor- ron 2 we find that in the Metr. Jos. de Borron has prepared the way for the close association of the Christian vessel with Merlin and the romantic adventure of the quest. The Merlin is fragmentary, but it serves to bring in the court of Arthur and the Round Table. In the Didot-Perceval Merlin, almost at the outset, repeats the story of Joseph and his guardianship of the Grail. The character of the Grail is assumed as already well known, and the only feature spe- cially mentioned is its power of separating the good from the bad. Merlin says "Our Lord made the first table, Joseph the second, and I, at the command of Uther Pendragon, the ^ Joseph's mission to England is conspicuous in a Welsh version of the Queste. Perceval's aunt relates how when Joseph of Arimathea came to Great Britain, and his son Joseph with him, there came with them about four thousand people, all of whom were fed by ten loaves, placed on the table at the head of which was the Grail. In the Gr. St. Graal Joseph brings his company to "angleterre" by means of his miraculous shirt, and the Grail feeds the travellers. ^ Nutt thought the Didot-Perceval an "incongruous jumble of hints from de Borron's work and a confused version of the Conte del Graal," intended to be a sequel to de Borron's poems. {Legends of the Holy Grail, p. 34.) Sommer is also convinced that the author of the Didot-Perceval is not de Borron, but an unknown compiler, and that the quest of the GraU must have been carried into the prose versions from some other source, i.e. a Perceval-Quest, other than the Perlesvaus, but closely related to it, to Crestien, and to the Queste. (Introduction to the Vulgate Cycle, p. xii.) If I understand Sommer, he assumes that some one made a prose version of de Borron's two poems, Joseph of Arimathea and Merlin, and added an adaptation of this lost Perceval- Quest, carrying into it the Joseph-Grail-conversion of Britain machin- ery prepared by de Borron. But why may not de Borron have made this concluding combination himself in a lost poem of which the con- tents survive only in the prose transcription? Certainly the two met- rical stories which we possess escaped the same fate by the narrow margin of one MS. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 47 third." He also says the Grail is now in Britain, under, guard of the Fisher-king, that he is sick, and will never be healed except by the intervention of a knight of the Round Table. Here is certainly a most ingenious combination. The holiest object in Christendom, the symbolic present- ment of the chief glory of the church, the sacrament which was the focus of contemporary doctrinal discussion, is brought to Britain and connected with Arthur, the national figure in whom the reigning house was greatly interested. It needs for completion only the story of Perceval and his quest that the Grail may become the end and object of knightly achievement. VI A blend of Celtic folktale, Arthurian romance and the story of Joseph of Arimathea in the interest of theology and politics could originate nowhere in England so well as in Glastonbury, the oldest ecclesiastical foundation on the \/ island. King Ine and St. Aldhelm laid the foundations of the Saxon monastery on a site which was already hallowed ground to their British predecessors. "Glastonbury became the channel through which there ran into the new and vigo- rous fields of English monasticism all the treasured legends and beliefs of earlier Celtic monasticism." ^ There, says Freeman : "In the isle of Avalon, the isle of Glastonbury, the great Abbey still lived on, rich and favored by the conquerors as by the con- quered, the one great institution which bore up untouched through the storm of the English Conquest, the one great tie which binds our race to the race which went before us, and which binds the church of the last thirteen hundred years to the earUer days of Christianity in Britain." ^ ^ T. S. Holmes, Wells and Glastonbury, Ch. X. 2 Cathedral Church of Wells, pp. 18, 19. 48 THE MYSTIC VISION IN The monks may have enjoyed some favor from the con- querors, but in spite of it they had difficulty in maintaining their independence and prestige. In 1077 the last Saxon abbot was deposed by the Conqueror, and Thurstan, a Norman monk of Caen, was installed as abbot. He at once • undertook to replace the local use in liturgy and chant by that of Fecamp, an ill-judged attempt which provokedv riotous resistance, as may be imagined. Glastonbury later found a champion in Henry II, who was jealous of inter- ference in English church affairs and grateful for any link with the past of Britian which might be helpful in his disputes with the papal see on questions of jurisdiction, — disputes which are too familiar to need more than mention.