The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal: Its Legends and Symbolism

Book I: The Roots of the House of Meaning · The Argument

Heads of a General Summary of the whole subject, with the analysis thereof, including: — I. SOME ASPECTS OF THE GRAAL LEGEND. — The word which came forth out of Qalilee — The sacramental vessel — Its history and the quests thereof— The Graal in the books of chivalry — The Graal in modern poetry — The composite elements of the Legend — The Graal as a reliquary. II. EPOCHS OF THE LEGEND. — The higher understanding of the Quest — The outlook of romanticism— The attitude of poetry — The direction of archeology — The prospect which is called spiritual — The consideration oj the present thesis — The hidden motives of the literature — Its critical difficulties — Concerning the interpretation of Books. III. THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE GRAAL LITERATURE. — The Catholic Doctrine of the Eucharist — The passage of Transubstantiation into Dogma — The Cultus of the Precious Blood — Relics of the Passion, and, in the first place, concerning those of the Precious Blood — The discovery of the Sacro Catino — The invention of the Lance at Antioch — The Sword of St. John the Baptist — The state of the Official Church — The Church in Britain — The Holy Wars of Palestine — The higher life of Sanctity and its annals in the Graal period — The sects of the period. IV. THE LITERATURE OF THE CYCLE. — Its various modes of classification and that mode which is most proper to the present inquiry — The places of the Graal Legend — The Welsh Peredur and the English Syr Percyvelle — The Conte del Graal— The Lesser Chronicles of the Holy Graal — The Greater Chronicles of the Holy Graal — The German cycle— The question which is posed for consideration. V. THE IMPLICITS OF THE GRAAL MYSTERY. — The first consideration concerning a concealed sense of the literature — The Secret Words of Consecration and what follows therefrom, namely, that a true Mass has never been said in the world since the Graal was taken away — The super-apostolical succession, the peculiar Divine Warrant and ecclesiastical pre-eminence claimed for the Graal Keepers — That these claims must be distinguished from errors of doctrinal confusion and theological ignorance, of which there is evidence otherwise — That any concealed sense must be held to co-exist with manifest insufficiency, even within its own province, and more especially regarding the Eucharist — That there is no intention to present the Graal Mystery as that of a secret process at work outside the Church — The Lesser Imp ii cits of the literature.