In Quest of the Holy Graal

8/14/2019 In Quest of the Holy Graal

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GIFT OFYosM S. Kuno


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IN QUEST OFTHE HOLY GRAAL


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Br THE SAME AUTHORIN THE TEMPLE CLASSICS

THE HIGH HISTORY OF THE HOLY GRAAL2 'vols. Translated from the old French.Clothj 3J. net. Limp Lambskin^ /^s. net.


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IN QUEST OF THEHOLY GRAALAN INTRODUCTION TO THE

STUDY OF THE LEGEND BYSEBASTIAN EVANS, LL.D.

LONDONJ. M. DENT AND CO.

ALDINE HOUSE1898


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TO MY FELLOW- WORKERS,ENGLISH AND FOREIGN, INTHE FIELD OF THE GRAAL


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CONTENTSCHAP.


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PERCEVALVergente mundi vespereNovum sidus exoriturEt clausis culpe carcerePreco Salutis mittitur.Doctrinam evangellcamSpargens per orbis cardinemPestem fugat heretlcamNovum producens Ordinem.

In festo B. Dominici.A MYSTERY from the first has enshrouded theLegend of the Graal. That the Graal wasintended in some way to typify the Sacramentof the Holy Communion is abundantly clearfrom a thousand passages in the various versionsof the story. All beyond this primary indica-tion is indefinite, shadowy, impalpable. Yetwe feel as we read that the words employed areintended to convey some deeper meaning thanthe fiction bears on the face of it. The romanceis more than a romance. It is also a secret


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2 'The Holy Graal:written in cipher. Its mysticism is as markedas its mystery. Throughout, there is a con-tinual suggestion of hidden meanings, a re-current insistence on things seen as types andsymbols of things unseen. When Malory tellsus that ' thistory of the Sancgreal is cronycled forone of the truest and the holiest that is in thysworld,' or an earlier poet that it was written bythe hand of Our Lord Himself, it is clear thatthey meant to draw a clear line of demarcationbetween this story and the older secular romancesof Arthur and his knights. But wherein liesthe difference between them ? What is thekey of the cipher ? What is the Presencethat haunts and hints at every turn in the paththat lies through the hallowed ground ?Take the groundwork of the story told in

the * High History of the Holy Graal.'Every incident recorded bears more or less

directly on the history of Yglais, the widowedLady of the Valleys of Camelot, and her threeroyal brethrenKing Fisherman, King Pelles' of the Lower Folk,' and the King of CastleMortal. These trace their unrecorded ancestryup to Joseph of Abarimacie, the good soldier ofPilate who took down the body of the Saviourfrom hanging on the cross. The husband ofYglais was Alain li Gros, the eldest of twelve


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Perceval 3knights, all of whom died in arms withintwelve years of being made knight. Theywere lineal descendants of ' Nichodemus.'Alain li Gros and Yglais had one daughter,Dindrane, and one son, Perceval, the hero ofthe romance.The theme of the epos is an error rather than

a sin of omission. The Rich King Fisher-man dwells in the Castle of the Graal, wherethe most holy Vessel is enshrined in a most holychapel. On a time, his nephew, Perceval, visitsthe Rich King at his castle. The King, hishousehold, and his guests are. served from theGraal itself by a damsel with golden hair. Bloodfrom the point of a lance falls mystically intothe holy Vessel drop by drop, but the food dis- ij : -tributed is abundant for all, and the savour is f J,sweeter than that of any earthly meat. Percevalpartakes with the rest ; but although he beholdsthe Graal three several times, forbears or forgetsto ask what the wondrous food may be, and whomay be those to whom it is distributed. Thisfailure to ask the fateful question is the well-spring of sorrow and manifold tribulation. * Ofone little word that he delayed to speak cameto pass so sore mischance in Greater Britainthat all the lands and all the islands fell therebyinto much sorrow.' ' All lands were commoved


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4 'The Holy Graal:to war thereby, nor never thereafter mightknight meet other but he should fight withhim in arms upon none other occasion.' TheDamsel with golden hair becomes suddenlybald, and the Rich King Fisherman falls into agrievous 'languishment ' of which he can neverbe healed save by another good knight appear-ing at his Castle and asking the question whichPerceval left unasked. Gawain arrives, andthe Graal twice appears before him, but no wordof inquiry passes his lips. Lancelot arrives, butnot even a sight of the Graal is vouchsafed tohim on account of his love for Guenievre,Arthur's Queen. Before any knight has arrivedto break the spell. King Fisherman dies, andhis wicked brother, the King of Castle Mortal,usurps the Castle of the Graal. Percevalbesieges the castle, which he enters in triumphjust as his unrighteous uncle in despair stabshimself to the heart on the topmost wall, anddrops headlong into the river beneath, which isthe River of Hell. Perceval now enjoys hisrightful heritage in peace and honour. TheGraal, which has disappeared while the King ofCastle Mortal usurps the Castle of the Graal,presents itself again in the most holy chapel,together with the mystic lance, ^ for our LordGod loved the place much.' It has three


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6 The Holy Graal:Who, then, is Perceval, the hero of the story ?He is one of Arthur's knights, but his relations

with Arthur are of a wholly different order fromthose of any other knight. Never once, fromfirst to last, does Perceval take his seat at theTable Round among the other knights ofArthur. Arthur comes to Perceval's Castle ofthe Graal, but it is as seeker and learner. Heis but a humble follower in the footsteps ofPerceval. If Arthur and Gawain can be saidto achieve the Quest of the Graal at all, it isonly by finding it in Perceval's most holy chapel.The story only implies, it does not explicitlytell us, that the Graal appeared to them. Earthlyknight and king are never once admitted tothe higher level of the spiritual knighthood ofPerceval. Lancelot himself never so much assees the Graal. The story throughout is theapotheosis of spiritual as distinguished fromtemporal chivalry.

So much, indeed, is common to all versionsof the legend. The superiority of spiritual totemporal knighthood is insisted on as stronglyby Malory as by the writer of the High History.But, read in this light, surely the pedigree ofPerceval here given offers no impenetrablemystery ? His mother is Yglais. Whose sonwas the hero of a spiritual romance likely to


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Perceval 7be, if not of holy Mother Church ? The very-word itself is simply one mediaeval way of spell-ing the modern French eglise. Here, at least,the author has no desire to conceal his meaning.Who Perceval himself may be, he leaves to beinferred from his history, but he will leave noroom for doubt that he is a son of MotherChurch. Nor, at the time the romance waswritten, was the name of Perceval's father lesseasy to understand. Alain li Gros is, in fact,historically and accurately represented as thespiritual father of Perceval. Alan the Great,planus de Insulis, Alain de Plsle, is none otherthan the once famous Doctor Universalis^ whosehistory may be read at large in the sixteenthvolume of the Histoire Litteraire de la France,Here it is sufficient to note that about 11 74he became a monk at Canterbury, and accom-panied the Archbishop to the memorableLateran Council of 1179. While at Rome onthis occasion, he was commissioned by Alex-ander III. to write against the Albigenses andother heretics, a task to which he brought akeenness of intellect and a knowledge ofLatinity only equalled by the fervour of hisorthodoxy. In the year of his return from Rome,he was made Prior of Christchurch at Canter-bury ; and in 1186, Abbot of Tewkesbury,


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8 The Holy Graalwhere he wrote his life of S. Thomas of Canter-bury. Finally, he retired to the Abbey ofCiteaux, where he died apparently in the year1 201. The dates are noteworthy. Theromance was obviously written after Alain'sdeath, but at a time when his name and famewere still in all men's mouths. More note-worthy still is the fact that the work ofPerceval's father Alain against the Albigensesformed no small portion of the spiritualarmoury of the preachers who wrought andfought in the Albigensian crusade; itself, aswill be seen presently, an event closely con-nected with the * High History ' of the HolyGraal.The identification of two other members of

Perceval's family is not less easy and certain.The Rich King Fisherman is as obviously thePope as Yglais is obviously the Church. Thereis only one potentate who bears the title. To-day, as when the story was written, the Popeat times wears the ' Fisherman's ring,' andnow, as then, makes use of it to seal a certainportion of his private correspondence. TheRomancer could not have hit on a happiertitle for the Sovereign Pontiff who occupiesthe throne founded by the fisherman of Galilee.The King of Castle Mortal wears a disguise


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Perceval 9equally slight. His features are as clearly-drawn and as clearly recognisable. There is'as much bad in him as there is good in histwo brethren.' His throne is in the Castle ofMortality, not in the Castle of the Graal. Heis the Chief of the temporal world, as his brotheris Chief of the spiritual world. If the RichKing Fisherman is the Pope, the King ofCastle Mortal can be none other than theEmperor. The first draught of the romancemay possibly have been sketched out in thereign of the fourth Otho. It was certainlyfinished in that of the second Frederic. Eitherone or the other may well have been theoriginal of the unfavourable portrait drawn bythe orthodox romancer.The third brother is less easy to identify,

because his real history is less familiar thanthat of Pope or Emperor. The time, more-over, during which even a romancer wouldbe justified in describing him as king at all wasvery limited. Twenty years before the bookwas written, it might have been barely possibleto regard him as King of the Lesser Folk // roisde basse gent. Twenty years after, it would^have been impossible. In his royal capacityhe belongs to the age of the romance and tono other. Once identified, however, the identi-