^ In 1171, on his way to Ireland, he is said to have been a guest of the Abbey, where Irish harpers sang him the story of Arthur. In 1178 he took the ruling of the monastery into his own hands, and when the church with most of its orna- 1 ments and relics was burned in 1184, he undertook the task ^of rebuilding it. The question of the alleged connection of Joseph of Ari- mathea with Glastonbury must now be considered. William of Malmesbury in his Antiquities of Glastonbury ^ recounts, with the usual vague mention of a more ancient chronicle, that St. Philip, bishop of Jerusalem, chose a band of new converts and despatched them, under conduct of Joseph of Arimathea, to the western world. They landed in Britain and converted part of the inhabitants. The king, Arviragus, ceded them a large tract of land where they built a church, Glastonbury Abbey. The implication is that once in Eng- land and at Glastonbury Joseph must have left his bones ^ "Religion grew more and more identified with patriotism under the eyes of a king who whispered, and scribbled, and looked at picture books during mass." — J. R. Green, Short History of the English People, II: VIII. 2 Migne, CLXXIX: 1683. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 49 there. But from the time of Charlemagne the rehcs of Joseph of Arimathea had been the pride of the monks of Moienmoutier in the Vosges, until at an unguarded moment they were reft from them by "stranger monks," whom Paulin Paris shrewdly suspected to hail from Glastonbury.^ Certainly in a charter inserted in the same book of the Antiquities of Glastonbury Henry II recognized the apostolic origin of the Abbey Church after an examination of the alleged title deeds which supported such a claim. So, with- out the sUghtest support from Gildas, said by Welsh tradi- tion to have ended his days at Glastonbury, or from Bede, and without authorization from Rome, the monks of Glas- tonbury asserted that Joseph of Arimathea had come to England about the year 63 of the Christian era, that he had converted the inhabitants, founded Glastonbury, and, pre- sumably, chosen that abbey for a burial place. Doubters could be referred to the venerable relics. The monks, grateful for the king's belief in their long descent, requited his favor by an important discovery, nothing less than that the grave of Arthur was on their premises. According to the monk Alberic des Trois Fontaines the discovery was effected by an abbot who had the entire cemetery of the abbey excavated in the search, having been incited thereto by words which a monk had heard from the mouth of Henry II himself.^ This certainly sounds sus- piciously like a "command performance." But Henry died in 1189 and Alberic says this happened in 1193. If he is right the monks may have thought to interest Richard I in a discovery which would have made a strong appeal to his father. They certainly needed the new king's assist- ^ Cf . Romania, 1 : 457 ff . In this article P. Paris cites the chronicle concerning the theft which left Moienmoutier desolate. Vide. App., p. 125. ^ The citation from Alberic is given by San Marte, Essay, p. 17. For the full quotation, vide. App. 125. 60 THE MYSTIC VISION IN ance in their fight against encroachment. Sometime during the decade of this discovery, one Savaric proposed to annex Glastonbury to Bath, and to be known as bishop of Bath and Glastonbury. This plan would of course have deprived Glastonbury of its unique position. The monks took their grievance to Richard, who sided with them and encouraged a fresh and successful appeal to the pope. They then ousted Savaric and continued to enjoy their indepen- dence. At all events, Glastonbury not only appropriated Joseph, bones and all, as patron saint, but Arthur, grave and all, as benefactor,^ a combination which made both for the glory of the abbey and for the claims of the church in Britain to continuity and catholicity independent of Rome. It also tended to encourage the memory and practice of every scrap of liturgy, ritual, or traditional custom which belonged to the ancient church of Britain. Its ceremonial differed markedly from that of Rome, but the exact nature of its peculiarities is unknown, for the chroniclers content themselves with the general statement that British customs ^ It is interesting to note how gravely this assumption was accepted. Giraldus Cambrensis {Spec. Ec. II: 8-10; De Principis Instr. I: xx.), speaks of the ceremonies which marked the. removal of Arthm-'s bones to their new resting place within the Abbey Church. He further observes that this discovery puts an end to the fabled disappearance of Arthur into fairyland, a story for which he accounts on rationalistic grounds. Glastonbury, he notes, was once known as the Isle of Avalon, and it was to this island that Arthur's sister took him to be healed of his wounds. Evidently, his wounds not healing, he died and was buried there, as the discovery of his remains proves. By the next cen- tury the ceremonies at the removal of these remains had been trans- ferred to the original interment, and we hear of the burial of the bold king at Glastonbury by all the baronage of Britain " With all wirchipe and welthe l)at any wy scholde." — Morte Arthure (ed Banks), 4328 f. