III THE MINOR BRANCHES OF THE BOOK OF THE HOLY GRAAL
The things which remain over from the last section for consideration at the term of this inquest are chiefly derivatives from the metrical romance of De Borron, including those further adventures and histories which he promised to provide if he could. It was not sufficient for the putative Walter Map that England was the spiritual patrimony guaranteed to the eldest son of the new Church of Christ and the first Bishop of Christendom, but that he might exalt it further he transferred thereto several palmary episodes which in the work of his precursor had been allocated to the regions on the hither side of Syria, or wherever he brought the company of Joseph to its first prolonged halt. The most important of these postponements is the doom which befell Moses; it is also told differently, and is connected with a collateral story concerning one who was fated to suffer a similar punishment, of which the Lesser Chronicles know nothing. This personage is Simeon, who is sometimes said to be the father of Moses, and he is first referred to when the company are crossing the channel on their way to Britain. Simeon and his son sink then into the water because they have broken their vows of purity, and they have to be saved by the others. Long after the arrival of the whole fellowship at the term of their voyaging we hear first of the Graal table, at which Joseph II. and Brons sit together with a wide space between them; but the explanation of the empty seat differs from that of De Borron, signifying the place occupied by Christ of the Last Supper. It can be so occupied only by one of greater sanctity than are those at the Second Table. It follows that for the purposes of this romance the consecration of Galahad was greater than that of the first Bishop of