His crucifixion, among whom is Joseph of Arimathea, as the Holy Scripture of the Grail testifies. He is in all things a good man. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife and a son, Josephes (not the same Josephes who so often quotes the Scripture, but not less learned than he), he it was who passed his father's kin across sea to White Britain, since called England, without rudder or sail, but in the fold of this shirt. Joseph, having much loved the Lord, longs after His death to possess somewhat having belonged to Him; goes to the house of the Last Supper, and carries off the dish wherein He had eaten. Having been a knight of Pilate's for seven years, he craves a boon of him, which is Christ's body. Pilate grants it; Joseph descends the body from the Cross, places it in a sepulchre, and, fetching the dish from his house, collects in it the blood flowing from the body,[1] and finishes laying the body in the tomb. The Jews hear of this, are angered, seize Joseph, throw him into prison in the most hideous and dirtiest dungeon ever seen, feed him at first on bread and water, but when Christ is found to have arisen, Caiaphas, Joseph's jailor, lets him starve. But Christ brings the holy dish that Joseph had sent back to his house with all the blood in it. Joseph is overjoyed. Christ comforts him, and assures him he shall live and carry His name to foreign parts. Joseph thus remains in prison. Meanwhile his wife, though often pressed to marry, refuses until she shall have had sure tidings of her husband; as for his son he will only marry Holy Church. (3) Forty years go by; after Christ's death Tiberius Cæsar reigned ten years, then Caius, one year; then Claudius, fourteen years; then Noirons, in whose reign S.S. Peter and Paul were crucified, fourteen years; then Titus, and Vespasian, his son, a leper. The freeing of Joseph befalls in the third year of Titus' reign and in this wise: Titus has vainly sought a leech to heal Vespasian. At last a strange knight from Capernaum promises his help and tells how he in his youth had been healed of the leprosy by a prophet. The Emperor on hearing this sent to Judea to seek out that prophet; his messenger comes to Felix, and orders him to
- ↑ The MS. followed by Furnivall has an illustration, in which Joseph is represented as sitting under the Cross and collecting the blood from, the sides and feet in the basin.
est in ea comedenti, tum propter continens, quia forte argentea est vel de alia preciosa materia, tum propter contentum .i. ordinem multiplicem dapium preciosarum. Hanc historiam latine scriptam invenire non potui sed tantum gallice scripta habetur a quibusdem proceribus, nec facile, ut aiunt, tota inveniri potest."
The Grand St. Graal is the only work of the cycle now existing to which Helinandus' words could refer; but it is a question whether he may not have had in view a work from which the Grand St. Graal took over its introduction. Helinandus mentions the punning origin of the word "greal" (infra, p. 76), which is only hinted at in the Grand St. Graal, but fully developed elsewhere, e.g., in the Didot-Perceval and in Borron's poem.
Another point of great interest raised by this introduction will be found dealt with in Appendix B.