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lo The Holy Graalfication is as certain as that of the others. Noalternative suggestion is possible. He is theAbbot of Citeaux.The extraordinary predominance of theCistercian Order in the early years of thethirteenth century is one of the marvels ofhistory. From the days of Bernard of Clair-vaux, the re-founder of the Order, if the Popewas the head of the Church Militant, the Abbotsof Citeaux had been as generally recognisedas the heads of what may be termed the ChurchMilitary. All the great semi-monastic Ordersof Knighthood, the Templars, the Hospitallers,and many others, were more or less closelyaffiliated to Citeaux. When a crusade wasdeclared, the necessary arrangements, thepreaching, the organisation, the general juris-dictionin the case of the Albigensian Crusade,even the military commandwere all delegatedto the Abbot of Citeaux. The CistercianOrder, in fact, was the executive of the Papacyin its temporal aspect. The relations betweenPope and Abbot are repeatedly referred to inthe letters of Innocent iii., the greatest of thePopes and one of the best, to Arnold Amalric,the greatest of the Abbots and one of the worst.In these letters, closely contemporary with theromance of the Graal, these relations are defined


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Perceval 1by Scriptural analogies from the Old Testamentand the New. The Pope is Aaron, the HighPriest of the Temple. The Abbot is Moses,the Captain of the armies of God. The Popeis the successor of Peter, the Apostle of theChurch of the Circumcision. The Abbot is thesuccessor of Paul, the Apostle of the Churchof the Gentiles. No illustrations could moreaptly define the commanding position held atthe time by the Abbot of Citeaux.

But this was not all. The predominance ofthe Evangelical party in the Church of Englandat the time of Negro emancipation, or even ofthe Puritans in the days of Cromwell, was onlya feeble reflection of the predominance of whatmay be called Cistercianism in the Church atthis period. The claims of the Cistercians tosuperior sanctity, always proclaimed by theirpreaching, and not unfrequently justified bytheir practice, were admitted as unquestion-able within, and very frequently without, the'religious world' of the period. Kings andqueens, and a vast array of minor nobilities,vied with each other in their benefactions tothe Order, and even Emperors were fain to passinto the unknown world clad in the Cistercianhabit, proof against the claws of the Evil One.

Yet more. The world, it was well known.


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12 T^he Holy Graal:was beginning to ' verge on Antichrist andDoom/ Joachim, Abbot of Flora in Calabria,was a prophet whose utterances were not lessdivinely inspired than those of Merlin, Rabanus,or the Sibyls. To him it had been revealedthat the world should pass through three stages :the first under the more direct governance ofGod the Father, the second under that of Godthe Son, and the third under that of Godthe Holy Spirit. Each stage must have its ownChosen People. In the first they had been theChildren of Israel. In the second they hadbeen the disciples of Christ. In the third itneeded_np argument to prove that the ChosenPeople were the Order of Citeaux. Thestages overlapped by considerable periods, butthe transition from one to another v/as definedby some critical event. At one time Joachimthought that this event would take place in theyear 1200, and that the government of theworld would then pass into the hands of theThird Person of the Holy Trinity in a mannerthat none could mistake or deny. He wascertain that Antichrist had already been borninto the world. He seems to have lived longenough to find that the millennium did notcommence with the year 1200, and to adjournthe verification of his predictions to 1 260, a year


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Perceval 1much fancied by later interpreters of prophecy.These were not the idle dreams of an unheededvisionary. They were accepted as revelationsof the Everlasting Gospel by all the Cisterciansand their friends. Even Innocent could speaka kindly word in season for the Calabrian seer,and a slight taint of peradventure heresy onlygave zest to the appetite of the numberlessmystics of that age of mysticism.At this time, then, when the Abbot of

Citeaux was recognised as leader and chief ofthe most influential organisation in Christen-dom, more actively influential than eitherPapacy or Empire, when Innocent had pro-claimed him Moses, and the armies of theAlbigensian Crusade hailed him as General-in-Chief, the romancer was amply justified incalling him King and making him brother ofthe Emperor and Pope. Whether the * LowerFolk,' the basse gent^ refers to the monasticbrethren of the Order under his rule, or to theactual lay-troops and knights of the crusadingarmy he commanded, may perhaps be doubtful.There is no doubt that the third uncle ofPerceval is Arnold Amalric, Abbot of Citeaux,or his successor ; the second. King Fisher-man, Pope Innocent iii., or his successorHonorius iii. ; and the first, the King of


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14 'The Holy Graal:Castle Mortal, the Emperor Otho iv., orFrederic ii.Who, then, is Perceval ? He is a son of theChurch and the Church's champion against

the Albigenses, Alain de I'Isle. Obviously,therefore, he is an ecclesiastical hero. He isno lay-knight, noble or otherwise. He is to besought not among the kings or captains of theage, but among the saints of the Church.His knighthood is spiritual, not temporal.Yet a knight he is throughoutaccording tothe romance, the Best Knight in the World.His sonship to Alain suggests that he may bea champion of the Church engaged in theAlbigensian Crusade. The romancer gives ushis portrait : ' Good knight was he withoutfail, for he was chaste and virgin of his body,and hardy of heart and puissant . . . notboastful was he of speech, and it seemed notby his cheer that he had so great courage.'Other touches are added later. He is secretin his ways. He is true and loving to hisfriends, but the vengeance he wreaks upon hisenemies knows neither pity nor remorse.Readers of Dante will already have surmisedhis identity. Bonaventura in Paradise describeshim to the poet. He is ' the amorous wooerof the Christian faith, the holy athlete, kindly


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Perceval 1to his own, and harsh to his enemies/ who^ smote the stocks of heresy with a blow thatfell keenest where the resistance was moststubborn,' the vinedresser in the vineyard ofthe Lord, who, possessing him wholly, willedalso that he should be called 'the Lord's own,'Dominic.

It is even so. Perceval, the Saint of romance,is none other than Dominic, the Knight of theChurch. Strange and startling, almost para-doxical, as the collocation of names and theideas connected with them may be, the closeand vital analogy between the champion ofthe court of Arthur and the champion of thecourt of Innocent is more than likeness it isidentity. Not a single 'note' of personalappearance, temperament, intellect, or characterrecorded in the lives of the saint but is faith-fully reproduced in the hero of the romance.He has exchanged what the old author calls' the armour of religion ' for the armour ofknighthood, and that is all. He is the sameman. If these few identifications are correct,they cannot but help to unravel no small por-tion of the mystery in which the romance isenshrouded.A more illogical foundation for a story thanthat of the romance it would be hard to con-


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1 T^he Holy Graal:ceive. A young unknown knight comes tothe court of a great king, where a strange andholy mystery passes before him. Because hedoes not then and there demand to be told themeaning of the mystery, the flood-gates ofdisaster are lifted on Greater Britain and theworld at large, and the King himself is smittenwith a mysterious malady which in course oftime brings him to his grave. No wilderenigma, it is safe to say, was ever propoundedto his readers by the writer of any religiousnovel. Yet the author of the Book of theGraal evidently takes it for granted that theamazing postulate on which his phantasmagoryis founded will be accepted as strictly inaccordance with the nature of things and theestablished order of the universe. In the worldof which he writes, the fatal ailments ofmonarchs, illimitable civil war and desolationof kingdoms, are the natural and inevitableresults of the shyness of a young militarygentleman, who refrains from making inquirieswhich he feels might be regarded as imper-tinent. It is most unfortunate, but so it is,and under the existing conditions in thisstrange world cannot be otherwise.At first sight, indeed, it seems as if little

were gained by substituting Dominic for


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Perceval 1Perceval and Pope Innocent iii. for KingFisherman. It is only in the pages of romancethat Innocent takes to his bed becauseDominic does not ask questions, or thatunheard-of calamities fall upon England forthe same fantastic reason. Still, authors ofspiritual romances have at times a strange wayof putting things. When they chronicleevents, they do not use the language of thechroniclers. History wears a different aspectin the spiritual world. A heavy blow to theinfluence of the Church, for instance, wouldbe likely enough to appear in religious romanceas a malady inflicted on the Head of the Church.A far-reaching spiritual calamity in Englandor elsewhere would almost certainly be de-scribed as a desolation of the kingdom. Theproblem to be solved, in fact, reduces itself toa sum in historic proportion. As KingFisherman is to the Pope, or S. Dominic toSir Perceval, so is the malady of KingFisherman or the Desolation of England tothe real event recorded.Up to this point all that can be predicatedabout these events is that they resulted from

some error of omission on the part of Dominicwhen on a visit to the Court of Innocent atRome at some period before the events

B


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1 'The Holy Graal:recorded in the story are supposed to havetaken place. Dominic paid only one well-authenticated visit to Rome before the year121 5, and it is on this first visit that he musthave exercised his gift of reticence with suchdisastrous results. The date of the visit isprobably 1204, although some of Dominic'sbiographers relegate it to the next year. All,however, are agreed as to the main circum-stances in which it took place. In 1203,Alphonso the Noble, King of Castile, wasanxious to find a suitable spouse for his eldestson Ferdinand, then a lad of thirteen. Heaccordingly sent an embassy to the father of'a certain noble lady of the Marches' torequest her hand in marriage. The envoysreturned with a favourable answer, and wereagain despatched with a large retinue to bringthe bride to Spain. The Lady of the Marchesdied before their arrival, and the ambassadorswith their retinue turned aside to visit Romeon their way back to Castile.The chief of the embassy was Diego

d'Azeveda, Bishop of Osma in Old Castile,who had brought with him as companion andlieutenant Dominic, sub-prior of the Canonsof the same see. Dominic at this time was aman of thirty-three, well known in his own


