# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pilgrimage

See also Pilgrimage on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​PILGRIMAGE (Fr. pèlerinage, Lat. peregrinatio), a journey undertaken, from religious motives, to some place reputed as sacred. These journeys play an important role in most pre-Christian and extra-Christian religions. in the Catholic Church their acceptance dates from the 3rd and 4th centuries.
I. The Pilgrimage in pre-Christian and non-Christian Religions. -To the Germanic religions the pilgrimage is unknown. On the other hand, it is an indigenous element, not only in the creeds of Asia, but in those of the ancient seats of civilization on the Mediterranean. The fundamental conception is always that the Deity resides–or exercises a peculiarly powerful influence–in some definite locality, and to this locality the devout repair, either in reverence of their god, or in quest of his assistance and bounty. Thus, as the cult of a particular divinity spreads farther and farther, so the circle expands from which are drawn those who visit his sanctuary.
One of the oldest homes of the pilgrimage is India There the army of devotees tends more especially to the Gangesthe hallowed river of Hindu belief On the Ganges lies Benares, the holy city of Brahminism: and to look on Benares, to visit its temples, and to be washed clean in the purifying river, is the yearning of every pious Indian. Even Buddhism—originally destitute of ceremonial—has adopted the pilgrimage; and the secondary tradition makes Buddha himself determine its goals the place where he was born, where he first preached, whe1e the highest insight dawned on him, and where he sank into Nirvana. The four ancient sacred resorts are Kapilavastu, Gaya, Benares and Kusinagara.
In Syria, the temple of Atargatis in Hierapolis was an immemorial resort of pilgrims. In Phoenicia, a similar significance was enjoyed by the shrine of Astarte, on the richly-watered source of the river Adonis, till, as late as the 4th century after Christ, it was destroyed by Constantine the Great In Egypt, the great annual and monthly festivals of the indigenous gods ​ gave rise to all manner of religious expeditions. Even among the Israelites, the visitation of certain cult-centres prevailed from remote antiquity, but, when the restriction of Yahweh-worship to Jerusalem had doomed the old shrines, the Jewish pilgrimages were directed solely to the sanctuary on Mt Moria.
Among the Greeks the habit was no less deeply rooted. Just as the inhabitants of each town honoured their tutelar deity by solemn processions to his temple, so, at the period of the Olympic games, the temple of Zeus at Olympia formed the goal of multitudes from every Hellenic country. No less powerful was the attraction exercised by the shrines of the oracular divinities, though the influx of pilgrims was not limited to certain days, but, year in and year out, a stream of private persons, or embassies from the city-states, came flowing to the temple of Zeus in Dodona or the shrine of Apollo at Delphi. The unification of the peoples of antiquity rn the Roman Empire, and the resultant amalgam of religions, gave a powerful impetus to the custom. For, as East and West still met at the old sanctuaries of Greece, so-and yet more-Greece and Rome repaired to the temples of the southern and eastern deities In the shrine of Isis at Philae, Europeans set up votive inscriptions on behalf of their kindred far away at home, and it may be surmised that even among the festival crowds at Jerusalem a few Greeks found place (John xii. 20).
The pilgrimage, however, attained its zenith under Islam. For Mahomet proclaimed it the duty of every Mussulman, once at least in his life, to visit Mecca, the result being that the birthplace of the Prophet is now the religious centre of the whole Mahommedan world (see Mahommedan Religion; Caravan, Mecca).
II. The Pilgrimage under Christianity.—The pilgrimages of Christianity presuppose the existence of those of paganism, but it would be an error to maintain that the former were a direct development of the latter. For primitive Christianity was devoid of any point by which these journeys of Origin. devotion might naturally have been suggested. It was a religion without temples, without sanctuaries, and without ceremonial. The saying of the Johannine Gospel-that God is to be adored neither in Jerusalem nor on Gerizimf but that His true worshipper must worship Him in spirit and in truth- is in complete harmony with the old Christian piety. And, accordingly, in the ancient Christian literature, we find no trace of a conception that the believer should v1s1t a definite place in order to pay homage to his Master. The evolution of the Christian pilgrimage moved on other lines
Cicero finely observes that, in Athens, the glorious architecture caused him less pleasure than did the thought of the great men w hose work was done in its midst-“how here one had lived, and there fallen asleep, how here another had disputed, and there lay buried” (De Legg. ii. 2). This feeling was not weakened by the advent of Christianity, in fact, we may say that it was appreciably strengthened. Cicero had already compared the sites consecrated by the memory of some illustrious name with those hallowed by recollections of a loved one But with the Christian, when his Redeemer was in question, both motives coincided for there the greatest was also the dearest.
