It is obvious that the romances of the Graal are either legendary histories of religion on the external side, and as such are concerned with the quest of conversion--that is, Christianity colonising--or they are spiritual histories with a strong individual element but a wide field of application on the universal side, corresponding to the province of mysticism--such as the legend of the Church in the world and the soul in its progress. The first class would include the metrical Joseph of Arimathæa and the Book of the Holy Graal, while the most notable examples of the second class are the Longer Prose Perceval and the Quest of Galahad. The idea of their secret meaning must be held to reside, as regards the first class, in the claims which they put forward, and, as regards the second, in the special application
So far therefore an attempt has been made to justify the hypothesis that there were rumours abroad in the world which entered into houses of romance and account for the implicits which have been traced in the Graal