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Perceval 1scholastic and canonical circles for his eloquence,devotion, and austere purity of life. On theirway to the ' Marches,' wherever they mayhave been, the Spaniards found themselves atToulouse, where Dominic was lodged in thehouse of a heretic. Most of the night wasspent in earnest converse, and before the morrowdawned the heretic had renounced his heresy.Dominic accepted the omen. The idea whichdominated his life, the foundation of an Orderof Preachers, had already flashed across thethoughts of others besides Dominic. Herewas the divine call to devote himself body andsoul to its realisation. A tragic end had cutshort the temporal mission of the Bishop andhis sub-prior. Both felt that a higher Powerthan any King of Castile had now chargedthem with a spiritual mission of far deepermoment to the world and to King Fishermanat Rome.The self-imposed mission was to confer with

the spiritual monarch of Christendon on a NewWay of dealing with the heathen and theheretic. They reached Rome, still accompaniedby their Castilian retinue, apparently in thespring or early summer of 1204, and were atonce cordially and even affectionately receivedby Innocent. The New Way they had to


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20 T'he Holy Graal:propose, so far as it can be deduced from thesubsequent conduct of the envoys, was entirelyadmirable as regards the first step to be takenin reference to the heretics, and entirelydetestable as regards the last. Dominic hadfelt the irrefragable force of one favouriteargument of the Albigenses. 'See,' said they,' how these noble knights of Christ on horse-back go about to teach us poor folk on foot !How bravely Dives preaches to Lazarus theGospel of Him who was poor and rejected ofmen ! ' Dominic's answer was worthy of asaint : ' Let them that preach to this peoplego among them barefoot in the spirit ofhumility, the spirit of Christ. Let them bethemselves beggars, and bear the good tidingsof a crucified Saviour to Lazarus at the gate,clad like Lazarus in misery and rags.'

Such was the New Way, and so far, it wasworthy of all acceptation. But when thepreaching was done, what then ? For themthat renounced their heresy, public penance,ignominy, or exilefor them that refused torenounce, the sword, the halter, or the stake.In these respects, the New Way was as theold. To justify the system, not to reform orabolish it, was the object of Diego, Dominic,and Innocent. ' You slaughter and burn us,'


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Perceval z icried the heretics, ' for not accepting the truthas it is in Christ. How can we accept Christ'struth if you do not preach it to us as Christpreached ? ' Dominic's answer is : ' We admitthe justice of your plea. Henceforth we willpreach as Christ preached. If you still hardenyour hearts against the truth, we shall be justi-fied in the eyes of man and God in destroyingyou utterly. As righteously will men burnyour bodies here on earth as God will hereafterburn your souls in hell.'At the time this new scheme was laid before

Innocent, he was ready to welcome anysuggestion for dealing with heresy inLanguedoc that promised even a temporarybreak in the perennial monotony of failure thatfor generations had attended every effort of theChurch in the land of the troubadour. TheNew Way and the new men should at leasthave a fair trial. Diego was anxious to makethe first experiment of the system on theComans, just then the heathens most inevidence, whose country lay on the shores ofthe Black Sea. Dominic asked to be allowedto try it on the heretics in the neighbourhoodof Toulouse. Innocent sided with the Sub-prior rather than the Bishop. He decided thatthe energies of both, instead of being dispersed


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22 'The Holy Graal:by separation, should be made doubly effectiveby union ; and further, that the trial of theNew Way should be made in conjunction withthe efforts of the legates and preachers then atwork against heresy in Languedoc. Diegowas granted leave of absence from the see ofOsma till the end of 1206. Both were toundergo a brief apprenticeship to the methodsof the Old Way at Citeaux before enteringon their missionary labours. Both were toexercise authority as holding a commissiondirect from Innocent ; but both were to beunder the command of Arnold, Abbot ofCiteaux, and his fellow-legates in partibus.The plan of campaign was evidently care-

fully arranged. First of all, the new systemwas to be launched in a public manner whichcould hardly fail to commend it to popularsympathy and enthusiasm. Preaching by bare-foot preachers under vows of poverty, chastity,and obedience was to be carried on for twoyears at least, and every effort should be madeto conciliate the heretics. They should beinvited to confer, discuss, and deliberate.Severe measures should for a time remain inabeyance. The Gospel should be preached asChrist preached it. If at the end of the allottedtime the heretics still continued obstinately


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Perceval 2 3unconverted, the last argument of the Churchno less than of kings should then be employed.The syllogism was not strikingly logical, butit was sometimes effective. The major premisswas that it is the duty of the Church to extirp-ate heresy. The minor premiss was that it isthe duty of the Secular Arm to assist her so todo. The conclusion was that if the SecularArm failed to do so, it was the duty of theChurch to transfer the Secular power fromthe temporal ruler unwilling or unable toassist the Church to another temporal rulerwho both could and would. In actual prac-tice, the major took the form of Interdict, theminor of Crusade, the conclusion of a decreeof deposition.

Interdict as an ecclesiastical weapon haslong been obsolete, and the part it onceplayed in both civil and religious history hasbeen very generally misunderstood. It musthave held a foremost place among the topicsdiscussed by Innocent with his Spanish visitorsbefore they started on their mission intoLanguedoc. The very air of Christendomwas dark with Interdict. The one aim of thenew preachers was to persuade the heretics toattend the ministrations of the Church. Theefficacy of Interdict depended on its suspending


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24 'Tl^e Holy Graal:those ministrations. Some kind of arrange-ment by which the exercise of the power ofInterdict could be so limited and controlled asnot to interfere too seriously with the practicalwork of the preachers was a necessity of thecase. Interdict of the heretical country, pureand simple, would have been the very suicideof orthodoxy. A certain simple-minded bishopwho was among the first to try the experimentof interdicting the Holy Sacrifice throughouthis diocese, had been surprised to find that' the people were none the better ' for theinfliction. Two centuries later, in the daysof Innocent, the pontiffs and prelates whofollowed the example were under no such hal-lucination. None knew better than they thatInterdict could never tend to godliness of life orthe welfare of souls. Innocent freely employedit as a means of coercing powerful delinquentswhom it was impossible or impolitic to attemptto coerce otherwise, but neither he nor any of thebest of his predecessors ever regarded its exerciseas other than a hateful resource only justifiablein the absence of any less objectionable alter-native. Ample proof of this is to be found inthe many privileges granted by many succes-sive Popes to certain religious Orders forthe special object of mitigating some of the


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Perceval 25worst evils and hardships which the sentenceinevitably entailed.Among these Orders, that of the Cistercians

naturally held a foremost place, as being at thetime the real political executive of the Papacy.Among the many favours granted by EugeniusIII. to his old friend and preceptor Bernard, thesecond and greater founder of the CistercianOrder, may be reckoned the charter of privi-leges granted to the Order in 1 152, andsigned by no less than fourteen cardinals aswell as the Pope. The thirteenth article ofthis memorable document runs thus :

' This also hath our sanction, that none ofyour churches shall be compelled to abstainfrom divine offices on account of any GeneralInterdict ; but in time of Interdict it shall belawful for the Cistercians, excommunicated andinterdicted persons having been ejected andthe doors closed, in a low voice to celebratethe Divine solemnities.'

This privilege, granted in later years toseveral other Orders, had at the beginningof the thirteenth century become the com-mon property of the great majority of theregular as distinct from the secular clergy. InLanguedoc, however, before the propagandahad been reinforced by the arrival of Diego


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26 The Holy Graaland Dominic, it had been found necessary atonce to modify the right to inflict the sentenceof Interdict, and to confer on the Cisterciansa far wider privilege of which they enjoyed anabsolute monopoly.


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II

GAWAINAd im occaso quasi ed ad un ortoBugea slede e la terra ond' io ful,Che fe del sangiie suo gla caldo il porto.

Folco mi disse quella gente, a cuiFu noto il nome mio j e questo cielo

Di me s'impronta, com' io fe di liii.(Paradiso, IX.)

