  The fashion for going on pilgrimage appears to have sprung up in the fourteenth century, but we hear of it at a much earlier time than this. Christian pilgrimages began in visits to the scenes of Our Lord’s early life. As the custom grew, facilities were offered to lighten the journey. Adventurous shipowners organised a kind of service, so that pilgrims could travel to the Holy Land vi Rome. When the journey was made on land, the pilgrims took advantage of the hospitals and hostels which were founded here and there along the regular routes to rest themselves and obtain food. Treaties were made by monarchs to secure the safe passage of their subjects through foreign lands. Pilgrims were freed from all tolls, and anyone doing them bodily injury was liable to excommunication. In the Holy Land the Orders of Knights Templars and Knights Hospitallers were founded to safeguard them from the attacks of wandering bodies of Saracens, and to lodge them safely when they reached Jerusalem. The next most important pilgrimages were those to the tombs of SS. Peter and Paul at Rome, the centre of Western Christianity, and to the shrine of St. James at Compostella, in Spain. The English people, who were prevented from making pilgrimages to Jerusalem, Rome, or Compostella, could probably spare time for a shorter journey, and pilgrimages to English shrines became very common. The most popular of these were that of St. Thomas Becket, at Canterbury, and that of Our Lady (the Virgin Mary), at Walsingham (twenty-seven miles from Norwich), where there was a miraculous statue of the Virgin. To the former came also many pilgrims from the Continent of Europe. Nearly every Cathedral and Monastery, too, had its famous saint, to whose shrine the people restored. There were St. Cuthbert at Durham, St. William at York, St. Hugh at Lincoln, St. Edward Confessor at Westminster, and St. Edmund at Bury, and many others. There were also famous Roods (figures of our Lord on the Cross), statues of the Virgin, and Holy Wells; and a place of great attraction was Glastonbury, to which many travelled to see the famous Holy Thorn, said to have been planted by St. Joseph of ArimathÆa. Members of all classes of society undertook these pilgrimages. Rich people with no occupation could afford the leisure and cost of these journeys, and the poor, who gave up their regular work and made the pilgrimage, could count on board and lodging at the numerous hospitals, monasteries, at the parish priest’s rectory, and in every gentleman’s hall. The poor pilgrim repaid his hosts by entertaining them with the news of the lands through which he had passed, and by amusing the household after supper with marvellous saintly legends and travellers’ tales. He raised funds, too, on his return journey by retailing holy trifles and curiosities, which were sold wholesale at the shrines frequented by pilgrims, and sometimes he would make a bolder flight by carrying some fragment of a relic, a joint of a bone, or a couple of the hairs of a saint, and he received payment from people for bringing to their doors some of the advantages of the holy shrines which he had visited. This, however, was an abuse, and was visited by heavy penalties by the Church. The main purpose of these pilgrimages was, of course, to gain direct spiritual advantage, but some were expiatory and penitential; others were made out of gratitude for special mercies, recovering from illnesses, &c. It is said that in the 8th century, some English merchants carried on a kind of smuggling trade in foreign countries. They put on the pilgrim’s garb, and carried their goods in bales, which they said contained provisions for their journey, and were exempt from paying any duty. The preparation of the pilgrim in the Middle Ages was a solemn matter. Before he started on his journey, he went to Church, and, after Confession, his scrip and staff were blessed and handed to him, and his habit (if he were going to Jerusalem), was blessed also. He then took the Holy Sacrament, and it is surmised that a certificate of his having been blessed as a pilgrim was then handed to him. After that, he was conducted out of the parish, to commence his journey, by the priest, with the Cross and Holy Water borne in procession. A certain costume was worn, spoken of as “pilgrim’s weeds,” consisting of a robe, hat, staff, and scrip. The robe is said to have been of wool, sometimes of a very shaggy appearance. (Fig. 2.) The hat was round, with a wide brim, and was commonly made of felt. But the special insignia of a pilgrim were his scrip and staff. The scrip was a small bag, slung by a cord over the shoulder to hold his food and a few necessaries, and to it was often affixed a special sign or token, indicating the pilgrimage he was making. The pilgrim to the Holy Land, too, wore a cross formed by two strips of coloured cloth sewn on the shoulder of his