When Christ was transfixed by the spear,
there flowed from His side blood and water. Joseph
of Arimathæa collected the blood in the vessel
from which the Saviour had eaten the last supper.
The enraged Jews cast Joseph into prison, and left
him to die of hunger. But for forty-two years he
lay in the dungeon nourished and invigorated by the
sacred vessel which was in his possession. Titus
released Joseph from prison, and received baptism
at his hands. Then Joseph started with the vessel
and the blood, or the Sangreal, for Britain. Before
he died, he confided the sacred treasure to his
nephew. But according to another version of the
legend, the Grail was preserved in heaven, till there
should appear on earth a race of heroes, worthy to
become its guardians. The chief of this line was
an Asiatic prince, named Perillus, who came to
Gaul, where his descendants allied themselves with
the family of a Breton prince. Titurel, who sprang
from this heroic lineage, was the one chosen of God
to found the worship of the Sangreal among the
Gauls. Angels brought the vessel to him, and instructed him in its mysteries. He erected, on the
model of the temple at Jerusalem, a magnificent
temple to the Grail. He organized a band of
guardians of the vessel, and elaborated the ceremonial