The Albigensian Crusade, like the FrenchRevolution, is a hideous sequence of crimesagainst humanity. Like the Revolution, it isalso much more. It must be remembered thata large proportion, probably a large majority,of the Albigensian heretics did really holddoctrines at least as incompatible with moralityand social civilisation as those of the Mormons,though in a diametrically opposite direction.Carried into practice in the England of to-day,such doctrines would bring their professorsinto immediate collision with the police andlaw courts, the gaol and the lunatic asylum.The methods actually adopted against them

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28 T'he Holy Graal:were the methods of the thirteenth century ; butthe suppression of heresy of the kind by somemethod or other would be as necessary to thecommunity to-day or to-morrow as in anyyesterday of civilised life. The non-Walden-sian heresies, indeed, could only have thrivenas they did in a community of low socialorganisation. They found a congenial homein 'Le Midi,' a kingdom without a king, acountry without a name, a territory withouta frontier, a people without a nationality.' Languedoc ' and ' the Albigenses ' are mereapproximate definitions.As early as April 1198, Innocent had com-

menced the operations against the heretics ofLanguedoc which culminated in the Albigen-sian Crusade. He sent a Legate, Rayner, intothe 'infected' provinces with a chosen band ofcolleagues, urgently commending him to allthe spiritual and temporal authorities whocould render any assistance. The Interdictdifficulty had pressed hardly on former lega-tions against the heretics. Innocent now cutthe knot by delegating to Rayner absolute powerof excommunication and interdict in the partsto which he was accredited j and not only wasthis power confided to the Legate, but thefurther privilege of disregarding any sentence


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Gawain 29of excommunication or interdict pronouncedby any other authority whatsoever save onlyInnocent himself. There had been manychanges in the Legation since the first missionof Rayner ; and at the time Diego and Dominicwere conferring with Innocent, Arnold ofCiteaux was the acting chief, with Peter ofCastelnau and Rayner, both also Cistercians, ashis colleagues. But any changes which hadbeen made in the system pursued were infavour of enlarging rather than retrenchingthe privileges both of the Legation and theOrder. Practically the absolute power of deal-ing with the heretics was in the hands of theCistercians ; and in talking over the generalstate of affairs in Languedoc, it was hardlylikely that Diego or Dominic would inquirevery curiously into the distinction between theprivileges granted to the Cisterciansgenerallyandthose specially granted to the Cistercian Legationthen militant in Languedoc. Still less probablewas it that either of them would ask for theextension of the special privileges enjoyed bythe Legation to the Order generally. Doubt-less, had such a contingency as the greatEnglish Interdict been in contemplation atthe time, they would have suggested that if thesins of King John against the Church demanded


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30 'The Holy Graal:the suspension of divine service and of theadministration of the Sacraments throughoutthe country, at least the Order specially intrustedvv^ith the task of preaching the Gospel should beallowed under certain conditions to continue itsministrations and be free to fulfil its special func-tions in its ovv^n way. Had such a suggestionbeen made at this time, it is clear from Innocent'sown distinct declarations in after days thatthe boon would not have been refused. ButInnocent was not asked. The Albigensiansand the Albigensian Legation were uppermostin the minds of all present ; and, as regardedthese, all difficulties in case of Interdict hadalready been removed. A remote futurecontingency under altered conditions wasmost unlikely to suggest itself as demandingimmediate attention. Perceval left the Castle-Palace of King Fisherman, and the momentousquestion of Cistercian privilege in case ofInterdict, discussed and settled long since inthe case of Languedoc, was left undiscussedand unsettled in the case of any other country.The question to whom the Graal should beserved remained unasked. A few short years,and all England, all the Cistercian Orderthroughout the world, would be plunged intolamentation and mourning and woe because of


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Gawain 3the missed opportunity. The 'one little word'had not been spoken, and 'thereby happened suchmischance in Greater Britain that all the landfell into sore sorrow.'A careful reader of the ' High History ' will *perhaps note that the question which Perceval (omitted to ask is presented under two phases.He is rebuked apparently not only for nothaving asked unto whom the Graal is served, butalso whereof it served. The first question inthe mouth of Dominic would, I apprehend, havetaken, if it had been asked, a form of this kind :' In time of Interdict, will it be lawful for theCistercians to celebrate mass, and to adminis-ter the Holy Sacrament to such as they mayconsider worthy ? ' The second question hasreference to the Sacrament itself, but in specialconnection with the method of dealing with theheretics of Languedoc. The dogma of Tran-substantiation was not declared de Fide untilthe Lateran Council of 121 5. It had, however,been steadily growing into favour ever since thedays of Hildebrand and Paschasius Radbert 3and by the time that Innocent ascended thePapal throne, had commended itself to generalacceptance by the faithful. Technically, there-fore, it was still possible before 1215 to holdviews at variance with the dogma without


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32 The Holy Graal:necessarily being heretical. It followed that thosewho held such views could not legally be con-victed of heresy and handed over to the SecularArm for punishment as heretics unless they werealso guilty in some other respect. Now, someconsiderable number of the Waldensesalwaysto be carefully distinguished from the Albigenses

seem to have held, nominally at least, all thedoctrines of the Church with the one exceptionof Transubstantiation. What was to be donewith them ? Had Dominic asked the questionin this concrete form and obtained a reply, hewould have saved himself a good deal of troubleand the commission, apparently, of a good dealof illegality. Innocent seems to have beenurged more than once by others to make anauthoritative declaration on the subject ; buthis answer was always that he intended shortlyto call a General Council which would decide thematter definitively in the name of the Church.Meanwhile, he did not conceal his own opinion,but simply left each case in which the questionarose to be dealt with by those whose duty itwas to deal with it. It is easy to see how thetwo questions came to be confused in the mindof a Cistercian romancer who was weaving intohis romance the history of both the AlbigensianCrusade and the English Interdict. The real


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Gawain 33omission of Dominic in the eyes of the romancerand the Cistercians generally was not so muchhis not asking this question or that, but neglect-ing so favourable an opportunity of coming toa clear understanding with Innocent as to theMass and its celebration generally. Had hedone so, it would materially have lightenedthe labours of the Legation in Languedoc ; itwould still more materially have mitigated thehorrors of the Interdict in England.The history of the Albigensian Crusade itselflies beside my present purpose ; but its closeconnection with the English Interdict has neverreceived the attention it deserves, and a sketchof the events that led up to it may assisttowards a clearer understanding of both events.In the early spring of 1205, Dominic, Diego,and their royal Castilian retinue left Rome forCiteaux to be initiated into Cistercian ways, ifnot into the Order itself. Not for nothing didthey travel in pomp for the last time. Theirprogress through Genoa and Turin and over thepasses of the Alps and the Jura into Burgundyannounced that they were authorised envoysnot so much of the King of Castile as of theHoly See, and that their mission was of momentto all the temporal and spiritual powers inChristendom. Whether the Abbey of Citeaux

c


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34 'TJ^^ Holy Graalwas burdened with the entertainment of theescort does not appear, but the brotherhoodcertainly could not fail to be impressed bythe imposing dignity of their Spanish visitorsarriving in such state from the Castle of KingFisherman. The guests on their part weredelighted with Citeaux. Everything was en-chanting except the absence of Abbot Arnold,who had at that particular juncture retired fora short time from his duties as Legate inLanguedoc to implore help against the hereticsfrom King Philip 'Augustus ' in Paris. Diego,always enthusiastic and effusive, insisted ondonning the habit of the Order forthwith.Dominic, not less enthusiastic, but more re-strained, preferred not to bind himself to a newobedience which might embarrass his action inthe future. After a stay of some weeks, duringwhich both were duly instructed in mannersand customs Cistercian, they continued theirprincely progress southward to Montpelier.The headquarters of the Legation against theheretics were just now at Castelnau, the oldSustantion, some two miles outside the city, astronghold belonging to the family of Peter ofCastelnau, Archdeacon of Maguelonne, one ofthe three legates now in charge. His colleagueswere Brother Ralph, Abbot of Fontfroid,


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Gawain 3 5and Arnold of Citeaux himself, just returnedfrom his conference with Philip.

All three were sorely depressedspiritless,baffled, and beaten. More than two yearsPeter and Ralph had laboured in vain. Theyhad summoned Raymond of Toulouse to expelthe heretics. They had made the capitouls ofToulouse swear to maintain the Catholic faith.They had suspended the Bishop of Beziers.They had accused Berenger, Archbishop ofNarbonne, of negligence, and had made himdisgorge the most scandalous of his pluralities.But, as against the heretics they were none theforwarder, and wrote earnestly to Innocentrequesting him to relieve them of their hopelesslegation. Innocent refused, and urged themto new efforts, sending Arnold, then latelyelected Abbot of Citeaux, as a colleague. The' Secular Arm ' was again invoked. Peter ii.of Arragon was at the time overlord of halfMontpelier, Innocent himself being overlordof the other half. Peter was accordingly calledon to assist the legates, and Innocent assuredhim free sovereignty over all the territory hecould win by force of arms from heretic lords.Peter accordingly took the Castle of Lescurefrom an Albigensian noble, but showed himselflukewarm in the matter of general persecution ;


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36 The Holy Graal:and before Innocent issued a commission con-sisting of the Bishop of Pampeluna and thethree legates to inquire into a matrimonial suitpending between Peter and his wife Mary ofMontpelier (June 1206), all hope of findinghim an efficient champion of orthodoxy hadbeen abandoned.

