© copyright 1996 - 2002 Barry Dunford

The Holy Land of Scotland: Is it conceivable that two thousand years ago Jesus and members of His family came to ancient Caledonia, now Scotland. This extraordinary possibility is examined in detail by Scottish based author Barry Dunford, after having extensively researched this fascinating and intriguing scenario. This book reveals that there has been a monumental historical cover up surrounding the real Jesus story and the true purpose behind His spiritual mission.

The English visionary poet William Blake claimed that the real and original Holy Land of Christ was to be found within the ancient British Isles rather than Palestine in the Middle East, and there are certainly grounds for giving some credence to such an intriguing notion. There is reason to believe that the forbears of Jesus may have been of Celto-Hebraic origin and that while His immediate family came from gentilic Galilee, their earlier roots may well have originated in the British Isles, specifically ancient Caledonia, now Scotland. Related to the foregoing is a possible link between the Jesus family lineage and the Celtic Royal household of ancient Britain, which is suggested in documents found in the English College of Arms (the Heralds Office) and elsewhere. This appears to have had a direct bearing on the presence of Joseph of Arimathea and a key Apostolic mission in ancient Britain.

The ramifications behind this Christic movement in the British Isles are far reaching indeed. There have been a number of inferences from various ecclesiastical sources, together with many localised legends, encompassing the past two millennia, to the effect that during the first century A.D, an Apostolic mission in the British Isles, was at the root of the development of the Church of Christ in Britain. Several contemporary historians, including Tertullian, the first of the Latin Church Fathers, and later such authorities as the Roman Catholic Cardinal Baronius and Sir Henry Spelman, an English antiquary, may be cited in support of this historical contention. Legends trace the origins of this British Church of Christ, at least in part, to the presence of Joseph of Arimathea, the uncle of Jesus Himself, in ancient Britain and at Glastonbury in particular...

The Knights Templars were the earliest founders of the military orders, and are the type on which the others are modelled. They are marked in history (1) by their humble beginning, (2) by their marvellous growth, and (3) by their tragic end.

Their Humble Beginning : Immediately after the deliverance of Jerusalem, the Crusaders, considering their vow fulfilled, returned in a body to their homes. The defense of this precarious conquest, surrounded as it was by Mohammedan neighbours, remained. In 1118, during the reign of Baldwin II, Hugues de Payens, a knight of Champagne, and eight companions bound themselves by a perpetual vow, taken in the presence of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, to defend the Christian kingdom. Baldwin accepted their services and assigned them a portion of his palace, adjoining the temple of the city; hence their title "pauvres chevaliers du temple" (Poor Knights of the Temple). Poor indeed they were, being reduced to living on alms, and, so long as they were only nine, they were hardly prepared to render important services, unless it were as escorts to the pilgrims on their way from Jerusalem to the banks of the Jordan, then frequented as a place of devotion. The Templars had as yet neither distinctive habit nor rule. Hugues de Payens journeyed to the West to seek the approbation of the Church and to obtain recruits. At the Council of Troyes (1128), at which he assisted and at which St. Bernard was the leading spirit, the Knights Templars adopted the Rule of St. Benedict, as recently reformed by the Cistercians. They accepted not only the three perpetual vows, besides the crusader's vow, but also the austere rules concerning the chapel, the refectory, and the dormitory. They also adopted the white habit of the Cistercians, adding to it a red cross. Notwithstanding the austerity of the monastic rule, recruits flocked to the new order, which thenceforth comprised four ranks of brethren: the knights, equipped like the heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages...

In Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, cup or vessel that caught Jesus' blood during his crucifixion. It was said to have the power to heal all wounds. A theme joined to the Christianised Arthurian mythos relates to the quest for the Holy Grail. The legend may be a combination of genuine Christian lore with a Celtic myth of a cauldron endowed with special powers. Whether graal is Celtic or Old French, it never refers to any cup or bowl but this. Though some Christian revisionists insist that the Holy Grail is not to be confused with the Holy Chalice, the vessel which Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve the wine, this has been the historical practice; various vessels have been put forward as the Last Supper chalice.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, it was only after the cycle of Grail romances was well established, identifying the cup of the Last Supper with the Grail that late medieval writers came up with a false etymology from the fact that in Old French, san grial means "Holy Grail" and sang rial means "royal blood". Since then, Sangreal is sometimes employed to lend a medievalizing air in referring to the Holy Grail. This connection with royal blood bore fruit in a modern best-seller linking many historical conspiracies. The development of the Grail legend has been traced in detail by cultural historians: it is a Gothic legend, which first came together in the form of written romances, deriving perhaps from some pre-Christian folkloric hints, in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. The early Grail romances centered on Percival and were then woven into the more general Arthurian fabric. The Grail romances were French; though they were translated into other European vernaculars, no new essential elements were added.

Distribution of Grail Ideas : Various notions of the Holy Grail are currently very widespread in Western Society (especially British and American), popularized through numerous medieval and modern works (see below) and linked with the predominantly Anglo-French (but also with some German influence) cycle of stories about King Arthur and his knights. Because of this wide distribution most Americans and West Europeans assume that the Grail idea is universally well known.