In this devotion to the memory of Jesus, we find the key to the origin of the Christian pilgrimage: the faithful repaired to those places which were invested with memories of their Lord's earthly life. And these journeys must certainly date from the 2nd century. For Origen (d. 254) mentions that in Bethlehem the cave was shown where Christ was born, and in it the manger in w hrch Mary made the bed of her child The site must have been much visited long before this, since Origen remarks that it was common knowledge, even among the infidels, that there was the birthplace of that Jesus whom the Christians worshipped (Contr. Cels. i. 51). But those who visited Bethlehem must certainly have visited Jerusalem and the places there, so rich in memorials of their Master And the sympathy of Christendom soon led them beyond this immediate circle The anonymous author of the Cohortatio ad Graecos, a work of the 2nd century, visited the remnants of those cells, in which—so legend related—the seventy interpreters laboured on their version of the Old Testament: nor, when he came to Cumae in Campania, did he fail to have shown him the old shrine of the Sibyl (Coh. ad Gr. 13 and 37). Soon we begin to hear the names of the pilgrims. In the course of the 3rd century, as Jerome relates, F rrmilian, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, travelled to Palestine to view the sacred places (De Vir. ill. 54); while, according to Eusebius, a second bishop from Cappadocia, Alexander by name, visited Jerusalem in order to pray and acquaint himself with the holy sites, and was there invited by the community to remain with them and assume the episcopate of the aged Narcissus (Hist. eccl. vi. 11). With regard to his own times—the early years of the 4th century—the same authority recounts that believers kept streaming to Palestine from all regions, there to offer their prayers at a cavern shown on the Mount of Olives (Demonstr. evang. vi. 18).
This statement, that the Christians of the 3rd and 4th centuries were in the habit of visiting Jerusalem for prayer, proves that the non-Christian conception of the religious pilgrimage had already entered the sphere of Christian thought. That men travelled for purposes of prayer implies acceptance of the heathen theory of sanctuaries which it is an act of piety to visit. We may regret the fact, for it suffied the purity of primitive Christian thought. Nevertheless, it is clear that the development was inevitable. As soon as the non-Christian ideas of priests, sacrifices, houses of the god, and so forth, were naturalized in the Christianity of the 3rd century, it was but a short step to the belief in holy places.
III. The Pilgrimage in the Ancient Church.—In the passages cited above, Bethlehem and the Mount of Olives figure as the main goal of the pilgrim: and on the Mount of Olives the mind must naturally turn to the Garden of Gethsemane and the scene of the Ascension. It may seem The East. surprising that there is no mention of Golgotha and the Sepulchre. But the visitation of these sites was rendered impossible to the Christians by the destruction of Jerusalem and the erection of the town of Aelia Capitolina. They had not forgotten them; but the grave was concealed under a mound of earth and stones—a profanation probably dating from the siege of the city and Titus’s attack on the second wall. On the summit of this mound there stood, in the days of Eusebius, a sanctuary of Venus (Eus Vit. Const. iii. 26, 30). The Sepulchre and the Hill of the Crucifixion were lost to the Christian pilgrim; and, consequently, before the era of Constantine, the one holy site in the town of Jerusalem was the so-called Coenaculum, which received its name in later years. It lay south of the city, near the outer wall, and, if Epiphanius is to be believed, was already in existence when Hadrian (130–131) visited Jerusalem (De mens. 14). It was regarded as the house, in which—according to the Acts of the Apostles (xii. 12 sqq.)—Mary, the mother of John Mark, lived; and the belief was that there the Lord held the Last Supper, and that there the eleven assembled after the Ascension. It was there, also, that the scene of the Pentecostal effusion of the Spirit was laid (cf. Cyrill. Hierus. Cat. xvi. 4).