Philip of France, wariest of European diplo-matists, save Innocent himself, was still wrothwith Innocent for upholding, by a long in-terdict on his country, his marriage withIngebiorg of Denmark. The refusal of adivorce had been the death of Agnes of Meran,the only woman that Philip had really loved.After her death, Innocent had hastened tolegitimate her children, but his wise and cour-ageous resolution to lend no countenance toroyal adultery rankled, and continued torankle, in Philip's heart. Still, Philip wasstatesman as well as lover. His quarrel withInnocent was personal. If Innocent couldonly appeal strongly enough to his ambitionand the creation of a larger united Francewas surely no ignoble ambitionPhilip mightconsent to co-operate with him in abolishingheresy from Languedoc.The object of Arnold's conference with

Philip was to renew and strengthen an offer


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Gawain 37made more than once before. If Philip wouldonly send an army to invade Le Midi and lendthe legates the assistance of his powerful' Secular Arm ' in extirpating heresy, he shouldbe free to annex the whole of the conqueredterritory to the crown of France with Inno-cent's hearty goodwill. If he himself cannotcome, let him send his son. Only let heresybe extinguished, and no hindrance to the tem-poral aggrandisement of France will be offeredby the Papacy. His armies shall enjoy all theindulgences and privileges granted to crusadersagainst the Saracen ; and as all the existingtemporal princes in the ' infected ' provinceswill be declared excommunicate and deposed,he need have no scruple as sovereign in in-vading the lands of his vassals. Every argu-ment, we may be sure, in favour of immediatearmed interference, was urged by Arnold on theKing's attention. Philip, we may be equallysure, saw that Languedoc could be annexed toFrance at a cheaper rate. Arnold returneddiscomfited to his colleagues. Before theywere joined by Diego and Dominic, they hadonce more written to Innocent in despair,petitioning to be released from the legation.A council of war was held with the new-comers the day after their arrival. The legates


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38 T'he Holy Graalstated their case, and pointed out the insuper-able difficulty of converting the heretics untilthe ' Secular Arm ' could be healed of its in-veterate palsy. It was Diego d'Azeveda's turnto speak \ and the manner of his coming, noless than the letters he brought from Innocent,invested his speech with an authority that eventhree legates could not lightly gainsay. ' Youlegates,' said he, ' begin at the wrong end.You come to your work swaggering on your tallhorses followed by bedizened footmen as if youwere so many princes of the blood. Look atthese damnable heretics ! Withtheirfair-seemingpoverty and humility they beat you all hollow !How can it be otherwise ? Meet them withtheir own weapons ! It is not preaching, butpractice, that converts to the truth ! ' It wasprobably Arnold of Citeaux who was first tograsp the irony of the situation. ' That is allvery well, my Lord Bishop, but how about thisgallant cavalcade of your own ?these footmenin the courtyard, these horses in the stables ?We are quite at one with you as to the price-less worth of example, but what are we to dohere and now ? ' ' Do ? ' retorts Diego ; ' doas I do ! ' Out he strides forthwith to summonthe whole company of retainers, knights andsquires, cooks, sergeants, and grooms, and packs


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Gawain 3 9them ofF bag and baggage, horse and foot andsumpter mule. 'Back to Castile, everymother's son of you. Bear loyal and humblegreeting to my Lord the King, and tell himhis servants are minded as for the next twoyears at least to go on foot preaching to thepoor, even as Christ preached, on the hitherside the mountains ! ' The hour has come.The ' New Way ' has been inaugurated by asymbolic ceremony worthy of the influence itis hereafter to exercise on human destinies.The first friar has made his entrance on theworld's stage. Dominic has set his hand to thework under the protection of Citeaux. Per-ceval has taken his new shield from Arthur'scourt. Dominic will fight in loyal comradeshipwith Citeaux, but will never become Cistercian.Perceval will fight for Arthur, but never takehis seat at the Table Round.

It was July when the new preachers joinedthe legates. In the middle of SeptemberArnold had to be back at Citeaux to presideover the Annual Chapter of the Order. Innocentsent a letter to the united brethren on thisoccasion, which may perhaps have lingered inthe memory of the romancer when he bestowedthe title of King Fisherman on the occupantof the Roman See. ' Ever since we were


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40 T'he Holy Graal:raised by the call of the Lord to the office ofFisherman, we have piloted over the sea thebark intrusted to us so as to loose our net,according to the v^^ord of the Lord, for thetaking of fishes. But this great and spacioussea, lashed by the roaring of a most pitilessstorm, hath begun to surge against our bark inbillows so many and so huge, that not only arewe somewhat hindered from following ourcraft of fishing, but the control and steering ofthe bark have become well-nigh impossible.. . . Yet, albeit we were hemmed round withdifficulties, we have been heedful to steer withsuch seamanship as we could, and now and againhave so spread our fisherman's net in the seaas to enclose therein certain fish of no ordinarybigness. Nevertheless, what time we trustedto take them forth at the haven, sundry of themburst the net, and not only slipped away them-selves forthwith into the bowels of the deep,but compelled others to slip back after them.. . . But what these things may be, mostbeloved sons, whereof we speak thus figura-tively, will not, we trust, be hidden from yourprudence, so you exercise the keenness of yourdiscreet consideration in searching them outnarrowly. . . .'

It is a strained and strangely laboured parable


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Gawain 4that King Fisherman sends as his message tothe Cistercian congress, but no great keennessof discreet consideration is needed to interpretthese paragraphs. Peter of Arragon and Philipof France were assuredly fish of no ordinarybigness ; and both, to name no others, had justslipped back into the bowels of the deep at themoment he had thought to land them. Butthe Fisherman does not despair. In concludinghis piscatory eclogue, he intimates that heknows a fetch that will bring them all safehome with a seine-net full of fish. LegateArnold must have enjoyed a good time whenhe expounded the true inwardness of the mes-sage to the assembled Abbots, when he revealedthe secret of the New Way, and invited volun-teers to join the standard of the new apostles.He returned to Montpelier with twelve devotedbrethren of the Order, eager only to preachthe Gospel to the heretics as Christ had preachedit, barefoot and in rags. The Order ofPreachers was not formally instituted untilafter the death of Innocent. It was already inactive existence.

Diego had promised to return to his bishopricat Osma before the end of the year 1206.It would seem from the actual sequence ofevents that this was also the term fixed for


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42 ' The Holy Graalending the trial of the New Way in Languedoc.Until that time, the interference of the SecularArm should be welcome, indeed, but should notagain be urgently invoked. The red righthand of vengeance should be stayed until thesinners had been allowed time to repent. Afterthe truth had been preached as Christ preachedit, Divine justice would be dealt out to thestifF-necked generation, and Christendom wouldhail with joy the doom that should fall on thefaithless. The success of the preachers asregarded the Waldenses, though far from equal-ling their hopes, had been considerable. Theirfailure as against the Albigenses had been totaland ignominious. Before starting homeward,Diego challenged the heretics to a final confer-ence at Pamiers. It was held in the castle ofRaymond Roger, Count of Foix, and wasattended by Fulke, Bishop of Toulouse,Navarre of Conserans, and a troop of abbots,all anxious to cheer the departure of the apostleof the New Way by at least one decisivevictory. Raymond Roger was a prominentheretic champion. His wife was a Waldensian,and of his two sisters, one was Waldensian,while the other, Esclarmonde, was a Catharist' Perfect.' At the conference, Esclarmonde roseto speak. One of the new preachers, Brother


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Gawain 43Stephen de Minia, interposed : ' Go, my Lady,to your distafF and spin ! No right have you tospeak on these matters.' Diego ' prayed Godto smite the heretics with His strong right hand,for never would they open their eyes till theyhad tasted of the cup of His wrath.'The arbiter on this occasion was one of the

secular clergy, Master Arnold de Campranhan,a friend of the Waldenses, and trusted in theircamp. He and a large number of otherWaldensians recanted their heretical tenetseither at or immediately after the conference.Among them was Durand de Huesca, thefounder of an orthodox Waldensian Order, ifthe communities established by him and otherscan be called an Order, within the pale of theChurch, and under the special protection ofInnocent. This was the last conference of thekind. At Pamiers, Diego was already on hisway to Osma. Some of the preachers walkedwith the old man barefoot across the passes ofthe Pyrenees. He arrived at Osma waywornand weary, in the last days of 1206, and diedFebruary 6, 1207.

Legate Ralph had died shortly before Diego'sdeparture. Legate Arnold of Citeaux wasabsent on a second mission to Philip Augustus,destined to be of incalculable historic moment.


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44 ^^^ Holy GraalLegate Peter of Castelnau found abundantoccupation in harassing Raymond of Toulouseby the exercise of every ecclesiastical weaponof ofFence, personal excommunication, interdictof his dominions, declaration of Crusade. Thislast step was taken in November. Raymondquailed, again promised obedience to the legate'simpossible demands, and summoned him to S.Gilles. Peter obeyed, but only for the pur-pose of adding insult to injury. After theinterview, he and his companions left S. Gillesand passed the night in a village on the banksof the Rhone, intending to cross the river onthe morrow. They were about to enter theferry-boat after hearing mass in the morning,when a knight of the family of the Porcellets,retainers of Raymond, avenged the insultoffered to his lord by running the legatethrough the body with a spear.The murder took place on January 15, 1208.In the absence of Arnold, the legation inLanguedoc was without a legate, and conse-quently shorn of more than half its authority.A meeting was held of all the remaining mem-bers of the legation, and it was decided to sendtwo of their number at once to Rome to informKing Fisherman of the murder, and to urgethe necessity of launching the crusade against


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Gawain 45Raymond and his heretic subjects without amoment's further delay. The enterprise tothe Castle of the Graal was forthwith joyouslyundertaken by Fulke, Bishop of Toulouse, andNavarre, Bishop of Conserans. \j

