Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/803

 ORAIL

719

GRAIL

1466 he succeeded his half-brother, the ilkistrious Bishop Kennedy, in the See of St. Andrews. lie pro- ceedp<l to Rome to receive the confirmation of Paul II, and rcniaiMcd aliroad until 146'J to escape the avowed enmity of ccrlaiii ]jowerful nobles. While in Rome he obtained tlie erection of St. Andrews into an archbish- opric and metropolitan church, to which the other twelve sees were subjected as suffragans. This was announced to the king, bishops, and diocesan chapters of Scotland by a Bull of Sixtus IV, dated 27 Aug., 1472. The announcement aroused a storm of opposition. The See of York ineffectually appealed against the loss of Galloway, its suffragan for more than five cen- turies, and the consequent deprivation of all future claim to jurisdiction in Scotland; that of Trondhjem as ineffectually resented the transference of the Dio- ceses of Argylo and tiie Isles; the king and the whole episcopate of Scotland set themselves to resist the inno- vation, rendered still more odious by the nomination of the new archbishop as Apostolic nuncio to raise sub- sidies for a crusade. James III, bribed by the bishops with an offering of 12,000 marks (according to some writers), joined them in appealing to Rome against his cou-sin the archbishop. Sixtus IV, in view of the ex- traordinary charges brought against Graham, sent a nuncio, John Huseman, to Scotland to investigate. The accusation included heresy, schism, simony, dis- obedience to the Holy See, with reviling and blas- phemy against its authority; the claiming by the arch- bishop of the papacy, as imposed upon him by God for the reform of the Church ; the appointment of legates, prothonotaries, and suchlike officials; the revoking of papal indulgences, because granted for lucre; the say- ing of Mass, even thrice a day, when under the ban of excommunication, suspension, and interdict. The nuncio, after examining numerous witnesses, sent a re- port to Rome, and, after its due consideration by a commission of cardinals, Graham was declared guilty of the alleged charges. He was deprived of all digni- ties, degraded from orders, and subjected to imprison- ment for life. He died in the Castle of Lochleven in 147.S, and was buried in the old priory there. Many historians regard him as a zealous and good bishop, a victim to the persecution of his enemies, though this scarcely explains his condemnation. Whether he lost his reason under the stress of trouble, or whether he had become imbued with LoUardism (as Dickson suggests, though the charge concerning Mass seems to contradict this), it is impossible to say, in the absence of all official records except the Bull of deposition, dated 9 Jan., 147S.

Bellesheim. Historii of the Catholic Church in Scotland (Edin- burgh, 1890), II, 87-94; Lesley. History of Scotland (Edin- burgh, 1830), 40; Spottiswoode, History of the Church of Scot- land (Edinburgh, 1847), I, 115; Dickson, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland (Edinburgh, 1877), I, Preface, pp. xlvi-Hi; Theiner, Vetera monumcnta Hibem. et Scotor, (Rome, 1864), 465-480.

Michael Barrett.

Grail, The Holy, the name of a legendary sacred ves.sel, variously identified with the chalice of the Eucharist or the dish of the Paschal Iamb, and the theme of a famous medieval cj'cle of romance. In the romances the conception of the Grail varies consider- ably; its nature is often but vaguely indicated, and, in the ca.se of Chrestien's Perceval poem, it is left wholly unexplained. The meaning of the word has also been variously explained. The generally ac- cepted meaning is that given by the Cistercian chron- icler Helinandus (d. about 123), who, under the date of about 717, mentions a vision, shown to a hermit concerning the dish used by Our Lord at the Last Supper, and about which the hermit then wrote a Latin book called "Gradale". "Now in French", .so Helinandus informs us, "Gradalis or Gradale means a dish (scutella), wide and somewhat deep, in which costly viands are wont to be served to the rich in de- grees (gradatim), one morsel after another in different

rows. In popular speech it is also called 'greal', because it is pleasant (grata) and acceptable to him eating therein" etc. (Tissier, Biblioth. Cisterc, VII, 73 sq.). The medieval Latin word "gradale" became in Old French "graal", "greal", or "greel", whence English "grail". Others derive the word from "gar- alis" or from "cratalis" (crater, a mixing-bowl). It certainly means a dish, the derivation from "grata "in the latter part of the passage cited above or from "agreer" (to please) in the French romances is sec- ondary. The explanation of "San greal" as "sang real" (kingly blood) was not current until the later Middle Ages. Other etymologies that have been ad- vanced may be passed over as obsolete.

When we come to examine the literary tradition concerning the Grail we notice at the outset that the Grail legend is closely connected with that of Perceval as well as that of King Arthur. Yet all these legends were originally independent of each other. The Per- ceval story may have a mythical origin, or it maj' be regarded as the tale of a simpleton (Fr., nicclot) who, however, in the end achieves great things. In all the versions that we have of it, it is a part of the Arthurian legend, and, in almost all, it is furthermore connected with the Grail. So the reconstruction of the original Grail legend can be accomplished only by an anal.\'tical comparison of all e.xtant versions, and is a task that has given rise to some of the most difficult problems in the whole range of literary history.

The great body of the Grail romances came into existence between the jears IISO and 1240. After the thirteenth century nothing new was added to the Grail legend. Most of these romances are in French, but there are versions in Cierman, English, Norwegian, Italian, and Portuguese. The.se are of very unequal value as sources, some are mere translations or recasts of French romances. Now all these romances may be conveniently divided into two classes: those which are concerned chiefly with the quest of the Grail, and with the adventures and personality of the hero of this quest ; and those that are mainly concerned with the history of the sacred vessel itself. These two classes have been styled respectively the Quest and the Early History versions.

Of the first cla.ss is the "Conte del Graal" of Chres- tien de Troyes and his continuators, a vast poetic compilation of some 60,000 verses, composed between IISO and 1240, and the Middle High German epic poem "Parzival" of Wolfram von Eschenbach, writ- ten between 1205 and 1215, and based, according to Wolfram's statement, on the French poem of a certain Kyot (Guiot) of Provence, which, however, is not e.x- tant and the very existence of which is doubtful. To these may be added the Welsh folk-tales or "Mabino- gion" known to us only from MSS. of the thirteenth century, though the material is certainly older, and the Enghsh poem "Sir Percyvelle", of the fifteenth century. In these latter versions only the adventures of Perceval are related, no mention being made of the Grail. Of the Early History versions the oldest is the metrical trilogy of Robert de Boron, composed be- tween 1170 and 1212, of which onlj' the first part, the "Joseph d'.Ariniathie", and a portion of the second, the " Merlin ' ', are extant. We have, however, a com- plete pro.se version, preserved in the so-called Didot manuscript. The most detailed history of the Grail is in the "Grand St. Graal", a bulky French prose ro- mance of the first half of the thirteenth century, where we are told that Christ Himself presented to a pious hermit the book containing this history. Besides these versions we have three French prose romances, also from the thirteenth century, which, though con- cerned chiefly with the quest, give also an .account of the hi.story of the sacred vessel. Of these the most notable is the "Queste del St. Graal", well known to English readers because it was embodied almost en- tire in Malory's "Morte d'Arthur". The others are