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 51 were hostile to those of Rome.^ Aside from differences in ecclesiastical usage there seem to have been customs of doubtful morality. Attention has been called by Miss Peebles to the agapetce, women who followed the Irish missionaries and scandalized the Galilean bishops ;2 and in Scotland barbarous usages connected with the mass existed until they were indignantly abolished by St. Margaret.' That these peculiarities, at least in the matter of ritual, show sympathy with the Eastern churches seems to be indi- cated by scanty traces in art, architecture, and liturgy, as well as by the claims of British bishops to consecration at Jerusalem and by frequent references to the fathers of the Eastern church, though it is very difficult to tell just how much of this came through direct contact with the East and how much through Galilean channels.^ At any rate ^ "Britones toti mundo contrarii, moribus Romanis inimici, non solum in missa sed in tonsura etiam." — Gildas, Ep. II. cit. Warren. "Qualis fuerit apud Britones et Hibernos sacrificandi ritus, non plane compertum est. Modum tamen ilium a Romano divisum exstitisse in- telligitur ex Bernardo in libro de vita Malachiae cc. Ill, VIII. ubi Malachias barbaras consuetudines Romanis mutasse, et canonicum divinse laudis officium in Lllas ecclesias invexisse memoratur." — Mabillon, De Lit. Gall. I: ii: 14. ^ Legend of Longinus, p. 209,f. ' "Praeterea in aliquibus locis Scottorum quidam fuerunt, qui contra totius Ecclesiae consuetudinem, nescio quo ritu barbaro, missas celebrare consueverant." — Theodoric, Vita S. Margaretce, 8 f, cit. Warren. * Cf. Warren, F. E., The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 57 ff. "There must have been originally some connection between the Celtic and Oriental Churches. But this connection need not have been direct. The most probable hypothesis is that Christianity reached the British Isles through Gaul, and that whatever traces of Eastern in- fluence may be found in the earliest Liturgy and Ritual of Great Britain and Ireland are not due to the direct introduction of Christianity from the East, but to the Eastern character and origin of that Church through which Christianity first reached these shores. There is strong circumstantial evidence in favor of the immediately Galilean origin of the British Church." Among these evidences are adduced the adop- 52 THE MYSTIC VISION IN these features, Eastern, primitive, or both, did not by any means come to an end with the Norman conquest. Giraldus Cambrensis was greatly concerned about them, though he was, unfortunately, too good a pedagogue to dwell on blunders.^ To Glastonbury there remained the task of presenting to the world its splendid combination of saintly founder and kingly benefactor, and its consequent claim to apostolic origin and historical importance, and of making the story acceptable to the reigning house. No better means of pres- entation than romance could have been found. Not only were nobles and gentles accustomed to receive information through the medium of romance, but there is strong prob- ability that there were minstrels at Glastonbury, singers and story-tellers, both monks and laymen, from the days of St. Aldhelm, himself a singer, onward. According to San Marte "King Edward prohibited monks from being rim- ers or raconteurs, a sufficient proof that they frequently appeared as such." ^ Warton has a good deal to say of the connection between minstrels and monasteries. Sometimes the monkish singers celebrated local heroes and Warton says that the Welsh monasteries were the chief repositories of the poetry of the British bards .^ Jongleurs, not neces- tion by the British Church of the Gallican psalter, of GaUican usage in liturgy and ritual, the dedication of Celtic churches to GalHcan saints, the accounts which connect missions such as those of St. Ninian of Scotland and St. Patrick to Ireland with St. Martin of Tours. 1 "The maxims of the Roman canonists, introduced by the Normans into England, had, as yet, found no favor among a poor, rude, and iUiterate clergy. It would have been of service to modern historians had Giraldus thought it worth while to have entered into more specific details of some of these peculiar usages. We might then have been able to discover how much of old Celtic practice and belief still existed side by side with a half-informed Christianity." — J. S. Brewer, Int. to Gemma Ecclesiastica, p. xviii. 