Fulke had been consecrated Bishop ofToulouse shortly before the arrival of Diegoand Dominic, the three legates having deposedRaymond of Rabastens, the former bishop.By metropolitical right, the see of Toulousewas suffragan to the archbishopric of Nar-bonne. The legates, rightly considering Ber-enger of Narbonne scandalously unfitted forthe post of Archbishop, had wrongfully causedFulke to be consecrated by the Archbishop ofAries, a proceeding which sufficiently indicatesthe absolute power exercised at the time by theCistercian champions in Languedoc. Fulkewas a man with a history. His father, awealthy Genoese merchant, died, leaving him aconsiderable fortune. Money-grubbing had noattractions for the youth in comparison withthe gai saber ; and he made his first appearanceon the world's stage as a gallant retainer of theviceregal court at Aix in Provence, at thattime presided over by Raymond Barral ofMarseilles, as Governor under Alphonso, thefirst Count of Provence, but the second King


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46 'The Holy Graal:of Arragon of that name. Raymond Barral ofMarseilles was the third of five brothers whoshared among them the viscounty of that city,a viscounty originally created for a cadet of thehouse of Provence. Neither he nor his wifeAzalais of Roquemartine, also a Porcellet,and perhaps a sister of Peter's murderer, waswealthy, and all the joint-viscounts in lateryears agreed to sell their titles and rights to thecity of Marseilles, each receiving an annualpension, a sum down, and the right to keep thetitle for life. It has never been explained howthe young troubadour came by the title ofFulke of Marseilles. It seems likely that itreally represents a money transaction betweenRaymond Barral and himself. When Fulke' entered religion,' the title may have revertedto Raymond Barral, to be subsequently resoldto the city.

Be this as it may, Barral of Marseillesbecame ' my good Lord ' to Fulke \ and Fulke,as in troubadour duty bound, made poetic love,possibly platonic, to Barral's wife Azalais.The friendship between Barral and Fulkeseems to have remained unbroken. The lady,however, either with or without reason, seemsto have waxed wroth with the poet, and hecertainly left Aix vowing never again to write


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Gawain 47a line of verse. The gods have a kindly by-law relative to the broken oaths of poets andlovers, but the Monk of Montaudon insists onpoking fun at the ' perjury ' of the ' merchanttroubadour when he catches him rhymingagain to another love. Before 1187, Fulkewas received into the household of William ofMontpelier ; and one of his poems is written atthe command of the 'Empress,' to wit, Eudoxia,William's wife, who was repudiated by herhusband in that year. Barral's wife Azalaisdied about the same time, and Fulke may havehad a hand in bringing about Barral's secondmarriage with the infant Mary of Montpelier.It has been inferred from a poem he wrote in1 1 89, excusing Richard of England when hewas excommunicated for not starting on theCrusade, that Fulke was at that time withRichard at Poitiers. The inference is perhapstoo liberal from premisses so scanty. The samemay be said of his alleged presence at Alarcoson July 18, 1 195, when Alphonso ix. wasdefeated, and Christianity seemed on the eveof extinction in the Spanish peninsula. Hecertainly wrote a stirring sirvente on theoccasion, but it affords no proof that he washimself one of the defeated warriors.

Shortly after this event, Fulke decided to


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48 The Holy Graalretire from the world and don the Cistercianhabit. His old friends and patrons were dead.Troubadour life had palled on the passions ofmiddle age. Religious sentiment was ripeninginto religious enthusiasm, and the humblepenitence of the sinner, which inspired some ofhis noblest verses, was rapidly fermenting intothe fanaticism of the persecutor. The century-was drawing to a close, and the last days wereat hand. Christendom was defeated in Syriaand Spain, and the deadly cancer of heresy waseating into the very heart of the world. Itwas the eve of a new era. Fulke would faindevote his every faculty of body and soul to theextermination of the enemies of God. Evenin that hour of darkness he knew no terror.It was not the darkness of coming night, butthe darkness before the dawn.

It is at this point in Fulke's career that wehear for the first time of certain encumbrancesnot usually regarded as necessary to a trouba-dour a legitimate wife and two sons. Whothe lady may have been remains a mystery.There she was, and the only honourable meansof getting rid of her was to send her to anunnery. Perhaps she too desired nothingbetter. At any rate, father, mother, and sonsall entered the * religion' of Citeaux 3 and in


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Gawain 49January 1197, Fulke was able to sign himselfAbbot of Thoronet, a Cistercian foundation inthe diocese of Frejus. >^

In the year 1300, in the sphere of humanlove purified and hallowed, between Cunizzada Romano and Rahab the harlot, Dante sawand spoke with the beatified spirit of Fulke ofMarseilles. Cunizza pointed him out to thepoet with a true prophecy. The year that fulfilsa century shall five times return, and the fame ofthe troubadour who renounced the earthly forthe heavenly love shall still be remembered.Even such glory, she said, awaiteth him thaton suchwise striveth after excellence, andentering on a new life leaveth the sinful lifebehind him for ever. Even before his name isspoken, Dante recognises that radiant joy ofthe third heaven glittering like a balass-rubyin the sun for the gladness that is in him ; foreven as smiles are born on earth, so in heavenis brightness born of delight.

Petrarca also beheld his spirit in vision, butthe vision is of the troubadour, not of the beati-fied minister of divine judgment. FolchettoPetrarca may use the 'diminutive of affectionis one of the slaves that wait upon theTriumph of Love. He marches captivebetween Giraud de Borneilh and GeofFry

D


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50 The Holy GraalRudel of Blaye, the Pilgrim of Love, in thetroop of Provencal singers headed by Arnaudd'Aniel. But Petrarca knows his greatness andhis repentance. It is he who took from Genoaand gave to Marseilles the glory of his namewho thus symbolically exchanged his habitand his life, and became a citizen of the noblerfatherland.

This is the man, amorous, courteous, andchivalrous, past master in the art and mysteryof love, long versed in the ways of the courtand the camp, yet burning with the devoutzeal of a convert, who has now emprised hisway to the Castle of the Graal to confer withKing Fisherman. Those who know SirGawain in all the earlier legends of the Graalwill, like Dante, have recognised him beforehis name is spoken. Those who only knowSir Gawain in the later and ignobler legendswill understand how such a character would besmirched and sullied when touched by theadulterous finger of the baser age. N


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IllKING FISHERMAN

Nove remiis specie!Rete novum datur ei.Forma navis aliaNam si remus celi clavis

Rete verbum, Petri navisPresens est Ecclesia.

(Attributed to Adam of S. Victor.)At the time Fulke arrived in Rome on hismission from Languedoc, affairs in Englandmight well have suggested the expediency ofextending the privileges enjoyed by the Cis-tercian legation in Le Midi to the Order inGreater Britain. After the death of Hubert,Archbishop of Canterbury in 1205, a majorityof the monks of Christchurch had elected theirsub-prior to the vacant see. King John, thebishops-suffragan of the province, and thedissentient brethren of the convent, electedJohn de Gray, Bishop of Norwich, to theprimacy. Innocent, for valid reasons in both

51


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52 T'he Holy Graalcases, had set aside both elections ; and, aftersome fruitless correspondence with John on thesubject, consecrated Stephen Langton, Cardinal-priest of S. Chrysogonus, Archbishop of Canter-bury at Viterbo on June 17, 1207. Johnrefused to allow Langton to set foot inEngland, drove out the monks of Christchurch,quartered a troop of soldiers in their cloisters,and confiscated their broad lands to the Crown.Innocent in vain implored John to accept thenew Archbishop. John was obdurate.Innocent threatened excommunication andinterdict. John swore by the teeth of God,and indulged in one of those fits of maniac furywhich the sons of Eleanor believed that theyinherited from a veritable she-demon of thePit, wooed and won by an ancestral Count ofGuienne. It was the one inheritance thatJohn knew how to keep.On August 25, 1207, Innocent had appointedthree bishopsWilliam of London, Eustaceof Ely, and Malger of Worcesterto act asCommissioners of Interdict. They were toexhort John to accept Stephen as Archbishop,and to show him due reverence and honour.If he still refused, they were to promulgate asentence of interdict forbidding all offices ofreligion, save only the baptism of infants, and


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King Fisherman 53shrift for the dying. If even this inflictiondoes not bring him to his senses. Innocentadds : ' We will take heed to make heavy ourhands against him.' In November the lettershad been issued declaring the AlbigensianCrusade, and calling on Philip Augustus, aswell as all dukes, counts, knights, and thefaithful generally, to assist the Church in theextirpation of heresy. All the goods andbelongings of the crusaders were taken underthe direct protection of the Holy See. Allindulgences granted to other crusaders wereextended to those willing to take arms againstthe heretics, and all crusaders who could seizewere entitled to hold the lands of any hereticlord. At the very same timethe letters aredated the next daythe Interdict Commis-sioners had been strictly enjoined to promulgatethe Interdict throughout England and Wales,and a notable addition had been made to theirinstructions. All the churches of all theOrders, even those of the Hospitallers andTemplars, were to be included in the Interdict.No exception was to be made in favour of theCistercians or any other. No privilege was tobe allowed to the regular clergy any more thanto the secular.

