Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion

by Jonathan Sumption

  If he could, a pilgrim would find a wealthy patron to participate in the benefits of his pilgrimage by contributing to the cost. This practice, an early form of vicarious pilgrimage, was regarded as extremely meritorious. ‘Many rich men who never leave their own homes … are well rewarded by God for their charity to the poor’, St. Bernard observed; ‘whereas those who go in person to Jerusalem may come away without any reward if they have not performed some work of charity.’ The expenses of Richard of St.-Vannes and all his seven hundred followers in 1026 were met by Richard II, duke of Normandy. Guy, count of Limoges, needed a huge loan from the abbey of St. Martial because he was paying the expenses of his companions, some of whom witnessed the document in which he acknowledged the loan. Similarly Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, paid for the large company of vassals, ministeriales, and camp-followers whom, according to his biographer, he ‘induced’ to accompany him to the Holy Land in 1172. But in 1172, the large mass-pilgrimages which had been such a boon to the poorer pilgrims, were already a thing of the past.

  In parts of France a lord was entitled to a feudal aid from his vassals on the occasion of his departure on pilgrimage. This was the case in Brittany, where it was stated to be immaterial whether it was a devotional pilgrimage or a crusade. The abbey of the Trinity at Vendôme was customarily expected to contribute three thousand shillings if the count of Vendôme decided to visit the Holy Land. These customary rights, where they existed, aroused considerable protest as they were often exacted ultimately from those who could least afford to pay. The second council of Chalons complained, as early as 813, that pilgrimages had become occasions for levying crushing taxation on tenants. The twelfth-century theologian, Honorius of Autun, who was profoundly suspicious of pilgrimages, gave it as his opinion that they were entirely valueless if the cost was extracted by force from unwilling vassals.

  The poorer pilgrims lived roughly and hoped for alms and free hospitality. Fortunately for them, the virtue of charity was a constantly recurring theme in sermons and devotional literature. ‘Pilgrims and poor men of God’ were generally singled out as the most deserving categories, and pilgrims at least were exempted from the ordinances against begging passed in many towns of the Low Countries at the end of the middle ages. Alms flowed into their hands from a variety of sources. A tradesman, for instance, could normally expect a contribution from the members of his guild, and occasionally this was a right enshrined in the guild’s statutes. If any member of the fullers’ guild of Lincoln went on a pilgrimage to Rome, the Holy Land, or Santiago, his fellow members were required to accompany him out of the city gate as far as Queen’s Cross and to give him at least a halfpenny each. The Dominican Felix Faber received a grant from his order. Municipalities could often be induced to help out a penniless pilgrim if only, as the town clerk of Damme put it, ‘that he might not stay with us longer.’ However, it is likely that most alms were given by other pilgrims. The author of the sermon Veneranda Dies, who had harsh words to say of pilgrims who carried money on them, made an exception in favour of those who did so only to distribute it in alms. This may seem a somewhat pointless exercise, but we hear of one Heimrad, a priest of Hesse at the end of the tenth century, who, as soon as he received alms gave them to another pilgrim more needy than himself. Gerald of Aurillac was famous for the largesse which he displayed on his biennial pilgrimages to Rome, and his biographer naively remarks that other pilgrims assembled at the side of the road when they had been warned of his coming. Certainly, the generosity of some pilgrims to others was an open invitation to fraud. On the roads to Santiago, professional beggars painted blood on their arms, and simulated lameness or leprosy, waving palms of Jericho in the air to arouse the sympathy of passing travellers.

  According to his ninth-century biographer, the wanderer and hermit St. Cyran refused to support himself by begging on his way to Rome. Instead he worked in the vineyards on the route, carrying the grapes to the wine-presses. Not many pilgrims worked their way to the sanctuaries, because it took so long to reach one’s destination. Brother Giles, the first Franciscan friar to visit the Holy Land, took pride in the fact that he would ‘never eat the bread of idleness’. He fetched water from the wells and sold it in the streets of Ancona, and he carried bodies to the cemeteries at Acre. ‘He was not ashamed to humble himself, and stoop to any menial and honest work that he could get.’ Felix Faber first visited the Holy Land as tutor and companion to the son of a Bavarian nobleman. Three years later he returned as chaplain to John Truchsess von Waldburg, whom he had encountered at Ulm before his departure.