The pilgrimage to Palestine received a powerful impetus from the erection of the memorial churches on the holy sites, under Constantine the Great, as described by Eusebius in his biography of the emperor (iii. 25 sqq). At the order of Constantine, the shrine of Venus above mentioned was destroyed, and the accumulated rubbish removed, till the ancient rock foundation was reached. There the cave was discovered in which Joseph of Arimathea had laid the body of Jesus, and above this cave and the Hill of the Crucifixion the imposing church of the Holy Sepulchre was built (A.D. 326–336). The churches in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives were erected by Helena, the mother of Constantine, who herself undertook the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. These churches were then endowed with new sanctuaries of miraculous powers; and relics of Christ were found in the shape of the Cross and the nails. Eusebius, the contemporary of Constantine, is silent on this point. To his continuators, on the other hand, it is an established fact that Helena brought all three crosses to light, and ascertained ​ the genuine Cross by the instrumentality of a miracle, in addition to discovering the nails of the Crucifixion (Rufin. i. 7, Socr i. 17, Sozomen. ii. 1; Theod. i. 17). It is impossible to fix the date at which the supposititious relics were introduced into the church of the Sepulchre: it is certain, however, that in the 5th century the Cross was there preserved with scrupulous reverence, and accounted the highest treasure of the sanctuary.
After the 4th century, monks and nuns begin to form no inconsiderable part of the pilgrimages—a fact which is especially manifest from the numerous notices to be found in Jerome, and the narratives of Theodoret in the Historia religiosa. In fact, many were inclined to regard a journey to Jerusalem as the bounden duty of every monk-an exaggerated view which led to energetic protests, especially from Gregory of Nyssa, who composed a monograph on the pilgrimages (De iis qui adeunt Hierosol.). Jerome, like Gregory, insists on the point that residence in Jerusalem has in itself no religious value: it is not locality, but character, that avails, and the gates of Heaven are as open in Britain as in Jerusalem (Ep. 58, 3). These utterances, however, must not be misinterpreted. They are not directed against the pilgrimage in itself, nor even against the belief that prayer possesses special efficacy on sacred ground, but solely against the exaggerated developments of the system.
The theologians of the 4th and 5th centuries were at one with the masses in recognizing the religious uses of the pilgrimages Jerome in particular considered it an act of faith for a man to offer his prayers where the feet of the Lord had stood, and the traces of the Birth, of the Cross, and of the Passion were still to be seen (Ep. 47, 2).
We may gain some impression of the mood in which the pilgrims completed their journey, when we read how Paula, the friend of Jerome, expresses herself on her visit to the church of the Sepulchre: “ As oft as we enter its precincts we see the Saviour laid in the shroud, and the angel seated at the feet of the dead!” (Hieron. Ep. 46, 2). She assured Jerome that, in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, she beheld, with the eye of faith, the Christ-child wrapped in swaddling clothes (Ep 108, 10). But with these thoughts, others of an entirely different stamp were frequently blended. Pilgrimages were conceived as means to ensure an answer to particular prayers. So, for example, Eudocia, the wife of Theodosius II., vowed to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, if she should see her daughter married. (Socr. Hist. eccl. vii. 47). And, closely as this approaches to pagan ideas, the distinction between paganism and Christianity is completely obliterated when we find the hermit Julian and his companions travelling to Sinai in order to worship the Deity there resident (Theod. Hist. rel 2).
