THE ARGUMENT
I. A PRELIMINARY ACCOUNT OF CERTAIN ROOT--SECRETS INCLUDED IN THE WHOLE SUBJECT.--Further considerations concerning the several groups of the literature--Quest versions and versions of early history--The Suppressed Word of the Perceval Quests--The suppressed sacramental formula--The secret school of ordination--The passing of the sacraments. II. THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS, AND IN THE FIRST PLACE A GENERAL INTRODUCTION CONCERNING THEM.--Their powers and offices--Their passage from East to West--The Hallows in Britain--An alternative division of the cycle--Texts of the sacramental claims--The implied mystery of the Hallows--The four Hallows-in-chief. III. THE INSTITUTION OF THE HALLOWS, AND, SECONDLY, THE VARIATIONS OF THE CUP LEGEND.--The Holy Vessel in the legends of Joseph of Arimathæa--The high symbolism of the Cup--Sources of information concerning the Sacred Vessel--Certain apocryphal Gospels and certain chronicles of Britain--Variations of the Conte del Graal--The Cup in the metrical romance of De Borron--Its Eucharistic character--Philology of the term GRAAL--The Cup in the Lesser Holy Graal--In the Early Prose Merlin--In the Didot Perceval--The Cup in the Book of the Holy Graal--The Chalice and the Paschal Dish--References in the later prose Merlins--The Graal in the Longer Prose Perceval--Certain visions of the Holy Vessel in the great prose Lancelot--The Graal in the Quest of