  Less respectable but very much more lucrative was the practice of engaging in commerce on the route. This was viewed with disfavour by the Church because it derogated from the spiritual quality of the pilgrimage, and also by the state, for many of these amateur merchants claimed a pilgrim’s exemption from tolls. The English, Charlemagne complained to Offa king of Mercia, were the principal offenders. ‘True pilgrims travelling to Rome for the love of God and the salvation of their souls may pass in peace. But if there are any amongst them who serve Mammon and not God, then they must pay the ordinary tolls.’ The Siete Partidas of Alfonso IX repeated this injunction in the thirteenth century. Penitential pilgrims were strictly forbidden to turn their punishment into a profitable venture by selling their wares on the road. The strong implication was that trade was intrinsically base and for this reason alone incompatible with pilgrimage. Hence the request of Philip the Fair to the pope that ships carrying troops to the projected crusade should be forbidden to carry merchandise as well, lest God’s disfavour be brought down upon the expedition. Nevertheless pilgrims of otherwise impeccable motives surrendered to the temptation. When St. Willibald left England in the summer of 721 he brought with him a boat-load of goods to sell in Rouen, and paid for his journey to Rome out of the proceeds. On his way back from Jerusalem, Willibald smuggled some balsam past the Arab customs officials at Tyre in a jar with a false bottom, remarking to his companion that had he been discovered he would have ‘suffered there and then a martyr’s death’. Plainly, Willibald saw nothing wrong in his behaviour. Neither did St. Godric, the half-legendary hermit of Finchale, whose biographer calls him mercator simul et peregrinus, merchant and pilgrim combined. Many pilgrims found it impossible to resist the temptation to buy spices and precious cloth in Jerusalem and sell them for much more at home. The Arab traders of Palestine ‘never sleep when the pilgrims are in Jerusalem’, a fifteenth-century writer noted with disgust. Even in the church of the Holy Sepulchre itself they set up their stalls and haggled with pilgrims over beads, jewels and silk cloth.

  The shrewdest pilgrim, however, could not have hoped to recover more than a part of the two hundred ducats which his journey had cost him. Against the undeniable excitement of discovering an alien world, he had to set not only the cost, but the difficulties which followed a year’s absence from home, the hardships of a long journey, and the possibility that he might never return. Few men would have disagreed with that experienced pilgrim Eberhard of Wurtemburg, whom Felix Faber consulted before setting out on his first pilgrimage.

  ‘There are three acts in a man’s life which no one should advise him either to do or not to do. The first is to contract matrimony the second is to go to the wars, and the third is to visit the Holy Sepulchre. These things are all good in themselves, but they may turn out ill, in which case he who gave the advice will be blamed as if he were the cause of it.’

  Notes

  1 Alkerton: Owst, p. 104.

  Wills: Tardif (ed.), Coutumiers, vol. ii, p. 240. On agreement with wife, see, e.g., Caesarius, Dial. Mirac., VIII. 59, vol. ii, p. 132. On enforcement, Vazquez de Parga et. al, vol. iii, pp. 110–12.

  Judicial immunity: Ancient laws of Ireland, vol. i, ed. W. N. Hancock, Dublin, 1865, p. 266; vol. v, ed. R. Atkinson, Dublin, 1890, pp. 234, 296. Glanvill, De Legibus et consuetudinibus Angliae, I. 29, ed. G. D. H. Hall, London, 1965, pp. 16–17. Beaumanoir, Coutumes, nos. 265, 1689, vol. i, p. 135, vol
. ii, pp. 364–5. Tardif (ed.), Coutumiers, vol. ii, p. 215. Property protected: bull of 1145 in Otto of Friesing, Gesta Friderici, I. 36, ed. B. de Simson, MGH. Rer. Germ., Hannover, 1912, p. 57; cf. Alfonso IX, Siete Partidas, I. xxiv. 3, vol. i (1), fol. 151vo. Will of Archambert de Monluc in Arch. Nat. J. 1138/6.

  2 Donations: Cartulaire d’Auch, Cartulaire Noir, XLVI, pp. 44–5; cf. Chartes de Cluny, no. 3712, vol. v, p. 59, and many others.

