There was in the time of the plenitude of the Templars a peculiar Culdee legend
travelling around termed the "Quest of the Sangrael;" it was supposed that there
was a lost cup, which had contained the blood of the Saviour, that could only be
found by a chaste Knight who journeyed in search of it.
It had, if found,
various magical properties, oracular answers to enquiries could be read thereon.
Von Hammer professes to read the "Graal" upon certain old offertory dishes which
he considers to have been Templar property, but his views have not been generally
credited. There are yet certain ceremonies practised alluding to Joseph, Jesus,
and Mary, said to have been of Culdee origin, that have a sober resemblance to
the Quest. The Mystic tradition may hide the old blood baptism of the Mysteries.
Eugene Aroux speaks very positively of an Albigensian and Templar connection with
the legend, which is supposed to have some basis in the Gospel of Nicodemus. San
Marte takes the same view and lays stress upon the use by the Templars, at the
Lord's Supper of the opening words of St. John's Gospel. The Rev. Baring Gould
gives credit to a Templar connection with the Mythos. Von Hammer says the poem
of Titurel is nothing but an allegory of the Society of Templars and its doctrine
and one with the Gnostic and Ophite symbols. This legend is a lengthy subject to
write upon, but it is necessary to say something upon it.
The origin of the Graal legend is curious, romantic, and ancient. The Persians
have a legend of a golden cup discovered in making the foundations of Persepolis
which they named the "Goblet of the Sun"; we have also the Hermesian cup in the
Poemander. There is also the Welsh legend of Peridur, which means "Companion of
the Bowl." Peridur enters a castle, and two young men enter a room, where he is
seated, with a lance from which falls three gouts of blood, which the company
seeing set up a lamentation; then enter two damsels, with a charger in which is a
head swimming in blood, and the company utter a piercing wail. The bowl here is
the Cauldron of Ceridwen, and the blood is the three drops of her brew that
conferred intuition. In Hanover there is some Templar connection with a charger
and the head of John the Baptist, to be mentioned later. Taliesen's poem of Bran
the blessed mentions the bowl of Pheredur, which could restore the dead to life,
"but those who were restored to life by it were not to speak lest they should
{192} divulge the mysteries of the vessel." Bran sails to the "Island of Joy,"
with 39 Companions.
M. Pauline de Paris mentions the "Liber Gradalis" of a British priest about 30
years after the death of Cadwallader. About the year 717 the priest had a vision
of Christ, and of Joseph of Arimethea, who brought the cup to this country, with
the blood of Christ.
These legends admit their indebtedness to the Moslem legends, and there can be no
doubt as to what that legend is; it refers to the erection by Abraham of the
Temple of Seth, which we refer to elsewhere, in which on the petition of Adam an
etherial temple was let down in appearance to which Adam could direct his
prayers.
The more modern version of the legend was compiled about 1189, under the title of
"Sir Coules del Grail," by Chretien de Troies. Saniber, prince of Cappadocia in
the days of Vespasian, had three sons, who went eventually to Rome; and his
great-great grandson Titur-el was the Graal King, and the pure and noble Knight.
When dying the Graal King instructed his children in the mystery, and the Knights
had explained to them the symbols, ceremonies, and the powers of the 12 precious
stones. Shortly after we have the version of Guyot de Provens, who had been a
monk with Bernard of Clairvaux, and visited Jerusalem about the year 1170; it was
an elaborated version of the preceding, which the author as well as Guy de
Provens attributed to the Arabian astrologer and philosopher Flegantan. This was
translated into German about the year 1207 by Wolfram von Eschenbach, and would
be known in 1248 when Conrad von Hochstetten laid the foundation stone of Cologne
Cathedral.