Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/128

 PILGRIMAGES

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PILGRIMAGES

wandering ways that led from port to sanctuary and from shrine to shrine (Digby, "Compitum", London, 1851, I, 40S). Thus they hoped to get their share also in the merits of the pilgrim. The whole subject has been illuminated in a particular instance by a mono- graph of Hilaire Belloc in the "Old Road" (London, 1904).

_ Geography too sprang from the same source. Each pilgrim who wrote an account of his travels for the instruction and edification of his fellows was uncon- sciously laj-ing the foundations of a new science; and it is astonishing how very early these written accounts begin. The fourth century saw them rise, witnessed the publication of manj' "Peregrinationes" (cf. Palestine Pilg. Text Soc, passim), and started the fashion of writing these day-to-day descriptions of the countries through which they journeyed. It is only fair to mention vrith especial praise the names of the Dominicans Ricoldo da IMonte Cruce (1320) and Burchard of IVIount Sion (Beazley, II, 190, 383), the latter of whom has given meas- urements of sev- eral Biblical sites, the accuracy of which is testified to by modern travellers. Again we know that Roger of Sicily caused the famous work "The Book ''f Roger, or the I 'elight of whoso es to make the Circuit of the \Vorid" (1154) to be compiled, from information gath- ered from pilgrims and merchants, who were made to appear before a select committee of Arabs (Symonds," Sketches in Italy", Leipzig, 1SS3, 1, 249) ; and we even hear of a medie^■al Cont inent al guide- book to the great shrines, prefaced bj- a hst of the most richly indulgenced sanct uaries and containing de- tails of where money could be changed, where inns and hospitals were to be found, what roads were safest and best, etc. ("The Month", March, 1909, 295; "Itineraries of William Wey ", ed. for Roxburgh Club, London, 1857; Thomas, "De passagiis in Terram Sanctam", Venice, 1879; Bounardot and Longnon, "Le saint voyage de Jhcrusalem du Seigneur d'Au- glure", Paris, 1878).

Crusades also naturally arose out of the idea of pilgrimages. It was these various peregrinationes made to the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ that at all familiarized people with the East. Then came the huge columns of devout worshippers, growing larger and larger, becoming more fully organized, and well protected by armed bands of discipUned troops. The most famous pilgrimage of all, that of 1065, which numbered about 12,000, under Gunther, Bishop of Bamberg, assisted by the Archbishop of Mainz, and the Bishops of Ratisbon and Utrecht, was attacked by Bedouins after it had left Ca?sarea. The details of that Homeric struggle were brought home to Europe (Lambert of Gersfield, "I\Ion. Germ. Hist.", 1844, V, 169) and at once gave rise the Crusades.

Miracle Plays are held to be derived from returning pilgrims. This theory is somewhat obscurely worked out by P^re Menestrier (Representations en musique anc. et moderncs; cf. Champagnac, I, 9). But he bases his conclusions on the idea that the miracle plays begin by the story of the Birth or Death of Christ and holds that the return to the West of those who had visited the scenes of the life of Christ naturally

led them to reproduce these as best they could for their less fortunate brethren (St. Aug., "De civ. Dei" in P. L., XXXVIII, 764). Hence the miracle plays that deal with the story of Christ's Passion were im- ported for the benefit of those who were unable to visit the very shrines. But the connexion between the pilgrimages and these plays comes out much more clearly when we realize that the scene of the martyr- dom of the saint or some legend concerning one of his miracles was not uncommonly acted before his shrine or during the pilgrimage that was being made to it. It was performed in order to stimulate devotion, and to teach the lessons of his life to those who probably knew little about him. It was one way and the most effective way of seeing that the reason for visiting the shrine was not one of mere idle superstition, but that it had a purpose to achieve in the moral improvement of the pilgrim.

Internalional Communications owed an enormous debt to the continual interchange of pilgrims. Pil- grimages and wars were practically the only reasons that led the people of one countrj' to visit that of another. It may safely be hazarded that an exceed- ingly large proportion of the foreigners who came to England, came on piirpose to venerate the tomb of the "Holy blissful Martyr", St. Thomas Becket. Special enactments allowed pilgrims to pass unmo- lested through districts that were in the throes of war. Again facilities were granted, as at Pontigny, for strangers to visit the shrines of their own saints in other lands. The result of this was naturally to in- crease communications between foreign countries. The matter of road-making has been already alluded to and the establishment of hospices along the lines of march, as the ninth-centurj' monastery at Mont Cenis, or in the cities most frequented by pilgrims, fulfilled the same purpose (Acta SS., March, II, 150, 157; Glaber, "Chron." in Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script, VII, 62). Then lastly it may be noted that we have distinct notices, scattered, indirect, and yet all the more convincing, that pilgrims not unfrequently acted as postmen, carrj-ing letters from place to place as they went; and that people even waited with their notes written till a stray pilgrim should pass along the route (Piiston Letters, II, 62).

Religious Orders began to be founded to succour the pilgrims, and these even the most famous orders of the medieval Church. The Knights Hospitallers, or Knights of St. John, as their name implies, had as their office to guard the stragghng bands of Latin Chris- tians; the Knights of Rhodes had the same work to carrj'out; as also had the Knights Templars. In fact the seal of these last represented simply a knight rescuing a helpless pilgrim (compare also the TrinitJ, dei Peregrini of St. Philip).

Scandals effected by this form of devotion are too obvious and were too often denounced by the saints and other writers from St. Jerome to Thomas a Keni- pis to need any setting out here. The "Canterbury Tales" of Chaucer are sufficient evidence. But the "Colloquy" of Erasmus briefly mentions the more characteristic ones: (i) excessive credulity of the guardian of the shrine; (ii) insistence upon the obliga- tion of pilgrimages as though they were necessary for salvation; (iii) the neglect on the part of too many of the pilgrims of their own duties at home in order to spend more time in passing from one sanctuarj' to another; (iv) the wantonness and evil-living and evil- speaking indulged in by the pilgrims themselves in many cases. Not as though these abuses invalidated the use of pilgrimages. Erasmus himself declares that they did not; but they certainly should have been more stringently and rigorously repressed by the church rulers. The dangers of these scandals arc evi- dently reiluced to a minimum by the speed of modern travel; yet from time to time warnings need to be re- peated lest the old evils should return.