¹ Sommer, H. O., ed., The Vulgate Version of the Arthurian Romances 1 Estoire del Saint Graal (Washington 1909). All references to events in the Estoire are taken from this text.Google Scholar

² Birch-Hirschfeld, Adolph, Die Sage vom Gral (Leipzig 1877) 51; Wesselofsky, A. N., ‘Zur Frage über die Heimath der Legende vom heiligen Gral,’ Archiv für slavische Philologie 23 (1901) 321–385; Heinzel, Richard, ‘Über die französischen Gralromane,’ Denkschriften der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften XXXIX-XL (1892) 1–196, with special reference to 103; Bruce, J. D., The Evolution of Arthurian Romance (Göttingen 1923) 1. 237 ff., with special reference to 240 n. 16; also consult O'Gorman, Richard, ‘Ecclesiastical Tradition and the Holy Grail,’ Australian Journal of French Studies 6 (1969) 3–8.Google Scholar

³ Newstead, Helaine, Bran the Blessed in Arthurian Romance (New York 1939) 21 ff.; Nutt, Alfred, Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail (London 1888) 217–223; Loomis, R. S., ‘The Origin of the Grail Legends,’ Arthurian Literature in the Middle Ages, hereafter referred to as ALMA (Oxford 1959) 274–294.Google Scholar

⁴ Loomis, R. S., The Grail from Celtic Myth to Christian Symbol (Cardiff 1963) 20–27; ‘Les Légendes Hagiographiques et la Légende du Graal,’ Colloques Internationaux du Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (1956) 233–245. For an inventive extension of the euhemerization process, see Whitehead, John, Guardian of the Grail (London 1959), equating Joseph of Arimathea with St. Illtyd, and, based on Celtic legend, giving him full credit for converting Britain in the first century a.d. Google Scholar

⁵ Waite, Arthur Edward, The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail (London 1909) 433–61, hypothesizes the history of St. David as the nucleus of the Grail legend; in his The Holy Grail (New York 1961) 342–5, Waite indicates the possibility of close relationships between the Grail matter and Celtic Christian hagiology; see also Nutt, Alfred, op. cit. 103–4.Google Scholar

⁶ Grant Loomis, C., White Magic. An Introduction to the Folklore of Christian Legend (Cambridge, Mass. 1948) 117. See also Grosjean's, Father P. review in ‘Bulletin des Publications Hagiographiques,’ Analecta Bollandiana 70 (1952) 371–4, taking exception to Mr. Loomis' equation of saintly miracles with white magic, thereby confusing the supernatural with the preternatural. The pioneer of the folklore motif-index, Stith Thompson, in his The Folktale (New York 1946) 10, also acknowledges the prevalence of folklore in hagiology.Google Scholar

⁷ The term Pan-Brittonic refers specifically to the Celtic peoples of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica (Brittany), excluding the Goedelic Celts and their saints except those closely allied with the Pan-Brittonic group. Despite the close ties between the Irish and Pan-Brittonic peoples, and the similarities in Celtic hagiology as a whole, the Celtic concept of sanctity was local in character, so that a saint in Wales was not necessarily a saint in Ireland, and the two groups of saints were quite distinct. Also, there is scant evidence of any major impact of Irish peregrini on religious settlements in the Pan-Brittonic countries during the fifth and sixth centuries, which is the focal era of this study.Google Scholar

⁸ See Jones, Charles W., Saints' Lives and Chronicles in Early England (Ithaca 1947) 53 ff. and Delehaye, Père Hippolyte, The Legends of the Saints, trans. Attwater, Donald (New York 1962) 12 ff. for elucidating studies on the techniques and conventions governing saints' lives and medieval romances.Google Scholar

⁹ Delehaye, , op. cit. 52.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Duckett, Eleanor, The Wandering Saints of the Middle Ages (New York 1959) 11–13, describes with exactitude the media via of assessing saints' lives to which this present study subscribes.Google Scholar