  Pensions demanded: Cartulaire de La Charité, L, pp. 126–7.

  Implied terms in case of return: Ibid., XXXIV, XXXVIII, pp. 96–7, 104–5.

  3 Make amends to all: Liber S. Jacobi, I. 17, p. 157.

  French kings and St. Denis: Odo of Deuil. De Profectione Lodovici VII, I, p. 25 (‘licentiam petiit’). Rigord, Gesta Philippi, LXIX, pp. 98–9 (‘licentiam acdpiendi’). On the vassalage of the kings to St. Denis, see R. Barroux, ‘L’abbé Suger et la vassalité du Vexin en 1124’, Moyen Age, lxiv (1958), pp. 1–26.

  Lambert: Annales, p. 75.

  Reparations to injured monks: E. Pérard (ed.), Recueil de plusieurs pièces curieuses servant à l’histoire de Bourgogne, Paris, 1664, pp. 202–3 (Odo). Cartulaire de la Trinite de Vendôme, CCCLXI, vol. ii, pp. 106–7 (Bertrand).

  4 Louis’ enquête: RHF. xxiv. 4*–5*.

  Joinville: Hist, de S. Louis, XXV. 111, p. 64. Cf. Book of Margery Kernpe, I. 26, p. 60.

  ‘When the debts…’: Owst, p. 104.

  5 Origin of garb: John Cassian, Collationes, XI. 3, ed. M. Petschenig, CSEL. xiii, Vienna, 1886, p. 315 (fourth century monks). On Canute, Fagrskinna, quoted in Larsen, pp. 225–6. Eadmer, Vita Anselmi, II. 21, p. 97. Orderic, Hist. Bed, VIII. 10, ed. Chibnall, vol. iv, p. 188. Blessings: in general, Franz (1), vol. ii, pp. 273–7, and Brundage, pp. 292, 297. ‘Novel rite’: Eckhard, Chron. Universale, MGH. SS. vi. 214. Cf. Eadmer, loc. cit., ‘peregrinantium more coram altari suscepit’.

  Rayner: Benincasa, Vita S. Rayneri, II. 28, p. 431.

  6 Symbolism: Liber S. Jacobi, I. 17, pp. 152–3. Sacchetti, Sermone, XLVIII, p. 165. Thomas of London, Instructorium Peregrinorum, Bibl. Nat. MS. Lat. 2049, fols. 229–30.

  Palms: Du Cange, p. 536. Raymond of Aguilers, Hist. Francorum, XX, p. 295 (first crusade). William of Tyre, Hist, XXI. 17, p. 1033. On palm-vendors, Ernoul, Chron., XVII, p. 193; Manuscrit de Rothelin, III, p. 493.

  7 Shells: Liber S. Jacobi, I. 17, IV. 9, pp. 153, 379–80.

  Lead badges: Lopez Ferreiro, vol. v, pp. 38–9, 125–6, and appendices V, XXVII, pp. 15–17, 53–5 (Santiago). Archaeological Journal, xiii (1856), p. 105 (Canterbury). Maxe-Werly (Mont-St.-Michel; St. Catherine). Forgeais, Plombs historiés, vol. ii, pp. 154, 175, 184 (St.-Léonard; Saintes; Noyon). See also Guernes de Pont-St.-Maxence, Vie de S. Thomas Becket, ll. 5895–5900, ed. E. Walberg, Paris, 1936, pp. 181–2.

  Badge-collectors: Langland, Piers Plowman, B. 527–31, pp. 86–7. Claude de Seyssel, Les louanges du Roy Louis xiie, Paris, 1508, sig. iii (Louis XI).

  8 Badges as charms: Miracles de Rocamadour, I. 37, pp. 135–6. Liber S. Jacobi, II. 12, pp. 273–4.

  As legal proof of status: Rupin, pp. 233–4. On crusaders, Benedict, Mirac. S. Thomae, IV. 12, p. 175.

  Trade in badges: Rupin, pp. 235–7 (Rocamadour). J. Saenz de Aguirre (ed.), Collectio Maxima Conciliorum, vol. v, Rome, 1755, p. 140; Lopez Ferreiro, vol. v, p. 33 (app. XXXIII) (Santiago).

  ‘O Lord, heavenly…’: quoted in Franz (1), vol. ii, pp. 263–4.

