Editing Joseph of Arimathea (section)

==Other medieval texts==
Medieval interest in Joseph centered on two themes, that of Joseph as the founder of [[Celtic Christianity|British Christianity]] (even before it had taken hold in Rome), and that of Joseph as the original guardian of the Holy Grail.

===Britain===
{{See also|Early centers of Christianity#Roman Britain}}
[[File:2nd state - c1809.jpg|thumb|180px|[[William Blake]]'s Illustration ''Joseph of Arimathea Among the Rocks of Albion'' in its second state after Blake's 1773 original, engraved circa 1809]]
Many legends about the arrival of Christianity in Britain abounded during the Middle Ages. Early writers do not connect Joseph to this activity, however. [[Tertullian]] wrote in ''Adversus Judaeos'' that Britain had already received and accepted the Gospel in his lifetime, writing, "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons—inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-19.htm#P2021_691723|title=Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III : An Answer to the Jews.|website=www.tertullian.org}}</ref>

Tertullian does not say how the Gospel came to Britain before AD 222. However, [[Eusebius|Eusebius of Caesaria]], one of the earliest and most comprehensive of church historians, wrote of Christ's disciples in ''Demonstratio Evangelica,'' saying that "some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_de_05_book3.htm|title=Eusebius of Caesarea: Demonstratio Evangelica. Tr. W.J. Ferrar (1920) -- Book 3|website=www.tertullian.org}}</ref> [[Hilary of Poitiers]] also wrote that the Apostles had built churches and that the Gospel had passed into Britain.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf209.toc.html|title=NPNF2-09. Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus - Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=www.ccel.org}}</ref> The writings of Pseudo-Hippolytus include a list of the seventy disciples whom Jesus sent forth in Luke 10, one of which is [[Aristobulus of Britannia|Aristobulus]] of Romans 16:10, called "bishop of Britain".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0524.htm|title=CHURCH FATHERS: On the Apostles and Disciples (Pseudo-Hippolytus)|work=newadvent.org}}</ref>

In none of these earliest references to Christianity's arrival in Britain is Joseph of Arimathea mentioned. [[William of Malmesbury]]'s {{lang|la|De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae}} ('On the Antiquity of the [[Glastonbury Abbey|Church of Glastonbury]]', circa 1125) has not survived in its original edition, and the stories involving Joseph of Arimathea are contained in subsequent editions that abound in interpolations placed by the Glastonbury monks "in order to increase the Abbey's prestige&nbsp;– and thus its pilgrim trade and prosperity" <ref>[[Antonia Gransden]], ''Historical Writing in England II, c. 1307 to the Present'', page 399. Routledge, 1996; Reprinted 2000. {{ISBN|0-415-15125-2}}. Antonia Grandsen also cited [[William Wells Newell]], "William of Malmesbury on the Antiquity of Glastonbury" in ''Publications of the Modern Language Association of America'', xviii (1903), pages 459–512; A. Gransden, "The Growth of the Glastonbury Traditions and Legends in the Twelfth Century" in ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'', xxvii (1976), page 342</ref> In his {{lang|la|Gesta Regum Anglorum}} (''History of The Kings of England'', finished in 1125), William of Malmesbury wrote that Glastonbury Abbey was built by preachers sent by [[Pope Eleuterus]] to Britain, however also adding: "Moreover there are documents of no small credit, which have been discovered in certain places to the following effect: 'No other hands than those of the disciples of Christ erected the church of Glastonbury'", but here William did not explicitly link Glastonbury with Joseph of Arimathea, but instead emphasizes the possible role of [[Philip the Apostle]]: "if Philip, the Apostle, preached to the Gauls, as Freculphus relates in the fourth chapter of his second book, it may be believed that he also planted the word on this side of the channel also.".<ref>William of Malmesbury, ''William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England: From the Earliest Period To The Reign of King Stephen'', page 22 (notes and illustrations by J. A. Giles, London: Bell & Daldy, 1866)</ref> The first appearance of Joseph in the Glastonbury records can be pinpointed with surprising accuracy to 1247, when the story of his voyage was added as a margin-note to Malmesbury's chronicle.<ref>Stout, Adam (2020) ''Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend'' Green & Pleasant Publishing, p. 14   {{ISBN| 978-1-9162686-1-6}}</ref>
[[File:Pieter Coeck van Aelst - Joseph of Arimathaea (left wing).jpg|thumb|160px|''Joseph of Arimathaea'' by [[Pieter Coecke van Aelst]], ca. 1535]]