¹¹ Rev. Baring-Gould, S., in his The Lives of the Saints 16 (London 1914) 1–120, gives a succinct summary of early Pan-Brittonic history as it affected the Celtic Church. For the Armorican migrations, see Loth, J., L'Émigration bretonne in Armorique du V ^e au VII ^e siècle de notre ère (Paris 1883) and de la Borderie, A., Histoire de Bretagne (Paris 1896) 227 ff.Google Scholar

¹² Jackson, Kenneth, Language and History in Early Britain (Edinburgh 1953) 12 and 26 ff.Google Scholar

¹³ For detailed insights into early Christianity, Celtic, see Deanesly, Margaret, The Pre-Conquest Church in England (New York 1961) 12–18; Sidelights on the Anglo-Saxon Church (London 1962) 26–36; Duckett, Eleanor, op. cit. 74–61.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Collingwood, H. G. and Myres, J. N. L., Roman Britain and the English Settlements (Oxford 1936) 270. As Britain's early Christianization was an honored tradition among the Celtic peoples, several legends arose, crediting Bran the Blessed, son of Llŷr Llediaith; Aristobolus (Arwystle Hên), a contemporary of St. Paul; and even apostolic conversions by St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Simon of Cana, and SS. Philip, and James, . The most widely accepted account, however, was that King Lucius of Britain (Lleurwg or Lleufer Mawr) sent his emissaries Elfan and Medwy to Pope Eleutherius in a.d. 167. On their return from Rome, accompanied by Phagan, and Deruvian, (Dyfan), Lucius and his realm received the Christian faith.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Thompson, E. A., ‘A Chronological Note on St. Germanus of Auxerre,’ Analecta Bollandiana 75 (1957) 135–8, reaffirms the date of Germaine's two visits to Britain, acknowledging his debt to Grosjean, Father P. for the second dating of 444. For Germaine's great influence on British Christianity, see Gougaud, Dom Louis, Christianity in Celtic Lands (London 1932) 21 ff.; and Collingwood, and Myres, , op. cit. 312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶ Pan-Brittonic saints had Celtic, Latin, and, quite often, Breton names, in addition to hypocoristic variations, such as Maedoc for Aedan (Aidan), as modified by the honorific prefix ‘mo-’ and the endearing suffix ‘-oc.’ Throughout this study, the saints are identified by their most widely used appellations.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, trans. Thorpe, Lewis (London 1966) 193, 198, 230, 262; also consult Fletcher, Robert H., The Arthurian Material in the Chronicles, 2d. ed. (New York 1966) 77–80.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Evans, J. G. and Rhys, J., eds., Liber Landavensis. The Text of the Book of Llan Dav (Oxford 1893). Brooke, Christopher, ‘The Archbishops of St. David's, Llandaff and Caerleon-on-Usk,’ in Studies in the Early British Church , ed. Chadwick, Nora (Cambridge 1958) 205–7, upholds the thesis that Geoffrey knew and borrowed from the Liber Landavensis. See also Wade-Evans, A. W., Welsh Christian Origins (Oxford 1932) 156 and 158.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Bowen, E. G., The Settlements of the Celtic Saints in Wales (Cardiff 1956); Doble, Gilbert H., The Saints in Cornwall , ed. Attwater, Donald, Parts 1–4 (Oxford, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1965); and Loth, J., Les Noms des Saints Bretons (Paris 1910), the pioneer work in this area, supporting Loth's premise that it is not the lives of the saints that tell the most about their existence or the national organization of religion, but the names of places.Google Scholar

²⁰ For the dating of these early lives, see Jackson, , op. cit. 41–2.Google Scholar