2 Op. cit., p. 30 n. » I: 89-92. ^ THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 53 sarily under vows, seem to have been attached to some monasteries. The charter of the confraternity of jongleurs at the Benedictine abbey of Fecamp still exists/ and the customs of Fecamp were very well known at Glastonbury .^ Glastonbury singers had every opportunity for knowing the material of Celtic legend and custom. What more worthy of their skill than a narrative which should not only add to the prestige of Glastonbury but gratify royal patrons who were interested in showing that the church in England was not in any way indebted to Rome for her existence nor for knowledge of proper eucharistic doctrine and worship? Some such purpose seems to be indicated by de Borron, for the instruction given by Christ in prison is in full accord- ance with contemporary teaching/ and it should also be noted that emphasis is always placed on Joseph's original care of Christ's body. It is as a reward for that care that he is taught the "secret" words and is promised remembrance wherever the mass renews the sacrifice of the sacred body. No other saint than Joseph and no other relic than his sacred vessel could possibly have been so well adapted to the purpose of glorifying transubstantiation.* It makes 1 Bedier, Les legendes epiques, IV: 15-18. 2 Vide, ut sup., p. 48. » Metr. Jos. 11. 893 ff. * That one element of the forces which made for the combination of all this material may have been a desire to rival the famous Saint Sang relic of Fecamp seems very Ukely, as there must have been at Glas- tonbury a more or less fat and ancient grudge borne towards Fecamp and its intrusions, a grudge which was probably not strong enough to interfere with judicious borrowings from its legend. This may be admitted without accepting in full Miss Weston's theory that "we have here in all respects, save the name, a complete Grail legend, and that going back to a very much earlier date than any of our extant Grail romances." {Legend of Sir Perceval, I: 161.) Fecamp claimed a*' miracle of a bleeding host, which is said in the legend to have occurred about the year 1000. But such miracles for the most part are of later date, and are part of the propaganda of transubstantiation. It is notice- 54 THE MYSTIC VISION IN little difference whether this material was put together by de Borron, or whether he founded his romance on a Latin book emanating from Glastonbury. The idea that story-telling was used to proclaim the glories of certain monasteries and that local scenes and characters were woven into the narrative is of course familiar as a theory of the origins of French epic poetry.^ This the- ory places the birth of the chansons de geste in the eleventh century. To assert that in the next century a monastery utilized the later fashion of romance for the extension of its fame is to claim only a moderate amomit of literary ingenuity for its scribes. VII The student of the Grail story finds no one of its difficul- ties more puzzling than that of the changing form of the Grail vessel itself, though it is noticeable that the romancers able that the legend admits that the Saint Sang relic and the vessel of the bleeding host were concealed and not brought to Hght untU 1171, when they were displayed in a blaze of illumination. It does not seem likely that this legend had other than local importance before the time of this great glorification, and the transubstantiation miracle certainly looks like a twelfth-century improvement designed to give special eucharistic significance to the relic of the holy blood. Glastonbury may have had a natural as well as an acquired desire to outdo Fecamp, but the motive behind both stories is very hkely to have been to proclaim transubstantiation and to claim local precedence. 1 Cf. J. B^dier, Les Ugendes epiques, IV: 475, 476. The author thus summarizes his purpose. "R^tablir la liaison entre le monde des clercs et r autre, montrer que I'eglise fut le berceau des chansons de geste aussi bien que des mystSres, revendiquier pour elles leur vieux nom d^laiss^, de roman de chevalerie, et marquer par 1^ que leur histoire est inseparable de I'histou-e des id^es chevaleresques a I'epoque cap6- tienne, rappeler les faits psychologiques g^n^raux qui provoquerent en meme temps qu'elles les croisades d'Espagne et les croisades de Terre sainte, en im mot les rattacher a la vie, c'est k quoi je me suis efforc6." THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 55 are apparently quite unconcerned about it.-._„Th.& word "grail,"^ which Hehnandus^ translates gradalis, is said by him to mean a platter^_w Mg and soni gwirat"ifeep^ on ydiich gDgtly"~m:uats''arg^^rY£d:iL--He also speaks of_Jlie_GraiI as the vesselortHe~^_st._Supper. ^^rty-wfit^-of-the.Grail as_ the^sh whereon the paschal lamb la]^__Crestien_ conceived.