One other instance of this pre-reformation doctrine belongs to the story of Lancelot, and will be given in its proper place.  We may remark here that whatever the shortcomings of some of Arthur’s knights, they one and all evinced a lively faith, profound veneration for holy things, and a truly Catholic desire for reconciliation with God, through the reception of the Sacraments, whenever they fell into sin.  Thus, the knights who were convened to assist at Arthur’s coronation “made them clean of their lives, that their prayers might be the more acceptable unto God.”  And when Balan fought with his brother, Balyn, by mistake, and both were mortally wounded, Balan entreated the lady of the Tower to send for a priest:  “Yea,” said the lady, “it shall be done,” and so she sent for a priest to give them their rights.  “Now,” said Balyn, “when we are buried in one tomb, and the mention made over us how two brethren slew each other, there will never good knight nor good man see our tomb but they will pray for our souls.”

Wherever the knights-errant slept, they never set out on their journey on the morrow without first hearing Mass; and if they had been riding all night and came to a chapel in the morning they “avoided their horses and heard Mass.”  There are many allusions to devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and on one occasion a tournament was proclaimed in honour of her Assumption.

In the poem “Lancelot and Elaine,” Tennyson has followed closely on the lines of the original story, both as to general design and detail.  The idyll “Geraint and Enid” does not, of course, belong to this history at all, but is taken from the “Mabinogian,” a collection of Welsh legends translated into English by Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Guest.

The “Coming of Arthur,” as related in the idyll, is throughout an invention of Tennyson’s, or culled from other sources, and differs entirely from the story of Arthur’s origin as told by Malory.

But the legend that has suffered the most from poetical license is that of the “Holy Grail.”

When the young Galahad, Lancelot’s son, had been brought to Arthur’s court, had been dubbed knight, and had sat in the mystical “siege perilous,” fashioned by the wizard Merlin, he drew the sword from the magic stone that hovered over the water, and which no other knight could take.  Then the queen, hearing of these marvels, and of his great exploits and chivalry, desired greatly to see Sir Galahad, and as he was riding by, “the king, at the queen’s request, made him to alight and to unlace his helm, that Queen Guinevere might see him in the visage.  And when she beheld him she said:  Sothely, I dare well say that Sir Lancelot begat him, for never two men resembled more in likeness.  Therefore it is no marvel though he be of great prowess.  So a lady that stood by the queen said, Madam, for God’s sake, ought he of right to be so good a knight?  Yea, forsooth, said the queen, for he is of all parties come of the best knights of the world, and of the highest lineage.  For Sir Lancelot is comen of the eighth degree from our Lord Jesu Christ, and Sir Galahad is of the ninth degree, therefore I dare well say that they ben the greatest gentlemen of all the world.”