²¹ Rees, W. J., ed., Lives of the Cambro-British Saints (Welsh Manuscript Society 1853). A later and superior edition of these lives is provided by Wade-Evans, A. W., ed., Vitae Sanctorum Brittanniae et Genealogiae (Cardiff, 1944). Chadwick, Nora, op. cit. 121–82, assesses the historical value and significance of these written lives relative to the period of their composition. Also consult Hughes, Kathleen, ‘British Museum MS Cotton Vespasian A XIV (‘Vitae Sanctorum Wallensium’),’ in Chadwick 183–200, for a critical study of the purpose and origin of the Lives and the calendar contained in this manuscript.Google Scholar

²² Tatlock, J. S. P., ‘The Dates of the Arthurian Saints’ Legends,' Speculum 14 (1939) 345–54; also Grant Loomis, C., ‘King Arthur and the Saints,’ Speculum 8 (1933) 478–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²³ Loomis, R. S., ‘The Oral Diffusion of the Arthurian Legend,’ ALMA 52–63.Google Scholar

²⁴ Delehaye, , op. cit. 34.Google Scholar

²⁵ Weston, Jessie, The Quest of the Holy Grail (London 1913) 57.Google Scholar

²⁶ Wrmonoc, writing his life of Paul Aurelian in the ninth century, incorporated some Welsh and possibly Cornish traditions, which he had heard from transmarini (Doble, , op. cit. 1, 31). Bowen, E. G., in ‘The Glastonbury Legend: The Geographical and Archaeological Background,’ Glastonbury: A Study of Patterns (Rilko 1969) 15, similarly holds that the life of Paul Aurelian evinces direct contact between early Christianity and leading Arthurian characters. He further states that the subsequent transference of much of this background material to Armorica was the basis on which the French Arthurian romances rested, and credits the Celtic saints with helping to spread the Arthurian stories throughout the Celtic lands of Wales, Cornwall, and Armorica. As further evidence of the continuing ties between Cornwall and the Breton colony 1000 years after its foundation, the sixteenth-century miracle play Beunans Merisek shows an intimate knowledge of Breton traditions drawn from liturgical books.Google Scholar

²⁷ Parry, Thos., A History of Welsh Literature, trans. Bell, H. I. (Oxford 1955) 94–5.Google Scholar

²⁸ Pauphilet, A., Études sur la Queste del Saint Graal (Paris 1921) 53–83.Google Scholar

²⁹ Gougaud, , op. cit. 389 ff. Regarding the translation of Breton saints' relics to France, see de la Borderie, Arthur, ‘L'Historia Britonum’ attribuée à Nennius et l' ‘Historia Britannica’ avant Geoffrey de Monmouth (Paris 1883) 507 ff. Ample evidence of these widening cults is found in French and Anglo-Saxon liturgical writings and calendars, which include Celtic and Breton saints, and can be ascribed to Breton refugees, as noted by Duine, F., Inventaire Liturgique de l'Hagiographie Bretonne (Rennes 1922) 23–4 (lectionaries of churches in Northern France); 41–6 (a Rheims psalter); 46–8 (a Salisbury psalter).Google Scholar

³⁰ Duine, , op. cit. vii.Google Scholar

³¹ de Boron, Robert, Le Roman de L'Estoire dou Graal, ed. Nitze, W. A. Les Classiques Français du Moyen Âge 57 (Paris 1927).Google Scholar

³² The scholarly consensus on this late composition is maintained by Frappier, Jean, ‘The Vulgate Cycle,’ ALMA 313; and by Loomis, R. S., The Development of Arthurian Romance (London 1963) 120.Google Scholar

³³ Delehaye, , op. cit. 100–4, explicates this facet of hagiographic composition, citing the life of St. Vincent Madelgarus as an example. In Pan-Brittonic hagiography, it is seen in the life of Padarn, which combines the lives of three saints, owing to their homonymic relationship : Padarn, founder of Llanbadarn; Paternus, Bishop of Vannes; and Paternus, Bishop of Avranches. Homonymic fusion and confusion also accounts for the lives of Rumon of Cornwall and Roman of Brittany, the Vita Pirani drawn almost entirely from the life of Ciaran of Saighir, and the various Saints Constantine. Cf. Doble, , op. cit. 2. 15–24.Google Scholar

