1 - The Grail Romances and the Old Law

Summary

Examines the ways in which anti-semitism is promulgated in varying degrees by means of imagery, explanation and open denunciation in a range of Grail romances, and contrasts a developing history of persecution with the theological stance of St Bernard.

In his paper on ‘Medieval anti-judaism as reflected in the Chansons de Geste’, Gerald Herman points out that ‘more … than any other social, national, or ethnic group, Jews are portrayed in medieval French literature with relentless severity and scorn’. At first sight, it would seem that the thirteenth-century Vulgate Queste del Saint Graal forms an exception, as the predominant aim of the writer was clearly to encourage sinners to repent of their evil ways and to strive for union with God. But on closer examination it is evident that the author had also a secondary purpose: to promulgate and encourage anti-semitism by presenting the adherents of the ‘Old Law’ in an unfavourable and prejudiced light. This is apparent almost from the beginning of the Queste. When, in the grounds of the monastery to which Melyant had led Galaad, the latter had lifted the slab covering the tomb in which lay the body of the ‘evil and false Christian’ (‘dou crestien mauvés et faus’ Queste, p. 37.5–6), one of the monks explains as follows the meaning of the incident.