^ it as a holy_objectj more or less vague, from which light streams. Out of it the Fisher king receives the Jiost jyhiclL-^ '^sustains his life. The host is the consecrated wafer, and yet -"fche'^raitTs said by many ^ to be the cup of the Last Supper, used by Joseph of Arimathea to hold the blood of the Re- deemer, which must imply a vessel intended for liquid contents. At the very end of the Queste the host is taken from the Grail and administered to the company, which can hardly mean anything but that the Grail is here the ciborium in which the host was reserved for the communion of the people. Wolfram von Eschenbach seems to attach a wholly dif- ferent meaning to the GraO, for he calls it a noble stone adorned with jewels. In Diu Crdne it is mentioned once as the tabernacle and once as a crystal monstrance. Always it has marvellous qualities, always it may come and go mysteriously, always it is associated with a miraculous supply of food and drink. This study has already ^ proposed the theory that the Celtic vessel of increase and plenty, adapted to Christian purposes, became the symbol of the miracle of transubstan- tiation and that any accessory of the mass, intimately connected with the miracle, might be described as that sym- bol, in other words might be the Grail. ^ Chrestien was 1 Vide W. A. Nitze, Mod. Phil, XIII: 11. N 2 Migne, CCXII: 815. ^ Metr. Jos., Wauchier, Gr. St. Graal, Queste, Perlesvaus. ' Vide, p. 42. ^ In the Queste (ed. Sommer) the phrase "devant le saint vaissel" is in one MS. rendered "deuant lautel." 56 THE MYSTIC VISION IN apparently unconcerned with dogmatic theology, or, per- haps, had the story-teller's instinct for the denouement he never reached, but in his continuators, in de Borron, and in the versions dependent on his narrative, the connection of the Grail with the consecration of the eucharist seems clear enough. Let us examine some of the forms of the Grail in the light of this interpretation. The identification of the Grail with the dish of the paschal Iamb is taken by some critics as marking a distinct division in the romances. They consider that such an identification must exclude the conception of the Grail as the vessel of the Last Supper and of the holy blood. Helinandus says the grail is cantinus or paropsis, words which in the Vulgate are used indifferently ^ for the dish in which Judas dipped with Christ. The critics apparently assume that the dish of the sop indicates a vessel used for the Passover meal, with its roasted lamb, herbs, unleavened bread and wine, and not for the eucharist which followed it and which was instituted with bread and wine only. But paropsis, at least, certainly acquired a eucharistic meaning,- and it is not quite fair to expect absolute archaeological accuracy from men in whose mmds the type had been completely lost in the fulfilment. Christ, "the Lamb that was slain," ^ is from the begin- ning absolutely identified with the paschal lamb, — Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.* Thus logically Christ in the eucharist is the paschal lamb of the New Dispensation. This is reflected in ritual and in liturgies. In arranging for the preparation of the bread for the eucharist Algerus says that it is to be of the cleanest and purest, since it is to ^ Cantinus, St. Matthew; paropsis, St. Mark. - "Paropsis. Vas ecclesiae ministeriis dicatum, idem quod Patena." Du Cange. 3 Rev. v: 12. * 1. Cor. v: 7. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 57 be transformed into the most glorious body of the immacu- late Lamb.^ In the Eastern liturgy of St. John Chrysostom at the preparation of the elements for the mass the bread is called "Holy Bread," or "Holy Lamb," and the deacon, after laying the "Lamb" down in the paten, says to the priest, "Sir, sacrifice." The priest then, cutting it crosswise, answers, "The Lamb of God is sacrificed, etc." ^ When the host is offered in the Roman mass it is called "this immacu- late victim" {hanc immaculatam hostiam), and the hymn Agnus Dei was at one time ordered to be sung in connection with the ceremonial fraction of the host. The host was sometimes stamped with the figure of a lamb, lying down or standing, and the vision of a lamb on the altar was one of the eucharistic miracles. The proper preface for Easter and the Easter sequence, or festal chant between the Epistle and Gospel, contain the same figure, as do also many pious treatises. In the Mitrale of Sicardus of Cremona the paschal lamb is identified with Christ and His presence in the eucharist.^ This identifica- tion is found also in eucharistic hymns, Latin and vernacular^ and even in popular literature.