equal authority.

Several years later, about 1280, the trouveur Sarrazin also cites
"The Graal" ("li Graaus") in the same manner, in superfluous
verification of the then-accepted truism that King Arthur was at
one time Lord of Great Britain. This appeal to "The Graal" as
the authority for a general belief shows that it was at that time
recognised as a well-spring of authentic knowledge; while the
fact that the trouveur was not confounding "The Graal" with the
later version of the story is further shown by his going on
presently to speak of "the Romance that Chrestien telleth so
fairly of Perceval the adventures of the Graal." (8)

Perhaps, however, the most striking testimony to the fact that
this work is none other than the original "Book of the Graal" is
to be found in the "Chronicle of Helinand", well known at the
time the Romance was written not only as a historian but as a
troubadour at one time in high favour at the court of Philip
Augustus, and in later years as one of the most ardent preachers
of the Albigensian Crusade. The passage, a part of which has
been often quoted, is inserted in the Chronicle under the year
720, and runs in English thus:

"At this time a certain marvellous vision was revealed by an
angel to a certain hermit in Britain concerning S. Joseph,
the decurion who deposed from the cross the Body of Our
Lord, as well as concerning the paten or dish in the which
Our Lord supped with His disciples, whereof the history was
written out by the said hermit and is called "Of the Graal"
(de Gradali). Now, a platter, broad and somewhat deep, is