³⁴ While the Forest of Broceliande is the traditional setting of Arthurian adventures, it has a topographical significance in Pan-Brittonic religious history. Conard Maen (Mewan) was the first of the ecclesiastical colonists to establish a monastery in this central Armorican forest, rather than on the seashore. His monastery, founded on land given by a Breton chieftain, later became St. Méen Abbey, the chief agency in the christianization of that part of Armorica (Baring-Gould, , op. cit. 16, 240).Google Scholar

³⁶ Jones, , op. cit. 53.Google Scholar

³⁶ Chadwick, , op. cit. 160 n. 1.Google Scholar

³⁷ The primary sources for the saints' lives and legends cited in this study are: Baring-Gould, , op. cit. 1–16 (London 1897–1914); Vies des Saints et des Bienheureux eds. Les. RR. PP. Baudot et Chaussin, O.S.B. (Paris 1935–1959) 1–13; Bibliotheca Hagiographica Latina edd. Bollandiani, Socii 1, 2, Supplementum (Bruxelles 1898–1899; 1900–1901; 1911); Bibliotheca Sanctorum 1–11 (Rome 1961–1968); Rev. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints , ed. Thurston, Herbert S. J. (New York 1926–1938) 1–12; Doble, Gilbert H., op. cit. ; Duine, F., Memento des Sources Hagiographiques de L'Histoire de Bretagne (Rennes 1918); Horstmann, Carl, ed., Nova Legenda Angliae 1–2 (Oxford 1901); le Grand, Albert, Les vies des saints de la Bretagne Armorique (Quimper and Paris 1901); Rees, W.J., ed., op. cit. ; Stanton, Richard, A Menology of England and Wales (London 1887); Wade-Evans, A.W., ed., Vitae Sanctorum Brittaniae; and extracts from the Acta Sanctorum as follows: Cadfarch: Oct. X, 763–4; Cadoc: Jan. II, 603–6; Maen, Conard (Mewan): June IV, 101–4; Cybi: Nov. III, 824–9; David, : March I, 38–47; Germanus, : July VII, 201–304; Gildas, : Jan. II, 952–67; Gudwal, : June I, 729–48; Illtyd, : Nov. III, 219–36; Joseph of Arimathea: Mar. II. 502–6: Kentigern, : Jan. I, 815–41; Magloire, : Oct. V, 792–3; Aurelian, Paul (Pol-de-Leon): Mar. II, 1107–19; Patrick, : Mar. II. 517–33; Petroc: June I, 399–402; Samson: July VI, 1573–91; Socrates and Stephen: Sep. V, 477–8; Teilo: Feb. II, 309–10.Google Scholar

³⁸ Baring-Gould, , op. cit. 16, 138–45 and Deanesly, , Sidelights on the Anglo-Saxon Church 30–1.Google Scholar

³⁹ Bromwich, Rachel, ‘The Welsh Triads,’ ALMA 46, states that, although the triads have come down only in manuscripts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, they reflect genuine early traditions.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Chadwick, , op. cit. 158. Also Waite, Arthur Edward, The Holy Grail 349 ff., refers to the Hereditary Relic Keepers of the Celtic Church, and states that the preservation of consecreated objects, such as a Holy Cup, under such guardianship seems to have been common among Celtic families, and constituted an office of dignity and honor.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Annales Cambriae, ed. Williams, John, Rolls Series 20 (1860) x. The pedigree of Owain, contained in Harleian MS 3859, written in the late-tenth or early eleventh century, traces his family back to the following progenitors: ‘Map Eugein, map Aballac, map Amalech, qui fuit Beli Magni filius, et Anna mater ejus, quae dicitur esse consobrina Mariae Virginis matris Domini nostri Jesu Christi.’ Google Scholar