^ A letter of St. Catherine of Siena to Messer Ristoro Cangiani ^ carries out the parallel between the paschal lamb and the sacrament of the altar in great detail: "Thus sweetly it befits us to receive this ^ De sacram. corp. et sang, dom., II: ix., Migne, CLXXX: 827. ^ Cf. Cath. Enc, Art. Agnus Dei. ^ "Panis iste sacramentalis in carnem, et vinum in sanguinem tran- sit: quia paschalis Agnus pro nobis occisus, carnem nostram a morte redemit, et sanguinem fundens, pro nobis animam suam posuit, et animam nostram quae in sanguine habitat a criminibus expiavit." Mitrale, III: vi, Migne, CCXIII: 117, 118. * "ich meyne daz onschuldige lam, gotes froner lichnam." — Fronleichnam, Altdeulsche Schauspiele, ed. Mone. p. 163. * Tr. Scudder, Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, p. 204. 58 THE MYSTIC VISION IN Lamb, prepared in the fire of charity upon the wood of the cross." But it may be objected that although to the men of the twelfth century the paschal lamb was more closely asso- ciated with the host on the altar than with the firstling of the flock slain for the Passover feast, there is still confusion as to which eucharistic vessel is to be identified with this dish of the paschal lamb. Is it the paten, or small flat dish cov- ering the chalice, is it the chalice itself, is it the ciborium or monstrance? The answer is: any one of them, according to the immediate purpose of the writer or the local usage with which he was familiar. Innocent III, the pope of the Lateran Council, identifies the paten with the dish contain- ing the slain victim,^ and the figure of Agnus Dei is frequently used as a decoration for the centre of the paten.^ In the eleventh century the host was broken on the paten, but in the twelfth century Durandus directs that it be broken over the chalice. This is explained by ritualists as intended to indicate that the blood in the chalice proceeds from the broken and mangled body of Christ. A portion of the host is then dropped into the chalice, to show that the body of Christ was not without blood, nor the blood apart from the body.' This sustains the pomt referred to below,'* that both species contain the whole Christ. Therefore the chalice might also be considered the dish of the paschal lamb,^ especially as the blood of the slain lamb figured prominently ^ "Patena, quae dicitur a patendo, cor latum et amplum signal; super banc patenam, i.e. super latitudinem caritatis, sacrificium justitise debet offerri, ut holocaustum animse pingue fiat." Migne, CCXVII: 834. 2 Rohault de Fleury, La Messe, PI. CCCXII, CCCXIII, CCCXVIII. Vide illustration opposite. ' Durandus, De fractione hostie, Rationale divinorum officiorum, IV. " p. 62. 5 Cf. Rohault de Fleury, op. ciL, IV: 119. Here the words "Ecce Agnus Dei" are on a chahce. PAJzn or inoLA-scoTi/RY? PATEH or 5t bin Id -rM zmvjir ymm roim or m caalice ANTIQlZJTr BIBLL or CflAl^LIS TflE BALP. cn/iLieE or AFPAQA-LinEEieK. X-OR-Xr CETiTURY. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 59 in the Passover ceremonies. Moreover "chalice" was loosely used for the ciborium or cup-shaped vessel in which the host was placed for reservation in the tabernacle and from which the people were communicated. The catalogue of the Stuart Exhibition (1889), listed a ciborium ''known as the ^Cwp of Malcolm Canmore.' " ^ Giraldus Cambrensis, relating a miracle whereby the host was three times snatched from an impure priest, says the restored hosts were later found "in fundo calicis." ^ As late as the eighteenth cen- tury Martene speaks of the priest as carrjdng "calicem cum corpore Christi." ^ The word "ciborium" has a curious history of its own, a history which can show transformations singularly like those of the word "grail " in the romances. Beguming as the Greek for the pod of the lotus, used, like the gourd, for a drinking cup, it came to mean the canopy over the altar. Later its original meaning of a cup became confused with the Latin dhus, food, and so ciborium comes to mean a dish (vas) for food."* Then it takes the meaning of the receptacle for the eucharist, either the cup with an arched cover, or the tab- ernacle in which this cup was placed.^ Glass, mosaic, and illuminations show the host administered to the laity from vessels which are in no way different from chalices,^ and there is, moreover, no uniformity whatever as to the shape of the chalice. Those made while they were still used to administer the wine to the laity are really loving-cups with two handles, and one of the tenth or eleventh century, ^ A"". E. D. (Ciborium), italics mine. 2 Spec. Ec. IV: xxvii. ^ Eg. Rit. IV: xxi: 8. ■* "Ciborium vas ad ferendos cibos." — Ugutio of Pisa, cit. Du Cange. ^ "Ciborium, pro Area, ubi reponitur pyxis, in qua sacra eucharistia asservatur." — Du Cange. Cf. Rohault de Fleury, V: 89. 6 Rohault de Fleury, op. cit., PL CCLXIV, CCLXV. Vide iUustra- tion opposite. 60 THE MYSTIC VISION IN from Ardagh, Limerick, is a two-handled bowl on a low foot much like the dish known to the trade as a "compote."^ Last of all these transferences is a local use of the word in Bavaria where it meant a portable altar, or altar stone.