  9 Road to Conques: M. Bloch, ‘Régions naturelles et groupes sociaux’, Annales d’Histoire Economique et Sociale, iv (1932), p. 494.

  Seigneur de Caumont: see text appended to Guide, pp. 133–40.

  Road-building: Oursel, p. 56 (bridge at Tours). On camino de Santiago, Guide, V, VIII, pp. 12, 80; Defourneaux, pp. 67–8. On surviving roads and bridges, Oursel, pp. 51–5, 57–60.

  10 Guide: see caps. VI–VII, pp. 12–32.

  Richard punishes toll-keepers: ‘Benedict’ (i.e. Roger of Howden), Gesta Henrici, vol. i, p. 132.

  Criminal penalties: Capitularia Regum Francorum, vol. i, 37, 191, often reiterated. In eleventh-century Normandy murderers of pilgrims were reserved to the duke’s justice, see Consuetudines et Justitiae, XII, ed. C. H. Haskins, EHR., xxiii (1908), p. 508.

  11 Ecclesiastical censures: Cone. Rome (1059), in MC. xix. 873; Conc. Lateran (1123), in MC. xxi. 285. Cone. Rouen (1096), in Orderic Vitalis, Hist. Eccl., IX. 3, ed. Prévost, vol. iii, p. 471; RHF. xv. 178–9. ‘But you should know…’: Hugh of Lyons, Ep. XVII, PL. clvii. 520. Cf. Yvo of Chartres, Deer., IV. 60, col. 276.

  Bull In Coena: bull of 1303 in Boniface VIII, Reg. 5345, vol. iii, p. 846. Bandits: On Gerard of Galeria, William of Malmesbury, Vita Wulfstani, X, ed. R. R. Darlington, Camden Soc., 3rd. series, vol. xl, London, 1928, pp. 16–17; Peter Damian, Disceptatio Synodalis, in MGH. Libelli, i. 91. On Thomas de Marle, Guibert, De Vita Sua, III. 11, 14, pp. 177–9, 198–202; Suger, Vita Lodovici VI, VII, XXIV, XXXI, pp. 30, 174–8, 254. On Berthold of Eberstein, see Matthias von Neuenburg, Chron., contin. CXXXVII, ed. A. Hofmeister, MGH. Rer. Germ., N. S. iv, Berlin, 1924–37, p. 446. Werner von Urslinger’s activities are traced in Clement VI, Reg. (Autres Pays), 2181, 2183, 2185–6, 2276, pp. 302–3, 317. On English bandits in Spain, Vazquez de Parga et al., vol. i, pp. 269–70. On banditry in Palestine, Gregory IX, Reg. 4148, 4156, 4523, vol. ii, pp. 916, 919–20, 1131–2; Burchard of Mt. Sion, Descriptio, XIII, pp. 88–9; Jacques de Vitry, Hist. Hierosolymitana, LXXXII, pp. 1096–7.

  12 Depredations of locals: Lanfranc, Ep. IX, PL. cl. 517–18 (Mont-St.-Michel). PL. cxliii. 797 (Italian peasants). ‘Benedict’ (i.e. Roger of Howden), Gesta Henrici, vol. i, p. 132 (Sorde and Lespéron). On Jubilee pilgrims of 1350, Clement VI, Reg. (France), 4512, vol. iii, p. 84; Reg. (Autres Pays), 2149, p. 298; Vita Prima Clementis VI, in Baluze (ed.), Vitae Paparum, vol. i, pp. 253–4; M. Villani, Istorie, I. 56, col. 56. Innkeepers: Liber S. Jacobi, II. 5, pp. 267–8; cf. Mirac. B. Egidii, II, MGH. SS. xii. 317–18. On German pilgrims robbed, see case of Gil Buhon in Wohlhaupter (2), pp. 227–8. Glaber, Hist., IV. 4, p. 101.