With the number of the pilgrims the number of pilgrim-resorts also increased Of Jerusalem alone Jerome relates that the places of prayer were so numerous that it was impossible to visit them all in one day (Ep. 46, 9). In the Holy Land the list was still longer: the natives were ready to show everything for which the foreigners inquired, and the pilgrim was eager to credit everything In her expedition to the East, the Paula mentioned above visited, among other places, Sarepta and Caesarea. In the first-named place she was shown the tower of Elijah, in the second, the house of Cornelius, that of Philip, and finally the grave of the four virgins. At Bethlehem she saw, in addition to the church of the Nativity, the grave of Rachel; at Hebron the hut of Sarah, in which the swaddling clothes of Isaac and the remains of Abraham's oak were on view (Hieron Ep. IO8). A similar picture is given in the Travels of the so-called Silvia Aquitana, who seems, in reality, to have been a Spanish nun, named Etheria or Eucheria. She went as a pilgrim to Jerusalem (c. 380), and from there traversed the whole of Palestine, in order to visit every site which was consecrated by memories of the Lord's earthly life. Nor did she neglect the scenes of patriarchal history. Of greater antiquity is the concise account of his travels by an anonymous pilgrim, who, in A.D. 333, undertook the journey from Bordeaux to Palestine. The Itinerary of the African Theodosius who visited the East between A.D. 520 and A.D. 530 is of later date (P. Geyer, Itin. hicrosol. saec. iv–viii.).
While pilgrim-resorts were thus filling the East, their counterparts began to emerge in the West. And here the starting point is to be found in the veneration of martyrs Care for the tombs of martyrs was sanctioned by immemorial custom of the Church, but, in this case also, a later age failed to preserve the primitive conception in its purity; and Augustine himself was obliged to defend the usage of the Church from the imputation that it implied a transference of heathen ceremonial to the sphere of Christianity (Contr. Faust. xx. 21). The martyrs were the local heroes of particular communities; but there were men whose life and death were of significance for the whole of Christendom-the apostles. Of these Peter and Paul had suffered martyrdom in Rome, and it was inevitable, from the nature of the case, that their graves should soon become a resort, not only of Romans born, but of strangers also. True, the presbyter Caius (c. 200) who first mentions the situation of the apostolic tombs on the Vatican and the road to Ostia, and refers to the memorials there erected, has nothing to say of foreign Christians journeying to Rome in order to visit them. And though Origen travelled to Rome, it was not to view the graves of dead men, but to establish relations with the living flock (Euseb. Hist. eccl. 25, 7; vi. 14, IO); still, it is certain that the Roman cemeteries were visited by numerous pilgrims even in the 3rd century: for the earliest graffiti in the papal crypt of the Coemeterium Callisti must date from this period (De Rossi, Roma soiter. i. 253 sqq; Kraus, Rom. Sott. 148 sqq). And if the tombs of the popes were thus visited, so much more must this hold of the tombs of the apostles. After these, the most frequented resort at Rome in the 4th century was the grave of Hippolytus. The poet Prudentius describes how, on the day of the martyr's death, an innumerable multitude of pilgrims flocked round the site. Even on ordinary days arrivals and departures were almost incessant—foreigners being everywhere seen mingled with the native Latins. They poured balsam on the sepulchre of the saint, washed it with their tears, and covered it with their kisses, in the belief that they were thus assuring themselves of his intercession or testifying their gratitude for his assistance. Prudentius says of himself, that whenever he was sick in soul or body, and prayed there, he found help and returned in cheerfulness: for God had vouchsafed His saint the power to answer all entreaties (Perist. xi. 175 sqq). Paulinus of Nola (d. 431) concurs—his custom being to visit Ostia each year, and Rome on the apostolic anniversaries (Ep. 20, 2; 45, 1). Next to Rome the most popular religious resort was the tomb of Felix of Nola (August. Ep 78, 3), while in Gaul the grave of St Martin at Tours drew pilgrims from all quarters (Paul. Nol. Ep. 17, 4). Africa possessed no sanctuary to compete with these; but we learn from Sulpicius Severus (c. 400) that the tomb of Cyprian seems to have been visited even by a Gaul (Dial. i. 3).
The motive that drew the pilgrims to the graves of the saints is to be found in the conviction, expressed by Prudentius, that there divine succour was certain; and hence came the belief in a never-ending series of miracles there performed (cf., cg. Ennod. Ticin. Lib. pro syn. p. 315). Doubt was unknown. St Augustine observes that, though Africa was full of martyrs tombs, no miracle had been wrought at them so far as his knowledge extended. This, however, did not lead him to doubt the truth of those reported by others—a fact that is somewhat surprising when we reflect that the phenomenon caused him much disquiet and perplexity. Who, he asks, can fathom the design of God in ordaining that this should happen at one place and not at another? And eventually he acquiesces in the conclusion that God, who gives every man his individual gift at pleasure, has not willed that the same powers should have efficacy at every sepulchre of the saints (Ep. 78, 3).