^ This use inevitably brings up the form of the Grail as de- scribed by Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Bavarian.^ A portable altar, tabula altaris or altare portatile, is a slab of natural stone large enough to accommodate all the vessels of the mass. Given a consecrated altar stone, mass might be celebrated in an unconsecrated building or out of doors. Such an arrangement was demanded in times of war and in unsettled parts of the country.'* As might be expected, the number of portable altars increased notably during the crusades. The slabs were made of the more precious marbles, serpentine or porphyry, and in one example, at least, of rock crystal covering a picture of Christ on parchment. These were mounted in settings decorated with gold, precious stones, and plaques of goldsmith's work or enamel.^ Ger- 1 lb. CCXCIX. * Ciborium. "Parvum altare mobile, ut explicat Mabillonius in Itin. Germ. Quod Arnulfus imperator in castris gestari curabat, aureis laminis opertimi, quadratse figurse, uno pede latum, altum duobus, praeter turriculam, quae in crucem desinit, quod etiamnvmi in thesauro Emmerammensis asservatur." Mirac. S. Emmer. torn. 6: 499. Du Cange. ' Theodor Sterzenbach, in his Ursprung u. Entwicklung der Sage v. heiligen Gral, 1908, declared his belief that Wolfram's grail was a "trag- altar." I reached my conclusion without knowing of his, and as my approach, evidence, and inference are quite different from his it is hardly necessary to say anything here of his views. * "In itinere vero positis, si ecclesia defuerit, sub divo, seu in ten- toriis, si tabula altaris consecrata, cseteraque ministeria sacra ad id officium pertinentia adsunt, Missarum solennia celebrari permittimus." Concihum Moguntiacense, ann. 888, cap. 9. Mansi, XVIII: 67. * These altar stones are surprisingly small. That of Tongres, {Vide, illustration, p. 62), is said by de Fleury to be about 4x5 inches. Others are larger, but often not more than twelve inches long. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 61 many inclined specially to these portable altars, and they were very numerous in Bavaria. The shrine of St. Emeran, apostle of Bavaria, at Ratisbon, possessed several, one set in a gold frame. After the time of St. Louis this type of altar stone ceased to be made. Abuses crept in and the per- mission to celebrate mass anywhere with such an altar was carefully restricted.^ Wolfram's poem is admittedly more closely related to the Crusades than any other of the Grail romances. To crusaders the portable altar, the altar stone with its splendid setting, meant the miracle of transubstantiation, the pilgrim's bread which was foreshadowed by the manna of the desert. It is not hard to understand its appeal to Wolfram as the most apt symbol for sacramental union with God, for the Grail.2 One or two further points of controversy as to the Grail itself, due to apparent contradictions in the legend, may be cleared up if the language of eucharistic liturgy and doctrine be considered and due allowance made for the passing of the ideas involved through the unecclesiastical medium of romance. Heinzel thought that the sense of the Grail as a blood relic is lost in the sense of it as host, and that the paten, or flat vessel, is confused with the cup or chalice. In the Queste Galahad seems to receive corpus domini from the Grail itself. This difficulty is phrased by Miss Weston: ^ Vide Rohault de Fleury, op. dt., V: 1-47. 2 Nutt says, "Be the reason what it may, Wolfram certainly never thought of associating the Grail with the Last Supper. But its religious character is, at times, as marked with him as with Robert de Borron or the author of the Queste." {Studies on the Legend of the H. G., p. 251.) One may agree that Wolfram did not have the actual Last Supper in Jerusalem in mind, for he does not seem to have been concerned as to the early history of the Grail, but that is not to say that he had no eucharistic association with it. 62 THE MYSTIC VISION IN "It cannot escape the notice of any careful student of the stories that between the version of Robert de Borron . . . and that of the Queste, a change has taken place : the point of interest has shifted from conlenu to container; it is no longer the holy blood which is the object of adoration, but rather the Grail, the vessel in which the blood was preserved." ^ If the Grail is the symbol of transubstantiation, it makes little difference which part of the sacrament is illustrated by it, for the whole Christ is present under the form of either bread or wine.