Paris believed that the source of this peculiar feature was to be found in the struggle for independence of the early British Church; but, after all, the differences of that Church with Rome affected only minor points of discipline:  the date of Easter, the fashion of tonsure of the clergy, nothing which touched vital doctrines of the Faith.  Certainly the British Church never claimed the possession of a revelation à part.  But if the theory based upon the evidence of the Naassene document be accepted such a presentation can be well accounted for.  According to Hippolytus the doctrines of the sect were derived from James, the brother of Our Lord, and Clement of Alexandria asserts that “The Lord imparted the Gnosis to James the Just, to John and to Peter, after His Resurrection; these delivered it to the rest of the Apostles, and they to the Seventy."[14] Thus the theory proposed in these pages will account not only for the undeniable parallels existing between the Vegetation cults and the Grail romances, but also for the Heterodox colouring of the latter, two elements which at first sight would appear to be wholly unconnected, and quite incapable of relation to a common source.

Nor in view of the persistent vitality and survival, even to our own day, of the Exoteric practices can there be anything improbable in the hypothesis of a late survival of the Esoteric side of the ritual.  Cumont points out that the worship of Mithra was practised in the fifth century in certain remote cantons of the Alps and the Vosges—­i.e., at the date historically assigned to King Arthur.  Thus it would not be in any way surprising if a tradition of the survival of these semi-Christian rites at this period also existed.[15] In my opinion it is the tradition of such a survival which lies at the root, and explains the confused imagery, of the text we know as the Elucidation.  I have already, in my short study of the subject, set forth my views; as I have since found further reasons for maintaining the correctness of the solution proposed, I will repeat it here.[16]

The text in question is found in three of our existing Grail versions:  in the Ms. of Mons; in the printed edition of 1530; and in the German translation of Wisse-Colin.  It is now prefixed to the poem of Chrétien de Troyes, but obviously, from the content, had originally nothing to do with that version.

It opens with the passage quoted above (p. 130) in which Master Blihis utters his solemn warning against revealing the secret of the Grail.  It goes on to tell how aforetime there were maidens dwelling in the hills[17] who brought forth to the passing traveller food and drink.  But King Amangons outraged one of these maidens, and took away from her her golden Cup: 

“Des puceles une esforcha
Et la coupe d’or li toli—­[4].”

His knights, when they saw their lord act thus, followed his evil example, forced the fairest of the maidens, and robbed them of their cups of gold.  As a result the springs dried up, the land became waste, and the court of the Rich Fisher, which had filled the land with plenty, could no longer be found.