IV. The Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.—The medieval Church ​ adopted the custom of the pilgrimage from the ancient Church. The young Germanic and Romance nations did precisely as the Greek and Romans had done before them, and the motives of these devotional journeys—now much New Motives. more difficult of execution in the general decay of the great world-system of commerce-remained much the same They were undertaken to the honour of God (Pipp Cap 754–755, c. 4), for purposes of prayer (Ann. Hild. 992), or in quest of assistance, especially health (Vita Galli, ii. 37; Vita Liudg. iii. 10). But the old causes were reinforced by others of at least equal potency. The medieval Church was even more profoundly convinced than its predecessor that the miraculous power of Deity attached to the bodies of saints and their relics. But the younger nations-French, English and German—were scantily endowed with saints; while, on the other hand, the behef obtained that the home-countries of Christianity, especially Rome and Jerusalem, possessed an inexhaustible supply of these sanctified bodies. Pilgrimages were consequently undertaken with the intention of securing relics. At first it was enough to acquire some object which had enjoyed at least a mediate connexion with the hallowed corpse. Gregory of Tours (d. 594) mentions one of his deacons who made a pilgrimage into the East, in order to collect relics of the Oriental saints; and, on his return, visited the grave of the bishop Nicetius (St Nizier, d. 573) in Lyons, where he still further increased his store. His testimony showed how relics came to be distributed among the populace: one enthusiast took a little wax dropped from the taper; another, a portion of the dust which lay on the grave; a third, a thread from the cloth covering the sarcophagus, and he himself plucked the flowers which visitors had planted above the tomb. Such were the memorials with which he returned; but the universal belief was that something of the miraculous virtue of the saint had passed into these objects (Vit. patr. 8, 6). Before long, however, these humble trophies failed to content the pilgrims, and they began to devote their efforts to acquiring the actual bodies, or portions of them—frequently by honest means, still oftener by trickery. One of the most attractive works of early medievalism—Einhard's little book, Translatio Marcellini et Petri—gives a vivid description of the methods by which the bodies of the two saints were acquired and transported from Rome to Seligenstadt on the Main.
Far more important consequences, however, resulted from the fact that the medieval mind associated the pilgrimage with the forgiveness of sins. This conception of the pilgrimage, as a means of expiation or a source of pardon for wrong, was foreign to the ancient Church. It is quite in accordance with the keener consciousness of sin, which prevailed in the middle ages, that the expiatory pilgrimage took its place side by side with the pilgrimage to the glory of God. The pilgrimage became an act of obedience, and, in the books of penance (Poenitentialia) which date from the early middle ages, it is enjoined-whether for a definite period (e.g. Poen. Valicell. i. c. 19; Theod Cant. i. 2, 16) or for life (Poen. Cummeani, vii. 12, Casin. 24)—as an expiation for many of the more serious sins, especially murder or the less venial forms of unchastity. The place to be visited was not specified, but the pilgrim, who was bound by an open letter of his bishop to disclose himself as a penitent, lay under the obligation, wherever he went, to repair to the churches and—more especially—the tombs of the saints, and there offer his prayers. On occasion, a chain or ring was fastened about his body, that his condition might be obvious to all, and soon all manner of fables gained currency: how, here or there, the iron had sprung apart by a miracle, in token that the sinner was thereby absolved by God For instance, the Vita Liudgeri recounts the history of a fratricide who Was condemned to this form of pilgrimage by Jonas, bishop of Orleans (d. 843) he wore three iron rings round his body and arms, and travelled bare-footed, fasting, and devoid of linen, from church to church till he found pardon, the first ring breaking by the tomb of St Gertrude at Nivelles, the second in the crypt of St Peter, and the third by the grave of Liudger. The pilgrimage with a predetermined goal was not recognized by the books of penance; but, in 1059, Peter Damiani imposed a pilgrimage to Rome or Tours on the clerics of Milan, whom he had absolved (Acta medial. patrol. lat. 145, p. 98).