^ The numerous miracles of the bleeding host show the belief that the holy blood was contained in the host, and as a fragment of the host is always dropped into the chalice, it is easy to see how the symbol of the Grail may shift from chalice to paten, or even to monstrance and tabernacle, and still represent Christ under the sacramental veil. Moreover, though the host was consecrated on the paten or over the chalice, yet for the communion of the people it was, as we have seen, placed in the ciborium (a chalice-shaped vessel, but somewhat wider in the bowl), a 1 Legend of Sir Perceval, I: 333. It strikes one as a little unreason- able of Miss Weston to refuse to the romancers the use of a metonjony freely employed by contemporary theologians, e.g. "Hie calix. Con- tinens pro contento, calix pro sanguine, quia in calice sanguis. Calix in Scriptura pluribus modis accipitur. Aliquando per calicem sanguis Christi designatur, sicut hie, et in psalmo: 'Calix mens inebrians quam prseclarus est.' (Psal. XXII.)" Baldwin of Canterbury, Liber de Sacramento altaris, Migne, CCIV: 772. 2 "Christus est verus Deus et verus homo, ideo consequenter est ibi Deus gloriosus in majestate sua. Haec omnia quatuor simul, et singula tota simul, sub speciebus panis et vini perfecte continentur, non minus in calice, quam in hostia; nee minus in hostia, quam in calice; nee in uno defectus suppletur alterius, cum nuUus sit; sed in ambobus in tegrum continentur propter mysterium." — St. Bonaventura, Trac. de Prep, ad Missam, I: 1. In Gr. St. Graal Joseph takes from the paten "piece en samblance de pain" and finds that it is "uns cors entiers." In Metr. Jos. Joseph told that the host is to be placed in a chalice. AMniATVKE XV ^rniui^Y BlBUOTrtfOyE NATIONAIX-. eATAconBopS^ prTWv5 Err mieriiini/^. THE LEGEND OF THE GRAIL 63 practice which would account for Galahad's receiving the host from the Grail without any confusion between paten and chalice. Here the Grail is the ciborium, as it is also in any incident where it is seen on the altar, but not in connec- tion with the actual celebration of mass, for the ciborium was used to contain the host reserved in the tabernacle. VIII Another point of discussion immediately connected with the Grail is that of the "secret" concerning it confided by Christ to Joseph in prison. About this de Borron is ret- icent, saying (in Metr. Jos.) he dares not go into detail about it as he has not the great book written by great clerks concerning it. In the prose version of the Joseph (Cange MS.) the sacramental emphasis is stronger. The words are to be spoken only by one who has read the great book, and the secret is said to belong to the great sacrament made over the Grail, that is chalice.^ The secrets appear also in the Prose Perceval. Alain is told by the voice of the Holy Spirit that he shall learn the secret words that Joseph knew. In the Queste, where the eucharist is administered by Christ, He assures the knights that He can no longer hold any part of His secrets from them.^ He then feeds all from the Grail. According to Durandus, the great expositor of ritual, the silent recital of the canon of the mass, the prayer of conse- cration, is called the secreta.^ The reason commonly assigned 1 "Ce est li secrez que I'en tient au grant sacrement que I'an feit sor lou Graal c'est-a-dire sor lou caalice." 2 "Si conuient que vous vees par tie de me reposatilles et de mes secres." ed. Sommer, p. 190. ^ Op. cit., lY. In modern Roman use, though the canon is still re- cited secretly, the word secreta is confined to the prayer said in a low voice by the celebrant at the end of the offertory. This restriction is reaUy the earlier usage, the extension of the term to include the canon being medieval. 64 THE MYSTIC VISION IN for this secret rendering is that the consecration is an ex- clusively priestly function.^ This contemporary meaning of "secret," which is cer- tainly indicated in Prose Jos., seems to make it fairly clear that the words whereby the miracle of the eucharist is to be performed are intrusted to Joseph, but it is not difficult to conceive that the word "secret" might come to be applied to the miracle itself. As a matter of fact, in a contempo- rary treatise, the Mitrale of Sicardus of Cremona, who was flourishing at the tune of the Lateran Council, it is so used. "A mystery of faith, since one thing is seen and another is known, the species of bread and of wine is perceived, the body of Christ and His blood believed. In Greek a mystery, in Latin a secret." ^ A mystery, technically speakuig, "is a supernatural truth, one that of its very nature lies above the finite intelligence." ' The doctrines of the Trinity and of the Incarnation are two of the chief mysteries of faith, and transubstantiation is here declared by Sicardus to be another, thus according with the symbol of the Lateran Council. So the "secret of the Grail" may very well be not only the words of consecration but also the miracle of transubstantiation performed by ^ "Secreta idee nominatur, quia secrete dicitur, et solius est sacer- dotis soli Deo offerre sacrificium." — Hildebert of Lavardin, Lib. de expositione 7niss