In 1989, folklore scholar A. W. Smith critically examined the accretion of legends around Joseph of Arimathea. Often associated with [[William Blake]]'s poem "[[And did those feet in ancient time]]" and its musical setting, widely known as the hymn "Jerusalem", the legend is commonly held as "an almost secret yet passionately held article of faith among certain otherwise quite orthodox Christians" and Smith concluded "that there was little reason to believe that an oral tradition concerning a visit made by Jesus to Britain existed before the early part of the twentieth century".<ref>Smith, "'And Did Those Feet...?': The 'Legend' of Christ's Visit to Britain" ''Folklore'' '''100'''.1 (1989), pp. 63–83.</ref> [[Sabine Baring-Gould]] recounted a Cornish story how "Joseph of Arimathea came in a boat to [[Cornwall]], and brought the child Jesus with him, and the latter taught him how to extract the tin and purge it of its [[Wolframite|wolfram]]. This story possibly grew out of the fact that the Jews under the Angevin kings farmed the tin of Cornwall."<ref>S. Baring-Gould, ''A Book of The West: Being An Introduction To Devon and Cornwall'' (2 Volumes, [[Methuen Publishing]], 1899); ''A Book of Cornwall'', Second Edition 1902, New Edition, 1906, page 57.</ref> In its most developed version, Joseph, a tin merchant, visited Cornwall, accompanied by his nephew, the boy Jesus. Reverend C.C. Dobson (1879–1960) made a case for the authenticity of the Glastonbury ''legenda''.<ref>Dobson, ''Did Our Lord Visit Britain as they say in Cornwall and Somerset?'' (Glastonbury: Avalon Press) 1936.</ref> The case was argued more recently by the Church of Scotland minister [[Gordon Strachan (minister)|Gordon Strachan]] (1934–2010) <ref>{{Cite book
 |isbn      = 9780863152757
 |year      = 1998
 |publisher = Floris Books
 |last      = Strachan
 |first     = Gordon
 |title     = Jesus, the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity
 |place     = Edinburgh
}}</ref> and by the former archaeologist Dennis Price.<ref>Dennis Price, ''The Missing Years of Jesus: The Greatest Story Never Told'' (Hay House Publishing, 2009). {{ISBN|9781848500334}}</ref>

===Holy Grail===
The legend that Joseph was given the responsibility of keeping the Holy Grail was the product of [[Robert de Boron]], who essentially expanded upon stories from ''Acts of Pilate''. In Boron's {{ill|Joseph d'Arimathie (poem)|fr|Joseph d'Arimathie (roman)|lt=''Joseph d'Arimathie''}}, Joseph is imprisoned much as in the ''Acts of Pilate'', but it is the Grail that sustains him during his captivity. Upon his release he founds his company of followers, who take the Grail to the "Vale of Avaron" (identified with [[Avalon]]), though Joseph does not go. The origin of the association between Joseph and Britain, where Avalon is presumed to be located, is not entirely clear, though in subsequent romances such as ''[[Perlesvaus]]'', Joseph travels to Britain, bringing relics with him. In the [[Lancelot-Grail]] cycle, a vast Arthurian composition that took much from Robert, it is not Joseph but his son [[Josephus of Arimathea|Josephus]] who is considered the primary holy man of Britain.

Later authors sometimes mistakenly or deliberately treated the Grail story as truth. Such stories were inspired by the account of [[John of Glastonbury]], who assembled a chronicle of the history of Glastonbury Abbey around 1350 and who wrote that Joseph, when he came to Britain, brought with him vessels containing the blood and sweat of Christ (without using the word Grail).<ref>Edward Donald Kennedy, "Visions of History: Robert de Boron and English Arthurian Chronicles" in, [[Norris J. Lacy]], editor, ''The Fortunes of King Arthur'', page 39 (D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 2005). {{ISBN|1-84384-061-8}}</ref> This account inspired the future claims of the Grail, including the claim involving the [[Nanteos Cup]] on display in the museum in [[Aberystwyth]]. There is no reference to this tradition in ancient or medieval text. John of Glastonbury further claims that King Arthur was descended from Joseph, listing the following imaginative pedigree through King Arthur's mother:
{{blockquote|1=Helaius, Nepos Joseph, Genuit Josus, Josue Genuit Aminadab, Aminadab Genuit Filium, qui Genuit Ygernam, de qua Rex Pen-Dragon, Genuit Nobilem et Famosum Regum Arthurum, per Quod Patet, Quod Rex Arthurus de Stirpe Joseph descendit.}}