As the system of indulgences developed, a new motive came to the fore which rapidly overshadowed all others: pilgrimages were now undertaken to some sacred spot, simply in order to obtain the indulgence which was vested in the respective church or chapel. In the 11th century the indulgence consisted in a remission of part of the penance imposed in the confessional, in return for the discharge of some obligation voluntarily assumed by the penitent. Among these obligations, a visit to a particular church, and the bestowal of pious gifts upon it, held a prominent place. The earliest instance of the indulgential privilege conferred on a church is that granted in 1016 by Pontius, archbishop of Arles, to the Benedictine abbey of Montmajour (Mons Major) in Provence (d’Achery, Spicil. iii. 383 seq.) But these dispensations, which at first lay chiefly in the gift of the bishops, then almost exclusively in that of the popes, soon increased in an incessant stream, till at the close of the middle ages there were thousands of churches in every western country, by visiting which it was possible to obtain an almost indefinite number of indulgences. But, at the same time, the character of the indulgence was modified. From a remission of penance it was extended, in the 13th century, to a release from the temporal punishment exacted by God, whether in this life or in purgatory, from the repentant sinner. And, from an absolution from the consequences of guilt, it became, in the 14th and 15th centuries, a negation or the guilt itself; while simultaneously the opportunity was offered of acquiring an indulgence for the souls of those already in purgatory. Consequently, during the whole period of medieval ism, the number of pilgrims was perpetually on the increase.
So long as the number of pilgrims remained comparatively small, and the difficulties in their path proportionately great, they obtained open letters of recommendation from their bishops to the clergy and laity, which ensured them lodging in convents and charitable foundations, in addition to the protection of public officials. An instance The Pilgrim Resorts. is preserved in Markulf's formulary (ii. 49). To receive the pilgrim and supply him with alms was always considered the duty of every Christian: Charlemagne, indeed, made it a legal obligation to withhold neither roof, hearth, nor fire from them (Admon. gent 789, c. 75; Cap. Miss. 802, c. 27).
The most important places of resort both for voluntary and involuntary pilgrimages, were still Palestine and Rome. On the analogy of the old Itineraria, the abbot Adamnan of Iona (d. 704) now composed his monograph Do locis sanctis, which served as the basis of a similar book by the Venerable Bede (d. 735)—both works being edited in the Ilia. hierosol. His authority was a Frankish bishop named Arculf, who resided for nine months as a pilgrim in Jerusalem, and visited the remaining holy sites of Palestine in addition to Alexandria and Constantinople. Of the later itineraries the Descriptio terrae sanctae, by the Dominican Burchardus de Monte Sion, enjoyed the widest vogue. This was written between the years 1285 and 1295; but books of travel in the modern tongues had already begun to make their appearance. The initiative was taken by the French in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Germans followed in the 14th and 15th; while the Book of Wayes to Jerusalem of John de Maundeville (c. 1336) attained extreme popularity, and was translated into almost all the vernacular languages Most pilgrims, probably, contented themselves with the brief guidebooks which seem to have originated in the catalogues of indulgences. In later periods, that of Romberch a Kyrspe, printed at Venice (1519), stood high in favour.