This difference in the methods adopted in the


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54 The Holy Graaltwo cases is indeed signal. In Languedoc, theCistercians had been allowed a free hand in thematter of Interdict, and had exercised it withabsolutely despotic independence. In England,not only had the whole conduct and managementof the Interdict been transferred from the Cister-cians to a body of Episcopal Commissioners, butthe Cistercians had been denied even their usualprivileges in times of Interdict. The pheno-menon is strange, but far enough from beinginscrutable. For years past, Aaron at Romehad felt that Moses at Citeaux was encroachingperilously on his prerogatives. The executiveof the Papacy was gradually supplanting thePapacy itself. Innocent was not the man toallow himself to become a Koi faineant whileArnold, Mayor of the Palace, usurped the realsovereignty. More than once or twice alreadyhe had remonstrated with Arnold on thesubject of his high-handed proceedings, andhad asserted his own right to dictate the lineof policy, if not the practical measures, to beadopted. At this moment the two were indirect conflict on a vital question of Europeanpolitics. Philip Augustus of France, followingin his father's footsteps, had devoted himselfto the noble ambition none the less noblebecause the means employed were at times


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King Fisherman 55ignoble of creating a greater and unitedFrance. The full realisation of his idea wouldhave been to transfigure the comparativelypetty territory he had inherited into an Empiremightier than that of Charlemagne, and theKings of France into Emperors of Christen-dom, the monarchs of the temporal world,as the Pope was of the spiritual. But Philipwas above all things a practical statesman.His methods were businesslike, and his policythat of prosaic common-sense. The murderof Prince Arthur by his uncle King John ofEngland had afforded him an excellent oppor-tunity of carrying out his long - cherishedintention of annexing Normandy and muchbesides to the crown of France. The nextquestion was. In which direction lay the mostpromising prospect of extending his frontiers ?Languedoc was not a matter of pressing impor-tance. In a vague and nominal way, it wasalready mostly a French fief. Its geographicalsituation and the natural course of events wouldinevitably sooner or later make it an integral partof the French kingdom. But England ? Wasa more favourable opportunity of invadingEngland itself likely to occur ? John wasrich, but that was all. He could no morehold England against a determined attack by


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56 The Holy GraalPhilip than he had held Normandy. He wasa convicted murderer, and the seizure of hislands would be applauded by the sense ofjustice of all Christendom.

Abbot Arnold of Citeaux, when he left his col-leagues in Languedoc, had a tempting offer to laybefore Philip: 'Help us to extirpate the hereticsin Languedoc, and we will help you to conquerEngland.' The temptation was irresistible. Toenlist the Cistercian brotherhood on his sidewas to forestall success. They counted for muchmore than an army. They would be an assuranceto the world that the Church and righteousnessitself were on the side of Philip. For thetime-being, Philip believed that in securing theservices of Arnold of Citeaux he had securedthe influence of Innocent. Arnold believedthat in securing the secular arm of Philip, hehad secured the victory of the Church inLanguedoc, and that he had compromisedInnocent beyond escape in case he shouldprove recalcitrant. The result of the compactbetween the French King and the King ofthe Lower Folk is writ large in the Albi-gensian Crusade and the twin-crusade againstJohn of England led by Philip's son Lewis.

Meanwhile, both were reckoning withouttheir host. Innocent's policy was not the


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King Fisherman 57policy of either. He, too, was anxious thatFrance, the Eldest Son of the Church, shouldbe strong ; but at this time, at least, he had nomind that the Empire should be transferred toFrance. He had acquiesced, probably withsatisfaction, in the transfer of Normandy toFrance. He desired that Le Midi shouldbecome a part of the French kingdom. Hewould have raised no objection to Philip'sabsorbing all the continental possessions of thekings of England. He drew his line whereNature had drawn hersalong the 'silverstreak.' At a later day, sore against his will,he found himself compelled to sanction theproject of an English invasion, but he soon hadreason to repent the false step he had taken ;and his successful effort to retrace it and undothe mischief he had done deserves, though itis far enough from ever having received, thegratitude of England. These events, however,are still in the future. At present, his primeobject is to check the growth of Cistercianpredominance. Arnold's insubordination hadalready verged closely on mutiny. It was hightime to read him a lesson in obedience.When Fulke was at Rome, if any questionwere to be asked of Innocent in reference tothe extension of Cistercian privileges, there was


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58 T^he Holy Graalobviously no time to lose. It was then or never.Already it was too late to ask for the controlof the Interdict to be committed to the Cister-cians. It was not too late to ask that theirprivileges in regard to the celebration of Massshould be respected. It can well be understoodthat the Cistercian brethren in Rome wouldurge upon Fulke the necessity of asking themomentous question ; well understood thatthey should feel warmly indignant with Fulkewhen he refrained from asking it. But 'theMaster of the Knights ' may summon himby word of mouth to put the question to thedamsels of the Graal. Gawain forgets, andthe desolation falls upon the kingdom ofLogres.The murder or martyrdom of Peter of

Castelnau precipitated the measures long con-templated against John of England no less thanthose against Raymond of Toulouse. Raymondhad married a Plantagenet among his manyother wives, the sister of John of England ;but the connection between the two potentateswas closer than that of a mere former unionbetween the families dictated by political ex-pediency. They were not only on terms ofintimate friendship, but they were united ina common cause against a common danger.


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Khig Fisherman 59Raymond's crime was contumacy in not abolish-ing heresy. John's crime was contumacy innot accepting Langton. In both cases, thecrime was against the Church. In both cases,the Church had threatened confiscation of theterritory ruled by the contumacious Princes.In both cases, Philip of France was the secularpower to be called upon to execute the sentencedecreed by the Church. \

In the Book of the Graal, Gawain bears withhim to the Castle of King Fisherman the swordwherewith John the Baptist was beheaded. Inreal history, Fulke brought to Rome full tidingsof the martyrdom of one who had heralded theadvent of the new preachers. Innocent hadwaited for a favourable opportunity to issue thesignal for the final explosion. The news thatFulke brought determined the moment. OnMarch 10, 1208, Innocent writes to Philip andthe whole temporal and spiritual hierarchy ofFrance setting forth the story of the martyrdom,and urging immediate invasion of Raymond'sdominions. 'Up, Knight of Christ ! Up, mostChristian Prince ! . . . Hearken to the voiceof the blood of the just that cries aloud to you !Gird on the shield of faith for the protectionof the Church against the tyrant and the enemy !. . . Let the sword of the spirit and the sword


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King Fisherman 6iDirect evidence, however, exists, which showsclearly that the document has not been lostfrom the Roman archives.Just at the time that he wrote his finalinjunctions to Philip to march on Languedoc,probably on the same day or the next, Innocentwrote also to the Cistercian Abbots of Persignyand du Pin. His instructions to them were tosee both Philip of France and John of Englandpersonally, and to urge upon both the necessityof concluding a truce for two years in orderthat the crusade against Raymond and theheretics might be carried through withouthindrance. The letter is one that marks itsown date, because it mentions the murder ofPeter of Castelnau as affording good reason forprosecuting the crusade with greater activity.Such a letter, obviously, would not be issuedfrom the papal chancery either contempor-aneously with or later than a letter giving thefinal order for putting the Interdict in forcein John's dominions. Yet that the final orderwas issued before March 8, is clear from thefact that the Interdict was actually promulgatedin England on March 23. The inference,then, seems clear, that the final order on whichthe Interdict Commissioners acted did notemanate from the Roman chancery. But


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62 T'he Holy Graalif not, there is but one other source fromwhich it can have emanatedto wit, fromArnold of Citeaux, the recognised chief of thepapal executive. It may be urgedand this*is the view of Lingard and othersthat ingiving full powers to the Interdict Commis-sioners in the previous November, Innocentleft it to them to decide when the Interdictshould actually commence, and that the choiceof March 23 was the date they fixed on theirown authority without any further referenceto Rome being made. This certainly ispossible, but exceedingly improbable. Afterreceiving their instructions in November, thethree Bishops had had an interview with John,who had laughed at their menace, and swornby the teeth of God to slit the noses and tearout the eyes of any traitor who should dare topublish the Interdict. They knew that theirlives were in jeopardy, and, brave men as theywere, they were exceedingly unlikely to proceedto the last extremity without definite ordersfrom headquarters. At least, as men ofcommon-sense as well as courage, they wouldnot run the gratuitous risk of being accused ofhaving acted precipitately. The real fact seemsto me to be that Arnold deliberately forcedInnocent's hand. Innocent was anxious, as his


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King Fisherman 63letter to the two Abbots indicates, to get matterssettled in Languedoc first, and to postpone forthe time any extreme measures in England.Arnold, sold body and soul for the time-beingto Philip of France, and jealous beyond measureat the management of the English Interdicthaving been taken out of his hands and placedin those of the Bishops, was determined, ifpossible, to unite the Interdict and the Crusade,and carry on the war simultaneously in Englandand Languedoc in the interests of Philip.

This view of the case exactly coincides withthe known facts. The murder of Peter ofCastelnau took place January 15, 1208, whenArnold was absent from Languedoc negotiatingwith Philip somewhere within Philip's owndominions. The news would probably reachArnold from S. Gilles a very few days later,as his immediate return into Languedoc wouldbe absolutely indispensable at such a juncture.On receiving the tidings, Arnold's first businesswould be to seek another interview withPhilip. On discussing the new situationcreated by the murder, it could not fail to beseen how decisively Philip's cause must bestrengthened in Languedoc by that eventand Arnold, it may safely be assumed, wouldexhort Philip by every temporal and spiritual


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64 T'he Holy Graalconsideration he could urge, not to let slip sogolden an opportunity of at once commencingthe double campaign against Raymond ofToulouse, and Raymond's brother by marriageand by community of crime, John of England.That Philip and Arnold before parting hadcome to a definite understanding with regardto the policy to be pursued is certain. Whatthat policy was may be gathered with almostequal certainty from the subsequent conductof both.

