From Ritual to RomanceWeston, Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay)
Religion
From Ritual to Romance
Weston, Jessie L. (Jessie Laidlay)
Grail -- Legends -- History and criticism; Romances -- History and criticism
On the principle laid down above no theory which purports to be
explanatory of the source of one symbol can be held satisfactory in a
case where that symbol does not stand alone. We cannot accept for the
Grail story a theory of origin which concerns itself with the Lance, as
independent of the Grail. In the study referred to the author has been
at immense pains to examine the different versions of the ‘Longinus’
legend, and to trace its development in literature; in no single
instance do we find Longinus and his Lance associated with a Cup or
Vase, receptacle of the Sacred Blood.
The plain fact is that in Christian art and tradition Lance and Cup are
not associated symbols. The Lance or Spear, as an instrument of the
Passion, is found in conjunction with the Cross, Nails, Sponge, and
Crown of Thorns, (anyone familiar with the wayside Crosses of Catholic
Europe will recognize this), not with the Chalice of the Mass.[3] This
latter is associated with the Host, or _Agnus Dei_. Still less is the
Spear to be found in connection with the Grail in its Food-providing
form of a Dish.
No doubt to this, critics who share the views of Golther and Burdach
will object, “but what of the Byzantine Mass? Do we not there find a
Spear connected with the Chalice?”[4]
I very much doubt whether we do—the so-called ‘Holy Spear’ of the
Byzantine, and present Greek, liturgy is simply a small silver
spear-shaped knife, nor can I discover that it was ever anything else.
I have made careful enquiries of liturgical scholars, and consulted
editions of Oriental liturgies, but I can find no evidence that the
knife (the use of which is to divide the Loaf which, in the Oriental
rite, corresponds to the Wafer of the Occidental, in a manner
symbolically corresponding to the Wounds actually inflicted on the
Divine Victim) was ever other than what it is to-day. It seems obvious,
from the method of employment, that an actual Spear could hardly have
been used, it would have been an impossibly unwieldy instrument for the
purpose.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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