THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES II.

THE war of retaliation, which the Sultan waged against the king of Cyprus, interrupted the flow of pilgrims to the East in the first half of the fifteenth century. Moreover, the sultans, more especially Bursbai (1423-38), began to squeeze the Christian merchants. Their grievances raised the ire of Emmanuel Piloti, a native of Crete, who spent twenty-five years in Egypt and Syria, and acquired considerable insight into affairs generally. He was moved to compose a missive which he addressed to Pope Eugenius IV (1431-47). In this he spoke of the achievements of the Crusaders, insisting that Mohammad had called for toleration of the Christians, a call that was disregarded by Sultan Bursbai, who oppressed them grievously. The resources of the Sultan were enormous. He ruled from Mecca to India, and had full control of the spicery that was unshipped at “Torre, as the port of St. Katherine is now called.” He levied 10 per cent. on the value of these goods, not once, but several times over, as they passed through his dominions. Why, asked Piloti, did not the head of all Christendom arise in defence of the Christians, sally forth like the Crusaders, conquer Cairo, and supplant the Sultanate? In doing so, he would have the support of the Arabs of the desert.

The Church of Rome, however, was bent on propaganda along more peaceful lines. After the Crusades the Franciscans, starting from Jerusalem, penetrated into Tartary and China. The plan was now formed of securing a foothold in Sinai as a stepping-stone on the way to India. With this end in view Pope Calixtus III (1455-58) addressed a letter to the Franciscans urging that they should secure further sites, including one on Mount Sinai (“concedimus ut nova loca etiam in Monte Sina capere possitis”).[273] The direct steps that were taken are not known, but in the course of the fifteenth century we hear of Franciscans, popularly known as Cassis, moving to and fro between Gaza where they had a house, and the convent, where at first a room and later a chapel was reserved for the celebration of a Roman Catholic service.

The desire to penetrate to India and beyond was very general. Thus, Pero Tafur, a Castilian nobleman, arrived at the convent in the year 1435 on his way to Tur, where he hoped to embark for India. But at Tur he met Niccolo da Conti, for many years a resident in India, who was on his way to Cairo, where he intended to lodge a complaint with the Sultan (Bursbai), because of the indignities to which he was exposed. His account made Pero Tafur give up the thought of his journey.

Tafur found only about fifty to sixty monks at the convent, which had fallen on evil days. The Turk was advancing. In the year 1453 he took possession of Constantinople. As he advanced on Sinai, he laid a heavy hand on the convent, from which he claimed an annual tribute of three hundred ducats. Jacob, the patriarch of Jerusalem († 1482), hereupon despatched a monk of Sinai to the princes of Europe, with a letter asking for help. This monk, besides the letter, carried with him some valuable relics, including a tooth of St. Katherine.[274] His appeal met with a ready response. King Louis XI of France (1463-83) made an annual grant to the convent of two thousand ducats,[275] which was still paid by King Charles VIII in 1497 (Harff, p. 122). Queen Isabella of Spain (1481-1504) gave five hundred ducats a year, a sum which was still paid by King Phillip in 1558.[276] The emperor Maximilian I (1493-1517) and the king of Hungary gave money (Fabri, ii. 623).

Unrest, however, now spread to the Bedawyn. A German pilgrim named Leman in the year 1472 sailed from Beirut to Alexandria in the largest galley of the time, which carried two hundred and sixty Christians and nine hundred Moslim. He was bent on going to the convent, but was prevented from entering Sinai owing to the hostile attitude of the Bedawyn.[277] However, matters again improved, and the pilgrims and the accounts of voyages multiplied. The most notable accounts which describe a visit to the convent are enumerated below.[278]

Among these pilgrims the Flemish knight Anselm Adornes and his party were advised by the monk of Sinai who acted as their guide from Egypt, to adopt the appearance of monks in order to travel with safety. They reached the convent where there were about forty monks in residence, who told them that the Arabs frequently invaded the convent (p. 162). On one of their raids they entered the sanctuary and broke open the marble chest which contained the relics of St. Katherine but, instead of the expected treasures, they found a few bones (Gregor, p. 504).