robe. Different colours were used to indicate the nationality of the pilgrims—e.g., the English wore a white cross, the French red, and the Flemish green. The staff or bourdon varies in appearance in different MSS., but was generally like a long walking stick, often with a knob at the top and one lower down. (Figs. 1 and 3.) Sometimes below the top is a hook (Fig. 2), to which a water-bottle or small bundle could be attached. Many pilgrims also carried bells, as they were “thought to possess locomotive and other miraculous powers.” (Cutts.) When the pilgrim reached the Holy Land and had visited the holy places, he was entitled to wear the palm, showing that he had accomplished his pilgrimage, and from this badge he was known as a Palmer. Probably it was fastened as a sprig of palm on the hat or scrip. To give an idea of the number who undertook these pilgrimages, it may be mentioned that in one month during the First Jubilee, 200,000 of them went to Rome. The chief badge for this journey bore the effigies of St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Cross Keys, and another was the Vernicle or Kerchief of St. Veronica. The sign of the Compostella was a scallop shell. (Fig. 8.) These badges, known also as Pilgrims’ signs or Pilgrims’ tokens (Pl. 60, Figs. 4, 6, 8, 10), were made of lead or pewter, and as one was obtained at each shrine visited, a pilgrim who made a long journey might come back with many of these signs displayed about his person. The chief sign of the Canterbury pilgrimage was an ampul or ampulla or flask of lead or pewter. It is said that after the murder of Becket, the monks of Canterbury collected his blood from the pavement and made a miraculous cure by administering a drop to a sick lady who visited the shrine. Thereupon they mixed a drop in a chalice of water and gave it as a medicine to many sick who came to be cured, and in order that the medicine might be carried away and administered to other sick people, these small metal flasks were made to contain it. On their return, the pilgrims hung these flasks in their parish churches as sacred relics. (Figs. 5, 8, and 9.) Another “sign” of Canterbury was a bell, and it is owing to this fact that a well-known flower is called the Canterbury bell. Following the In the old MSS., we read of many wonderful miracles performed by the administration of these holy waters to sick and diseased persons. Special roads appear to have been made to the chief shrines. There was the “Pilgrims’ Road” across Kent from London to Canterbury, and the “Palmers Way,” and the “Walsingham Green Way” to Walsingham. The towns of pilgrimage were largely a collection of inns, and churches and hostels for poor pilgrims, the later institutions often being supported by local guilds. Pilgrims made their journeys either singly or in bands for the sake of protection and company, and to enliven their way they sometimes hired a musician to play the bagpipes. When the pilgrims reached the shrine, they made their offerings, took part in prayer, and were shown the holy relics, which they were often allowed to kiss. At Canterbury the shrine of St. Thomas was covered with gold and encrusted with many precious stones of great size and value; for the principal of them were offerings from sovereign princes. A great result of the practice of making pilgrimages was the development of national sentiment, for people in foreign lands were brought together from different parts of the same country. “It also broke down the provincialism, gave a holiday and fresh air and change of life and scene. Finally it introduced the pilgrims to foreign lands, and so helped on the growth of commerce.” PLATE 60. (Fig. 1): A bare-footed Pilgrim of the fourteenth century, from British Museum, Royal MS., 15 iii. (Fig. 2): Ludgate’s Pilgrim, from Harl. MS., 4826 (fourteenth century). His scrip bears a scallop shell, the pilgrim’s sign for Compostella, and he wears a rough, shaggy robe. (Fig. 3): A Palmer, from Cott. MS., Tib. A vii. His hat is slung behind him, and the crown of his head is shaved, as was often the custom. (In Figs. 1 and 2 a beard is worn, for often the pilgrim on setting out, made a vow that he would not cut his hair or his beard while on the pilgrimage.) (Fig. 4): A Pilgrim’s Sign—the five small circles representing the five wounds of Christ. (Fig. 5): A lead Ampulla from the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. (York Museum.) It bears a figure of the Archbishop, and on the scroll a legend which is translated as “Thomas is the best physician for the pious sick.” It probably dates from the early part of the thirteenth century. (Fig. 6): THE END History and Geography Publications. THE “BERGER” HANDWORK CARDS. By H. R. WELLER, A.M.C. CARDBOARD AND PAPER MODELLING CARDS for the HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY LESSON.
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