A long list might be compiled of men of distinction who performed the pilgrimage to Palestine. In the 8th century one of the most famous is the Anglo-Saxon Willibald, who died in 781 as bishop of the Frankish diocese of Eichstätt. He left his home in the spring of 720, accompanied by his father and brother. The pilgrims traversed France and Italy, visiting ​ every religious resort; in Lucca the father died, and the brother remained behind in Rome. Early in 722 Willibald began his expedition to the Holy Land alone, except for the presence of two companions. He travelled past Naples to Syracuse, then on shipboard by Cos and Samos to Ephesus, and thence through Asia Minor to Damascus and Jerusalem. On St Martin’s day, in 724, he arrived in the Holy City. After a prolonged stay in the town and its environs, Willibald proceeded (727) to Constantinople, and in 729 returned to Italy. Such is the account given by the nun of Heidenheim in her biography of Willibald, and her version is probably based on notes by the pilgrim himself (Mon. Germ. hist. scr. xv 80 sqq.). In the 9th century the French monk Bernard visited Palestine with two companions, and afterwards wrote a simple and trustworthy account of his journey (Patrol. lat. 121, 569 sqq). In the 10th century Conrad, bishop of Constance (934-976), performed the pilgrimage to Jerusalem three times (Vita Chuonr. 7); and to the same period belong the first women-pilgrims to Jerusalem of whom we have any cognisance—Hidda, mother of Gero, archbishop of Cologne (Thietm. Chron. ii. 16), and the countess Hademod of Ebersberg (Chron. ebersb.). The leaders, moreover, of the monkish reform movement in the 10th and 11th centuries, Richard of St Vanne in Verdun and Poppo, abbot of Stavelot (978–1048), had seen the Holy Land with their own eyes (Vita Rich. 17; Vita Popp. 3). In the year 1028 Archbishop Poppo of Trier (d. 1047) undertook a pilgrimage which led him past Jerusalem to the banks of the Euphrates, his return taking place in 1030 (Gesta Trevir. Cont. i. 4 seq.). But the most celebrated devotional expedition before the Crusades was that of the four bishops-Sigfrid of Mainz, Gunther of Bamberg, William of Utrecht, and Otto of Regensburg. They set out in 1064, with a company whose numbers exceeded seven thousand. The major portion, however, fell in battle against the Mahommedans, or succumbed to the privations of the journey, and only some two thousand saw their homes again (Annal. Altah., Lamb., Disib., Marian. Scot. &c.). Among the followers of the bishops were two clerics of Bamberg, Ezzo and Wille, who composed on the way the beautiful song on the miracles of Christ-one of the oldest hymns in the German language The text was due to Ezzo, the tune to Wille (Mullenhoff and Scherer, Denkmaler, i. p. 78, No. 31) A few years later Count Dietrich of Trier began a pilgrimage to Jerusalem with 113 companions, in atonement for the murder of Archbishop Kuno The ship, however, which conveyed them went down with all hands in a storm (Berth. Ann. 1073).
As a result of this steady increase in the number of pilgrims, the old arrangements for their accommodation were found deficient Consequently hospices arose which were designed exclusively for the pilgrim. Those on the Alpine passes are common knowledge. The oldest, that on the Septimer pass, dates from the Carolingian period, though it was restored in 1120 by the bishop Wido of Chur: that on the Great St Bernard was founded in the 10th century, and reorganized in the 13th. To this century may also be assigned the hospice on the Simplon, to the 14th those on the St Gothard and the Lukmanier. Similarly, the Mediterranean to wns, and Jerusalem in particular, had their pilgrim-refuges. Service in the hospices was regularly performed by the hospital-fraternities-that is to say, by lay associations working under the authorization of the Church. The most important of these was the fraternity of the Hospitale hierosolymitanum, founded between 1065 and 1075; for hence arose the order of St John, the earliest of the orders of knighthood In addition to the hospital of Jerusalem, numerous others were under its charge in Acre, Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, &c. Associations were formed to assist pilgrims bound for the East, one being the Confrérie des pèlerins de Terre-Sainte in Paris, founded in 1325 by Louis de Bourbon, count of Clermont (afterwards first duke of Bourbon). Its church was in the rue des Cordeliers. Similar institutions existed also in Amsterdam, Utrecht, Antwerp and elsewhere in the Netherlands.