Towards the close of the century the accounts of pilgrims show that these now came in large parties. In 1479 the NÜrnberg patricians Hans Tucher and Sebald Rieter, went to Gaza where they entered into an agreement with a dragoman that was set down in writing to convey them to the convent or Cairo. This agreement is worded exactly in the same way as these agreements are worded at the present day. They travelled with seven Franciscan friars, and on their arrival at the convent Latin mass was celebrated (Tucher, p. 365). Again, in 1483 two parties of Germans, numbering twenty persons in all, visited Palestine and Syria. They included Bernhard von Breydenbach († 1493), of the Chapter of Mayence, who came east with the artist Rewich of Utrecht, whose drawings served to illustrate his patron’s account of his journey. The other party included Felix Fabri, who acted as chaplain to the young Count Solms. Fabri became a friar in 1452 “out of love of St. Katherine, his spouse.” On the arrival at the convent of their party mass was also celebrated in the chapel set apart for Latin use (Fabri, ii. 547).

Another pilgrim was Jan van Aerts of Malines, who sailed from Venice for the East in 1484, with a party of twenty Franciscan friars travelling with a Portuguese whom Jan referred to as the grand facteur. It was customary at the time for each visitor to deposit two ducats in the chest of St. Katherine. In addition to this, the grand facteur gave a thousand ducats to the monks. From the convent he and his party proceeded to Tur, where they took boat for India. But at the port of Medina they were forced to turn back owing to the enmity of the Arabs. The desire to penetrate to the far East was increasing. Mynher Joos van Ghistelles visited the convent in 1485, and went on to Tur, where he met the Venetian Bonajuto del Pan (Albani) and the Milanese Benedetto da Navara, who were on their way to Ormuz on the Persian Gulf, in order to visit the coral and pearl fisheries (Joos, p. 227). In 1487 the two Portuguese, Pedro da Cavillan and Alfonso da Paiva, came from Cairo to Tur, from where they sailed for Aden, Alfonso on his way to Ethiopia, the lesser India, in search of Prester John; Pedro on his way to the coast of Malabar, in order to see the spice-growing districts and to collect information on Madagascar and Calicut, which he laid before his king.[279] In 1489 Joannes de Hese passed through the convent and Tur on his way to India. The Ritter von Harff went from the convent with a letter of introduction to the monks at the convent of St. John in Tur, where he left for Mecca and Madagascar, returning to Egypt by way of the Mountains of the Moon and the course of the Nile. Von Harff illustrated the account of his journeys with many cuts, of which the one here reproduced shows the knight before St. Katherine (Fig. 21). These various writings supply information on the cost and routes of travel at the time. According to the English Information for Pilgrims of about 1450, the cost of going from Venice to the Holy Land and back was 50 ducats.[280] One party of pilgrims of 1483 paid 42 ducats each on the understanding that they were allowed full time to see the Holy Places, and received two meals a day; the other party paid 45 ducats each, their meals including wine. The party of twenty persons in 1484 paid a thousand ducats, i.e. 50 ducats for each person. Half the money was paid at Venice before starting, the other half on arrival at Jaffa. A certain ZÜlnhart fell ill at Venice after paying his 25 ducats, and as he was unable to sail, his money was forfeited.[281]

From Jaffa the pilgrims visited Jerusalem, where he had the option of returning home via Jaffa or going on to Sinai and Cairo. If he decided on this course he was allowed ten ducats on his return fare, and was provided by the Franciscans with an escort to Gaza. The charge for the round was twenty-three ducats, half of which was paid at Jerusalem, the other at Gaza. An agreement was drawn up in writing by the dragoman, the wording of which is much the same as the one that is drawn up at the present day. In the course of the fifteenth century Noe Bianchi, a Franciscan, wrote a guide book called The Way from Venice to the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Sinai, which contained practical advice for pilgrims. It estimated the cost of going the round from Venice to Jerusalem, Gaza, the convent, Cairo and back to Venice at two hundred ducats, i.e. one hundred for general expenses, fifty to serve in case of sickness, fifty for the sea-voyage. The pilgrim was advised to carry a mattress (strapontino), a barrel for water, a barrel for wine, and he was warned against discussing matters of faith with infidels.

The chief danger which threatened the pilgrims was sickness. Many died on the way. The Italians in 1384, between Cairo and the convent, met nine Frenchmen; eleven out of their party of twenty had died on the way. In 1483 there was so much sickness in Gaza that many pilgrims gave up the thought of going to the convent; and the young Count Solms died on the way back (Fabri, ii. 446). There were other dangers. Arnold von Harff in 1497 saw the effect of a sandstorm which had cut off a caravan; the corpses of six hundred camels and of fifty men, mauled and rotting, strewed the roadside (p. 120). The pilgrims were often in dread of the Bedawyn, who swooped down on them clamouring for food, and calling for the payment of dues for crossing their territory. The shortage of food at the time was aggravated, no doubt, by the curtailed largess at the convent. The pilgrims of 1483 carried three times as much bread as they needed for themselves in order to meet all possible demands.