Joseph's alleged early arrival in Britain was used for political point-scoring by English theologians and diplomats during the late Middle Ages, and [[Richard Beere]], Abbot of Glastonbury from 1493 to 1524, put the cult of Joseph at the heart of the abbey's legendary traditions. He was probably responsible for the drastic remodelling of the Lady Chapel at [[Glastonbury Abbey]]. A series of miraculous cures took place in 1502 which were attributed to the saint, and in 1520 the printer [[Richard Pynson]] published a ''Lyfe of Joseph of Armathia'', in which  the [[Glastonbury Thorn]] is mentioned for the first time.<ref>Stout, Adam (2020) ''Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend'' Green & Pleasant Publishing, pp. 13-16  {{ISBN| 978-1-9162686-1-6}}</ref>   Joseph's importance increased exponentially with the [[English Reformation]], since his alleged early arrival far predated the Catholic conversion of AD 597. In the new post-Catholic world, Joseph stood for Christianity pure and Protestant. In 1546, [[John Bale]], a prominent Protestant writer, claimed that the early date of Joseph's mission meant that original British Christianity was purer than that of Rome, an idea which was understandably popular with English Protestants, notably Queen 
[[Elizabeth I]] herself, who cited Joseph's missionary work in England when she told Roman Catholic bishops that the Church of England pre-dated the Roman Church in England.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1.html|title=Elizabeth's 1559 reply to the Catholic bishops|work=fordham.edu|access-date=11 May 2006|archive-date=4 May 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060504123437/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/elizabeth1.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>Stout, Adam (2020) ''Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend'' Green & Pleasant Publishing, pp. 23-24  {{ISBN| 978-1-9162686-1-6}}</ref>

===Other legends===
According to one of England's best-known legends, when Joseph and his followers arrived, weary, on Wearyall Hill outside Glastonbury, he set his walking staff on the ground and it miraculously took root and blossomed as the "[[Glastonbury Thorn]]". The [[mytheme]] of the staff that Joseph of Arimathea set in the ground at Glastonbury, which broke into leaf and flower as the [[Glastonbury Thorn]] is a common miracle in [[hagiography]]. Such a miracle is told of the Anglo-Saxon saint [[Æthelthryth|Etheldreda]]:{{blockquote|1=Continuing her flight to Ely, Etheldreda halted for some days at Alfham, near Wintringham, where she founded a church; and near this place occurred the "miracle of her staff". Wearied with her journey, she one day slept by the wayside, having fixed her staff in the ground at her head. On waking she found the dry staff had burst into leaf; it became an ash tree, the "greatest tree in all that country;" and the place of her rest, where a church was afterwards built, became known as "Etheldredestow".|sign=Richard John King, 1862, in: ''Handbook of the Cathedrals of England; Eastern division: Oxford, Peterborough, Norwich, Ely, Lincoln''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of the See of Ely • King's Handbook to the Cathedrals of England|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/England/_Topics/churches/_Texts/KINCAT*/Ely/2.html|access-date=2023-01-27|website=penelope.uchicago.edu}}</ref>}}

Medieval interest in genealogy raised claims that Joseph was a relative of Jesus; specifically, [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]]'s uncle, or according to some genealogies, Joseph's uncle. A genealogy for the family of Joseph of Arimathea and the history of his further adventures in the east provide material for the ''Estoire del Saint Graal'' and the ''Queste del Saint Graal'' of the Lancelot-Grail cycle and ''Perlesvaus''.<ref>C. Scott Littleton, Linda A. Malcor, ''From Scythia to Camelot: a radical reassessment of the legends of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table and the Holy Grail'' (1994) 2000:310.</ref>

Another legend, as recorded in ''[[Flores Historiarum]]'', is that Joseph is in fact the [[Wandering Jew]], a man cursed by Jesus to walk the Earth until the [[Second Coming]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Reliques of Ancient English Poetry | isbn = 1-4021-7380-6 | page = 246 | last = Percy | first = Thomas | publisher = Adamant Media Corporation | year = 2001 | orig-year = 1847 | volume = 2 }}</ref>