Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/127

 PILGRIMAGES

97

PILGRIMAGES

attack of gout (Boulting, ".Eneas Sylvius", London, 1908. (50).

Pilgrim Signs. — A last part of the pilgrim's attire must be mentioned, the famous pilgrim signs. These were badges sewn on to the hat or hung round the neck or pinned on the clothes of the pilgrim. "A belle and a bagge

He bar by his syde

And hundred ampulles;

On his hat seten

Signes of SjTiay,

And Shelles of Galice,

And many a eonche

On his cloke.

And keys of Rome,

And the Vernycle bi-fore

For men sholde knowe

And se bi hise signes

Whom he sought hiwide"

Peter and Paul or the keys or the vemicle (this last also might mean Genoa where there was a rival shrine of St. Veronica's veil); to St. James of Compostella the scallop or oyster shell; to Canterburj-, a bell or the head of the saint on a brooch or a leaden ampulla filled with water from a well near the tomb tinctured with an infinitesimal dropof the martjT's blood ("Mat. for Hist, of Thomas Beckett", 1878 in R. S., II, 269; III, 1.52, 187); to Walsingham, the virgin and child; to Amiens, the head of St. John the Baptist, etc. Then there was the horn of St. Hubert, the comb of St. Blaise, the axe of St. Olave, and so on. And when the tomb was reached, votive offerings were left of jewels, models of limbs that had been miraculously cured, spears, broken fetters, etc. (Rock, "Church of our Fathers", London, 1852, III, 463).

Effects. — Among the countless effects which pil- grimages produced the following may be set down: —

Tou-Hf:. — Matthew Paris notes ("Chron. major."

(.Piers Plowman, ed. Wright, London, 1856, I, 109). There are several moulds extant in which these signs were cast (cf. British Museum; Musee de Lyon; Musee de Cluny, Paris; etc.), and not a few signs themselves have been picked up, especially in the beds of rivers, e\idently dropped by the pilgrims from the ferry-boats. These signs protected the pilgrims from assault and enabled them to pass through even hostile ranks ("Paston Letters", I, 8.5; Forgeais, "Coll. de plombs histories", Paris, 1863, 52-80; "Archa;ol. Jour.", VII, 400; XIII, 105), but as the citation from Piers Plo«-man shows, they were also to show "whom he sought hadde". Of course the cross betokened the crusader (though one could also take the cross against the Moors of Spain, Simeon of Durham, "Hist, de gestis regum Angliae", ed. Twj-sden, London, 1652, I, 249), and the colour of it the nation to which he be- longed, the English white, the French red, the Flemish green (Matthew Paris, "Chron. majora", ed. Luard, London, 1874, II, 330, an. 1199, in R. S.); the pilgrim to Jerusalem had two crossed leaves of palm (hence the name "palmer"); to St. Catherine's tomb on Mount Sinai, the wheel; to Rome, the heads of Sts. XII.— 7 '.

in R. S., I, 3, an. 1067) that in England (and the same thing really applies all over Europe) there was hardly a town where there did not lie the bodies of martjTs, confessors, and holy wgins, and though no doubt in very many cases it was the importance of the towns that made them the chosen resting-places of the saint's relics, in quite as many others the importance of the saint drew so many religious pilgrims to it that the town sprang up into real significance. So it has been noted that Canterbury, at least, outshone Win- chester, and since the Reformation has once more dwindled into insignificance. Bury Saint Edmunds, St. .\lbans, Walsingham, Compostella, Lourdes, La Salette have arisen, or grown, or decayed, accordingly as the popularity among pilgrims began, advanced, declined.

Roads were certainly made in many cases by the pilgrims. They wore out a path from the sea-coast to Canterburj' and joined ^\'alsingham to the great centres of English life and drove tracks and paths across the S\Tian sands to the Holy City. And men and women for their soul's sake made benefactions so as to level down and up, and to straighten out the