His final negotiations with Philip wouldprobably not detain Arnold more than forty-eight hours at most, and his next businesswould be to rejoin the band of preachers inthe South at the earliest possible moment.Before his arrival, Fulke and Navarre werealready on their way to Rome. Arnold,however, drew up and despatched what maybe termed the official report of the martyrdom,which re-appears in Innocent's letters to Philipof March 8, and which, consequently, musthave reached Rome some days before. If, asI believe was the case, Arnold despatched atthe same time a peremptory order to theCommissioners in England to commence theInterdict, the absence from the papal registersof any order for commencing it, the actual


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King Fisherman 65date of the commencement, and, above all,Innocent's ignorance of the fact that any orderfor its commencement had been issued, are allsimply and naturally explained. Nor, suppos-ing Arnold to have issued such an order, vi^ashe guilty of any disobedience. The onlyoffence w^ith v^hich he could be charged byInnocent was * presumption

"* in acting ultravires in a matter which might well be regardedas within his jurisdiction. ' Moses,' Arnold,was the recognised executive of ' Aaron,' Inno-cent. Plenary power in reference to Interdictin Languedoc had been formally conferredupon him. He had just concluded preliminarynegotiations with Philip. Surely, it would be nounpardonable stretch of authority for Arnold todictate the time for commencing the Interdictin England.The tension between Innocent and Arnold

soon reached an acuter stage. The Interdictbegan in England on March 23, 1208. Insome cases, it seems to have begun the daybefore ; in others, a day or several days laterbut, on the whole, the incidence of the Curseon the Kingdom of Logres from Land's Endto the Border was practically simultaneous.John's first impulse was revenge. His secondwas compromise. Hugh, Abbot of Beaulieu,

E


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King Fisherman 67and Arnold are not precisely those that oughtto exist between Moses and Aaron, or Paul andPeter.

Hugh's mission at first seemed to promisewell. On May 27, Innocent writes to John.Hugh, he says, 'has told me that you areprepared to accept Stephen Langton as Arch-bishop, to make restitution for what you haveplundered from the Church, and to allow themonks of Canterbury to return in peace. Hehas further placed the regalia in my handswith the message that I am to do with themwhat I please. When I asked the Abbot whyyou would not confer the regalia yourself, hesaid that you could not at present bring yourmind to receive the Archbishop into gracewith any feeling of fellowship. In consequence,after taking counsel with my brethren, I thinkthe best way of proceeding will be for me toreceive them without prejudice to your rightsor mine, and deliver them to the Bishops ofLondon, Ely, and Worcester'the Com-missioners of the Interdict ' to confer on theArchbishop on my behalf, if you really cannotmake up your mind to confer them yourself.This done, and the Archbishop enthroned atCanterbury, they will then relax the Interdictand I have written to the Archbishop himself


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68 The Holy Graalso to behave towards you as to deserve yourfavour to the profit of the Church committed tohis care. I do, however, again most earnestlybeseech and exhort your Majesty as a personalfavour to confer the regalia yourself, as anact more honourable alike to you and to theChurch. But however this may be, I domost confidently commend the Archbishopand the Church of Canterbury to God mosthigh ; and, through the Archbishop, do inabsolute good faith commend myself to you,well knowing that he will show himselfworthy of your confidence and favour.'At this time, clearly. Innocent saw no in-

superable difficulty in the way of relaxing theInterdict. It had been begun earlier than hehad intended, but he thought he already sawa way out of the difficulty. The situation,however, was complicated as well as difficult.John's eldest half-brother, the Archbishop ofYork, Geoffry the turbulent, had resisted oneof John's many unconstitutional exactions. Inrevenge, John had laid hands on the ecclesias-tical revenues of the see, and driven the Arch-bishop into exile. The province of York hadconsequently been laid under a special interdictof its own shortly before the wider generalinterdict had been laid upon the whole kingdom.


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King Fisherman 69At this juncture, therefore, the Archbishops ofboth provinces were excluded not only fromtheir sees, but from the country, and John wasplundering both churches in order to carry onthe war against the Church. Abbot Hugh hadnot been instructed to say anything about thebusiness of the northern Archbishopric. Inno-cent, however, had no mind to dissociate theNorth from the South in coming to a settle-ment with John. On the same day, therefore,that he wrote to John, he wrote also to theCommissioners of the Interdict in the provinceof York, the Bishops of London and Rochester,and the Dean of Lincoln, warning them thatthey were not to relax the Interdict in theprovince of York until the Archbishop hadbeen restored to the see, and restitution madeto the Church. If Stephen were admitted toCanterbury, the Interdict would be lifted fromEngland, but the antecedent Interdict in theprovince of York would still remain in force, tobe relaxed only when GeofFry should be restoredto York.

These letters were written at the end ofMay. On June 21 an event occurred whichprofoundly affected the policy of Innocent,Philip, and John. This was the assassinationof the Suabian Emperor, Philip, son of Frederic


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70 T^he Holy GraalBarbarossa. For a moment, Philip of Franceseems to have contemplated competing for thevacant throne of the Empire. If he did, nolong reflection was needed to convince himthat it was more expedient to defer his ambi-tion. John still had broad lands in the South.His wealth was still supposed to be inexhaustible.He was still confident of recovering the con-tinental provinces he had lost. Ferrand ofFlanders, less powerful than John, was no lessdeadly a foe. Philip had sworn that Flandersshould be French, and the invasion had alreadybegun. Raymond of Toulouse was still friendly,but the crusade against the Albigenses wasnothing less than a masked invasion of theSouth ; and as soon as Raymond understood thetruth, his enmity must be expected. Burgundy,Lombardy even, he might hope to win bypatience, but to grasp at the Empire would beto imperil, perhaps destroy, all hope of futuresuccess.There were three principal competitors for

the Imperial CrownOtho of Brunswick, theyoung Frederic of Sicily, and Henry of Brabant.Philip of France favoured the last and assistedhim with funds. Both Innocent and Johndeclared in favour of John's nephew, Otho ofBrunswick. This coincidence of interest in a


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King Fisherman 71matter of such vital interest to both naturallytended for the time-being to mitigate theasperities of the conflict on the subject of theInterdict. Each was anxious to conciliate theother so long at least as the election of Emperorwas still pending. Innocent flattered himselfthat he could employ the occasion as a lever toopen the door for Stephen and GeofFry to takepossession of their sees. John flattered himselfthat he could employ it as an instrument forInnocent's discomfiture.The mollifying influence of this community

of interest is perceptible throughout all theearlier stages of the Interdict. On July 14,letters of safe-conduct were granted by John toStephen's brother, Simon Langton, as well asto the three Interdict Commissioners, to passfreely to and fro between Dover and the Con-tinent till September 8, and the permission wassubsequently extended to the end of the month.In the beginning of August, Innocent writesagain to John, but his letter breathes no hint ofInterdict. Now is the time for John to comeforward with a subvention on behalf of Othoworthy of the richest king in Christendom.If he will only behave like a generous uncle onthe occasion, writes Innocent, John will notonly help his nephew immensely, but also


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72 The Holy Graalmagnify himself beyond anything that it isexpedient to put into black and white in aletter. In this particular matter, John wasquite willing to oblige. He knew he couldrely on Otho to turn traitor to Innocent at theearliest opportunity. He even sent promisesof making full satisfaction for his sins againstthe Church. In September, letters of safe-conduct were granted by John to Stephenhimself for three weeks ; but the Archbishop,doubtless for good reason, forbore to make anyuse of them.

Before this time, Innocent had become awarethat in addition to his difficulties with John,he had to reckon with the intrigues not only ofPhilip of France, but of Philip's ally, Arnold ofCiteaux. On August 22, he writes again tothe Interdict Commissioners. Certain * angelsof evil ' have been suggesting that he is aboutto relax the Interdict. He will do nothing ofthe kind until John has accepted his conditionsand given adequate security for their fulfilment.* This,' he writes, ' is the tenor of our mandateaccording to the discreet and simple under-standing thereof, clearly expressed in our formerletters, and carefully explained to our dearlybeloved son the Abbot of Beaulieu, the envoyof the foresaid king. Wherefore we hold it


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King Fisherman 73not only an unworthy but an impious act ofany man sacrilegiously to assert or believe thatwe have explained our intentions in one way toone, and in another to another.' The 'angelsof evil ' responsible for the slander are notmentioned by name, but the chief culprit isclearly indicated in a later passage of the sameletter : ' But you ought to know that thishath reached our ears. After all the monks ofthe Cistercian Order, in common with theothers, had begun to observe the sentence ofInterdict ; within the course of a few days,certain of them celebrated Mass on their ownauthority, while others, at a considerably laterperiod, began to celebrate in accordance witha mandate from the Abbot of Citeaux, othersagain still observing the Interdict. Now, aswe remember to have made answer to you informer letters, supposing it had been allowedfrom the beginning for monks to celebratedivine service according to the tenor of theirprivileges, with closed doors

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In Quest of the Holy Graal