⁴² Although Arthur's genealogy, as shown in Gould, Baring, op. cit. 16, 133, places him in the Family of Geraint, Prince of Devon, he would, as David's uncle, be affiliated with the Family of Cunedda. Writing toward the end of the fourteenth century, John of Glastonbury, Johannes Glastoniensis Chronica , ed. Hearne, Thomas 1 (Oxford 1726) 56, amplifies this earlier tradition with an alternate genealogy, drawn from the Estoire, attesting to Arthur's descent from Joseph of Arimathea, through his mother Ygerne. Kendrick, T. D., British Antiquity (London 1950) 17 mentions an even more fanciful version, tracing Ygerne's ancestry back to a marriage between Joseph of Arimathea and a daughter of Longinus, the spearman at the Crucifixion, who was reputed to be the natural son of Julius Caesar. This latter family tree can only serve to illustrate the wide range of fantasy surrounding both Arthur and his sainted ancestor.Google Scholar

⁴³ Rees, , op. cit. 598–608.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Grant Loomis, G., White Magic 44, suggests that the frequency of this latter punition probably has its roots in the age's practice of burying criminals alive, a suggestion which is substantiated in part by the fate of Chanaan, for his crime of multiple fratricide.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Indicating how deeply ingrained this raison d'être was in Celtic monasticism, a mid-fourteenth-century mystical treatise of Welsh origin entitled Holy Living stresses the need for anwylserch (affection), or man's love for God, and deprecates ynfydserch (infatuation), or man's love for the perishable things of this world. See Parry, , op. cit. 96.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Carannog, of the Family of Cunedda, journeyed to Ireland, where, with miracles, he converted many districts against the wishes of companies of magicians and was honored by kings. This opposition from druids and magicians is more prevalent in the Irish vitae, such as the life of St. Patrick.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Fuller, Thomas, The Church History of Britain (London 1837) 1.71. Cf. Duckett, , op. cit. 23–9 for a sympathetic analysis of the life and motivations of the Celtic wandering saints.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Regarding the widespread wanderings of the Pan-Brittonic saints, medieval hagiographers considered a mission or visit in Ireland as a necessary commonplace, owing to Ireland's fame as a cultural and religious center. This would also explain the imputing of Irish origin to many Cornish and Breton saints who ‘came across the water,’ when actually they came from Wales. However, references in the vitae to journeys to other Celtic countries, such as Scotland, Cornwall, or Armorica, may actually be based on ancient tradition (Doble, , op. cit. 3. 63, and 4. 57).Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Gougaud, , op. cit. 100.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ This singular reference to White Monks anticipates their omnipresence in the Queste, which points to the Cistercian influence on that work (see n. 28). There is also an historical correlation, as from 1140 onward the declining Celtic monastic centers were supplanted by the Cistercians, resulting in such famous monasteries as Whitland and its daughter houses Cwmhir, Strata Florida and Strata Marcella, all of which were predominantly Welsh in character, interests, and nationalistic spirit. For a full account of this development, see O'Sullivan, J. F., Cistercian Settlements in Wales and Monmouthshire, Fordham University Studies, History Series No. 2 (New York 1947), with special attention to 1–19.Google Scholar

⁵¹ See Chadwick, , op. cit. 161–2 for an assessment of David's ‘Rule,’ as contained in Chapters 21–30 of the Life, with its emphasis on holy poverty, manual labor, especially agriculture, and simplicity of life. As Miss Chadwick points out, this austerity is not as prevalent at such monasteries as Llantwit Major, which was more intellectual than ascetic in its orientation.Google Scholar