  Hostile populations on route to Jerusalem: Vita Lietberti, XXIV, pp. 705–6. Passio S. Cholomanni, II–III, MGH. SS. iv. 675. Vita Theoderici Andaginensis, XV, MGH. SS. xii. 44 (travellers turned back in 1053). Hist. S. Florentii Samurensis, in Marchegay and Mabille (ed.), Eglises d’Anjou, pp. 265, 268 (Gerald). Lambert of Ardres. Hist. Comitum Ghismensium, CXIII, MGH. SS. xxiv. 615 (Anselm of Ardres). On the German expedition of 1064–5, Annales Altahenses Maiores, pp. 66–70; Lambert of Hersfeld, Annales, pp. 92–100.

  13 Tolls levied by Arabs: Guibert, Gesta Dei per Francos, II. 4, p. 140. Wace, Roman de Rou, ll. 3159–3194, vol. i, pp. 278–80 (duke Robert). And by Greeks: Glaber, Hist., III. 1, p. 52. Victor’s complaint in PL. cxlix. 961–2, where it is wrongly ascribed to Victor III, see Riant (4), pp. 50–3.

  14 Fortifications outside Jerusalem: Theoderic of Wurzburg, De Locis Sanctis, XXIII, p. 59.

  Roads from Jerusalem: On raiders from Ascalon, Daniel, Pèlerinage, VII, LI, pp. 10–11, 42; Saewulf, Relatio, pp. 36–7. On incident of 1120, Albert of Aix, Hist, XII. 33, pp. 712–13. On Baldwin’s expedition of 1106, Daniel, op. cit., LXXI–LXXVIII, pp. 56–61; Albert of Aix, op. cit. X. 9, p. 635.

  Henry the Lion: Arnold of Lubeck, Chron., I. 1–3, pp. 11–18.

  15 ‘Men may leve …’: The pilgrim’s sea-voyage and sea-sickness, ed. F. J. Furnivall, EETS., O. S., vol. xxv, London, 1867, pp. 37–40.

  Comfort on ship: Reisebuch Rieter, pp. 37–8. Conrady (ed.), Rheinische Pilgerschriften, pp. 90–1 (anonymous German). Frescobaldi, Viaggio, p. 36. Wey, Itineraries, p. 4. Newett, pp. 91–2 (Hans von Mergenthal). What to bring: Frescobaldi, Viaggio, pp. 32, 35. Brasca, Viaggio, pp. 128–9. Wey, op. cit., pp. 5–6. Cf. the Regimen in principium peregri nationis, in Conrady (ed.). Rheinische Pilgerschriften, pp. 297–301.

  16 How food, served: Faber, Evagatorium, vol. i, p. 137.

  Boredom: Ibid., vol. i, pp. 37–8, 135–6.

  17 Sermons: Casola, Pilgrimage, p
. 231. Faber, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 132–133.

  Passengers obliged to defend ship: Consolat de la mar, in Black Book, vol. iii, p. 184; Statut de Marseille de 1253 à 1255, in Pardessus (ed.), Lois Maritimes, vol. iv, p. 271. On incident of 1408, Riant (ed.), ‘Passage à Venise’, pp. 246–7.

  Reception at Joppa: Itin. Cuiusdam Anglici, VI, p. 449. On the cellars, Ghillebert de Lannoy, Voyages, pp. 139–40; Capodilista, Itin., p. 181; on the indulgenges, Faber, Evagatorium, vol. i, p. 195. On Franciscan administration of landing formalities, Nompar de Caumont, Voyaige, p. 46; Pero Tafur, Andancas, p. 51.

  18 Poll-tax collected by governor: Itin. Cuiusdam Anglici, VI, p. 451. Niccolo da Poggibonsi, Lihro d’Oltramare, X, vol. i, pp. 32–6.

  Tolls and taxes increase: Girnand von Schwalbach, Pilgerschrift, p. 98 (German of 1440). Mariano da Sienna, Viaggio, p. 118.

  Sultan enriched: G. Adam, De Modo Sarracenos Extirpandi, II, RHC. Arm. ii. 528.

  19 Advantages of Venetian ships: Itin Cuiusdam Anglici, IV, p. 443.

  Suriano, Trattato, I. 8, pp. 14–15. Brasca, Viaggio, p. 128.

  Passengers sold as slaves: Gregory IX, Reg. 4150, vol. ii, p. 917. Innocent IV, Reg. 2122, vol. i, p. 316.

  Venetian currency: Itin. Cuiusdam Anglici, I, p. 436. Frescobaldi, Viaggio, p. 47.