The routes followed by the pilgrims were the ordinary caravan routes, subject to some variation. Thus the pilgrims of 1479, mindful of the raiding of a caravan by some Catalans between Gaza and Tur, left Gaza by “a route that had not been followed for twenty years;” they went by “Rappa” (Rafa), “Makati Nockra” (low-lying ground), where there were many gazelles and entered the “Wadi el Arish” (Rieter, p. 91). The pilgrims of 1483, after leaving “Gaza,” stopped at “Lebhem,” where there was a mosque, crossed a sandy plain to “Chawatha,” “called Cades by the Latins,” where it rained, and where there were large cisterns in ruins (Fabri, ii. 494), Ain Kadeis of the present day. Here they entered the “Wadi Gayan” (“Gyon” of Joos, p. 147), the present Wadi el Jain, and stopped in the “Wadi Wadalar,” the scene of the Catalan outrage (Fabri, ii. 502; Breydenbach, p. 187), with the “Wadi Magdabee” or “Mahgaby” and the “Gebel Hallel,” the present Gebel Hellal. They then camped near “Magara,” a name signifying holes, where Fabri, setting out from the camp, ascended a hill on which he found piles of stones and fluttering rags which he thought were intended to work magic, so he tore them down and set up a cross, but he well-nigh missed his way going back to the tents. The next stopping place was “Hachsene,” an important watering station, where the party of the year met many Arabs, and where the pilgrims stored water for three days. This was doubtless the present Bir Hassana, for they were moving over white ground (noted as white chalk mounds on the modern map) to “Minshene” (Fabri, ii. 515), modern Minshera, where they entered the “Wadi el Arish,” camping at “El Harock” or “Barak” (Fabri, ii. 510), the “Wadi Torcko” or “Borricko” of the travellers of 1479 (p. 697). Here they must have been near Nakhl. After passing the white mountain “Chalep” or “Calpio” (perhaps the Colebmaleo of Jacopo), they reached the white “Wadi Meshmar” (Mesmar of Joos), where silver and gold had been worked in the mines as was shown by the smelting. The name corresponds to modern Gebel Megmar. Following the “Hallicub,” where the water was bad, they crossed the wilderness “Elphogaya,” and then entered the red sandstone district of “Rackani” (or “Rochi” or “Roachyne”), where they encamped in an exposed situation. On the following day they descended along the steepest gorge Fabri had ever seen, the modern Naghb el Racki. At its foot they camped in Ramathaym, i.e. bushes, and saw a star at night which, they were told, stood above the convent of St. Katherine. Later stopping places were “Scholie” or “Schoyle,” “Abelharock,” and “Magara” (or “Mackera” or “Mackasea”), where the road branched off to Tur.

The pilgrims of 1479 and 1483 noted the place where Moses pastured his flocks near “Wackya,” probably the present El Watiyeh, which is still associated both with Nebi Saleh and with Moses.[282] On the twelfth day after leaving Gaza, the pilgrims arrived at the convent.

Here they were taken the usual round of the churches and chapels, and ascended the Mountain of the Law, access to which was now forbidden to the Jews. They repaired to the convent of the ArbaÏn from which they made the ascent of Gebel KatrÎn. They saw the stone in the shape of a Golden Calf, about which Fabri had his doubts (ii. 594); the stone on which the Tables were broken; the convent of St. John Climacus; the convent of SS. Cosmas and Damianus, with its well-kept garden; the spot where Dathan and Abiram disappeared (ii. 590); the boulder with twelve channels of water, one for each of the twelve tribes. Finally, they were shown the relics of St. Katherine, lying in their chest, into which they dropped two ducats each, and were allowed to touch the relics with trinkets they had brought for this purpose (ii. 600). The flow of sacred oil had ceased. There was none available in 1483; in 1489 it was collected at the rate of three drops a week (Joannes de Hese, p. 181). This is the last we hear of it. Pilgrims received, instead, a piece of cotton wool or of silk which was taken out of the chest of St. Katherine, and steeped in the oil of the lamps. The cessation of oil was attributed to the desecration of the shrine by the Arabs.

From the convent some of the pilgrims went on to Cairo by way of “El Phat,” and the white hills of “Lacrara,” where they joined the caravan road coming from Tur. Further stations along the road were “Enaspo” (Wadi Nasb), “Horenden” or “Dorenden” (Wadi Gharandel), “Werdachii” (Werdan), and “Marath” or “Merach,” perhaps the old Mara, and the present Ayun Musa. These stopping-places are the same as those chosen by pilgrims and travellers at the present day.