⁵² The reference to ‘Bretaigne’ in this passage is ambiguous, but could refer to Brittany (Armorica), the French passage reading: ‘Car a celui tans estoit la grant bretaigne vers les parties descoce & de bretaigne moult pourement pueplie de gent….’ The specific detail about the wild, unpopulated terrain is borne out by the topography and population distribution in Great Britain in the Age of Saints. According to Jackson, , op. cit. 96–7, the Lowland Zone from York down was Romanized, populated, and fertile, except for the heavily forested West Midlands and Welsh Marches. The Highland Zone, on the other hand, was relatively thinly populated, and lacking in large towns and settlements.Google Scholar

⁵³ Gougaud, , op. cit. 87–8, cites a brief period during the early sixth century when conhospitae abuses in Brittany occasioned strong episcopal reprimands, but avers that the above-quoted motto of St. Coemgenus prevailed in Celtic monasticism.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Baring-Gould, , op. cit. 16.243.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Blood-flecked stones still surround Winifred's Well in Flintshire, noted for its healing powers, while the well in which the treacherously wounded Brynach washed off the blood was identified as the Red Well.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Doble, , op. cit. 3.117 points to Tuedar's prominence in the sixteenth-century Cornish miracle play Beunans Merisek, not only as a corollary of his legendary fame as a Cornish tyrant, but also as a possible hit against Henry VII, who was unpopular in Cornwall because of the heavy taxation levied following Perkin Warbeck's rebellion.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ This epithet rests either on the fame of the Breton warrior-saint who became a missionary monk, or Cadfan, King of Gwynedd, who fought against Ethelfrith, King of Northumbria.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Butler-Thurston, , op. cit. 12.152–4.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ St. Kea was confused with the Arthurian Kay, so that his legendary life includes an attempt to effect peace at the Battle of Camlaan between Arthur and Modred. Failing in his attempt, he then enjoins Guinevere to repent her sinful life, and enter a convent. As G. H. Doble has pointed out (op. cit. 3.104), any connection between the saintly missionary bishop and Arthur's faithful steward is only homonymic.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Delehaye, Hippolyte, Légendes grecques des saints militaires (Paris 1909) 1–119.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Joseph's identifying himself as a doctor and healer (mire) is also anticipated by Christ's words at Josephes' episcopal consecration, ordaining that Joseph will have the care of the bodies of His flock, while Josephes will watch over their souls (39–40).Google Scholar

⁶² Loomis, G. G., White Magic, 20.Google Scholar

⁶³ St. Germanus of Auxerre is not, strictly speaking, a Pan-Brittonic saint, but merits inclusion in the group. A former Roman dux with jurisdiction over Armorica, he not only rid the British Church of the Pelagian heresy and fostered Celtic monasticism, but supported the Briton cause against the Saxons and also the tyrannical Vortigern. He later helped to effect a peace between the rebelling Armoricans and Rome. Chadwick, , op. cit. 110–15 investigates his wide cult in France and Britain.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Amphibalus is a shadowy martyr, whose identity probably rests with a personification of the amphibalus or cloak worn by Alban. Nevertheless, he enjoyed great popularity in Britain, and his shrine was the site for Constantine's slaying of one of Modred's two sons, following Arthur's death at Camlaan.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ See n. 14 supra. Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Fuller, , op. cit. 70.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Matt. 27. 57–60; Mark, 15. 42–46; Luke, 23. 50–53; John, 19. 38–42, describing Joseph as a wealthy Israelite from Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrim, a noble decurion, and a secret disciple of Jesus, and crediting him with requesting Christ's body from Pilate, burying it in his own tomb in which no one had been laid, and sealing the sepulchre.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Acts 1. 15–26, relates that Joseph called Barsabbas and Matthias, as members of Christ's immediate following during His earthly ministry, were candidates for the apostolic vacancy left by Judas' suicide. They drew lots and Matthias won. Homonymic confusion could account for Joseph of Arimathea's inclusion in this Christian elite. The Gospel of Nicodemus (James, Montague R., ed., The Apocryphal New Testament [Oxford 1924] 94–115), written no earlier than the fourth century, is considered the Ursprung of the legendary account of Joseph, as it closely affiliates him with the resurrected Savior. An amplified version of the Gospel of Nicodemus is found in the Story of Joseph of Arimathea, contained in a twelfth-century manuscript (ibid. 161–5).Google Scholar

