mission · 63 · Glastonbury
The gospels lose Joseph at the tomb. The English tradition picks him up and sends him to Britain with twelve companions, has him plant his staff on Wearyall Hill where it took root and flowered at Christmas, and — from Robert de Boron in the thirteenth century onward — has him bring the Grail. William of Malmesbury, writing at Glastonbury around 1130, does not have him; the story attaches to the abbey afterwards. So it is late, and it is marked legendary. What makes it worth a row rather than a shrug is what it was used for: at the councils of Pisa, Constance, Siena and Basel the English delegation argued precedence over France and Spain on the ground that Britain had been converted by Joseph of Arimathea immediately after the passion, and therefore had the older church. A legend with no witness before the twelfth century decided seating at four fifteenth-century councils, which is the kind of thing this dataset exists to record rather than to tidy away.
To carry the gospel to the western edge of the world.
An English claim to apostolic antiquity that outranked France and Spain at three church councils.