⁶⁹ In the sermon In Die Parasceves, attributed to St. Ambrose, (Acta Sanctorum, March I 503), Joseph is called the alter Joseph ab Arimathea, who guarded Christ's body after the Crucifixion, just as Joseph of Nazareth had protected Christ during His lifetime on earth. For the extensive treatment of Joseph of Arimathea in exegetical tradition, see Honorius Augustodunensis' Gemma animae (PL 72. 543–738); also refer to n. 2 of this study.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ In the Transitus Mariae, a thirteenth-century Italian composition (James, , op. cit. 216–8), Joseph is depicted as one of the group of disciples present at the death and assumption of the Blessed Virgin, the colophon stating that he was charged with the responsibility of watching over the Savior's mother both before the Ascension and after it.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Among the numerous continuations of the Gospel of Nicodemus account of Joseph are the Cura Sanitatis Tiberii (ibid. 158–9) and the Vindicta Salvatoris (ibid. 159–61), both stressing Joseph's bearing heroic witness to the Christian belief. For the best known version of the Vindicta, see Cap. 67 of St. James the Less, related in de Voragine, Jacobus, The Golden Legend, trans. Ryan, Granger and Ripperberger, Helmut (New York 1941) 38 ff. The Georgian legend of Lydda, found in an eighth-century manuscript, credits Joseph, as a fellow missioner with Philip, with an apostolic mission to Lydda, in Wesselofsky, op. cit. 325–32. Cf. Imbs, Paul, ‘Enygeus,’ BBSIA 6 (1954) 69–71.Google Scholar

⁷² Joseph's collection and guardianship of the Precious Blood, a portion of which was transmitted to England in 1247, is recounted by Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora, ed. Luard, Henry Richards, Rolls Series 57 (London 1882) 138–44. Joseph is also prominently featured in the legends surrounding the Precious Blood relics at Bruges and Féscamp (Waite, , The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail, 33 and 35). For a further development of the Féscamp legend, see Weston, Jessie, op. cit. 55–62. Similarly, the Legend of the Holy Blood of Hayles, written to support the Abbey of Hayle's claim to the Precious Blood, draws heavily on the apocryphal accounts of Joseph, although Joseph is only referred to as a pious Jew. Horstmann, Carl, Altenglische Legenden (Heilbronn 1881) 276, notes: ‘Dieser Jude ist Joseph v. Arimathea, dessen Namen der Dichter verschweigt.’

⁷³ Several scholars aver that, owing to the popularity of this work in England, Joseph became a familiar legendary figure, and was accordingly selected to be the Apostle of Britain by the French writers. See Wülcker, Richard, Das Evangelium Nicodemi in der abendländischen Literatur (Paderborn 1872) 69 ff; Kapp, Rudolf, Heilige und Heiligenlegenden in England (Halle/Saale 1932) 265–6; Weston, Jessie, op. cit. 59.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ The authoritative study on the Glastonbury legends is Armitage Robinson, J., Two Glastonbury Legends: King Arthur and Joseph of Arimathea (Cambridge 1926). Consult also Treharne, R. J., The Glastonbury Legends (London 1967).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ For the official version of the abbey legend, see John of Glastonbury, op. cit. 48 ff.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Horstmann, , Nova Legenda Angliae 1.324–5.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Bromwich, Rachel, op. cit. 51 n. 3 states that the Triad Tri Santeidd Linys or Tair Gwelygord Saint, ‘Three Saintly Stocks’ occurs in several fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscripts. While all versions contain the families of Brychan and Cunedda, the third family, Caw of Prydain, has been replaced in MS Peniarth 50 by the family of Joseph of Arimathea.Google Scholar