But since, in the middle ages, the Holy Land was no longer held by a Christian Power, the protection of the pilgrims was no less necessary than their sustenance This fact, after the close of the 11th century, led to the Crusades (q.v.), which in many respects are to be regarded as armed pilgrimages. For the old dream of the pilgrim, to view the country where God had walked as man, lived on in the Crusades-a fact which is demonstrated by the letters of Bernard of Clairvaux, with the songs of Walther von der Vogelweide and other Crusaders. And, since the strongest motive in the pilgrimage was the acquisition of indulgences, unnumbered thousands were moved to assume the Cross, when, in 1095, Urban II. promised them plenary indulgence (Conc. Claram. c. 2). The conquest of Jerusalem, and the erection of a Christian empire in Palestine, naturally welled the influx of pilgrims And though in 1187 the Holy City again fell into the hands of the infidel, while in 1291 the loss of Acre eliminated the last Christian possession in Palestine, the pilgrimages still proceeded. True, after the fall of the city and the loss of Acre, they were forbidden by the Church; but the veto was impracticable. In the 12th century these religious expeditions were still so common that, every Sunday, prayers were offered in church for the pilgrims (Honor. Aug Spec. eccl. p. 828). In the 13th century the annual number of those who visited Palestine amounted to many thousands: in the 14th and 15th it had hardly shrunk. In fact, between the years 1300 and 1600, no fewer than 1400 men of distinction can be enumerated from Germany alone who travelled to the Holy Land (Rohricht and Meissner, Deutsche Pilgerreisen, pp. 465–546) It was not till the Reformation, the wars of the 16th century, and the loss of Rhodes, Candia and Cyprus to the Turks, that any appreciable alteration was effected. When Ignatius de Loyola (q.v.) set sail in 1523 from Venice to Palestine, only some thirteen souls could be mustered on the pilgrim-ship, while eight or nine others sailed with the Venetian state-vessel as far as Cyprus. A considerable number had abandoned their pilgrimage and returned home on the news of the fall of Rhodes (Dec. 25, 1522: see Acta sanct. Jul. vii. 642 seq).
For pilgrimage overseas, as it was styled, the permission of the Church was still requisite. The pilgrims made their journey in grey cowls fastened by a broad belt. On the cowl they wore a red cross; and a broad-brimmed hat, a staff, sack and gourd completed their equipment. During their travels the beard was allowed to grow, and they prepared for departure by confession and communion Of their hymns many are yet extant (“Jerusalem mirabilis,” “In gottes namen faren wir,” &c.) The embarkation took place either in France or Italy. In France, Marseilles was the main harbour for the pilgrims. From there ships belonging to the knights of St John and the knights templars conducted the commerce with Palestine, and carried annually some 6000 passengers. In the Italian ports the number of shipments was still greater—especially in Venice, whence the regular passagium started twice a year. The Venetian pilgrim ships, moreover, carried as many as 1500 souls. The pilgrims formed themselves into unions, elected a “master” and concluded their agreements, as to the outward voyage and return, in common. After Venice, Genoa and Pisa occupied the most prominent position The voyage lasted from six to eight weeks, the stay in Jerusalem averaging ten days. The visitation of the holy places was conducted in processions headed by the Franciscans of the Convent of Zion.
The expenses of the journey to Palestine were no light matter. In the 12th century they may be estimated at 100 marks of silver (£200) for the ordinary pilgrim. This was the amount raised in 1147 by one Goswin von Randerath to defray the expenses of his pilgrimage (Niederrhein Urk Buch i. No. 361) Later the cost was put at 280–300 ducats (£140–£150). In the 13th century a knight with two squires, one groom, and the requi site horses, had to disburse 81/2 marks of silver for his passage, while for a single pilgrim the rate was rather less than 1 mark. In the 16th century Ignatius de Loyola calculated the cost of the voyage from Venice to Jaffa at some 6 or 7 gold florins (£3) The expenses of the princes and lords were, of course, much heavier. Duke William of Saxony, who was in Jerusalem in 1461, spent no less than £10,000 on his journey (see Prutz, ​ Kulturgeschichte der Kreuzzüge, pp. 106 sqq, Rohricht, Deutsche Pilgerreisen, p. 42).
Great as was the number of pilgrims oversea, it was yet far exceeded by that of the visitants to the “threshold of the apostles,” i.e. Rome. As was the case with Jerusalem, guide-books to the city of the apostles were now composed. The oldest is the Notitia ecclesiarum urbis Romae, which was probably compiled under Honorius I. (625–638). The monograph De Ions s. martyrum is of somewhat later date. Both are to be found in De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, i. 138 sqq). The Itinerarium einsidlense (ed. G. Hänel, Archiv. f. Philologie, v. 119) belongs to the second half of the 8th century. Its composer would seem to have been a disciple of Walalifrid; for his interests are not confined to the churches, their reliquaries, and the ecclesiastical ceremonial of saint-days, but he takes a pleasure in transcribing ancient inscriptions. William of Malmesbury. again, when relating the crusade of Count Robert of Normandy (1096), transfers into his Gesta regum anglorum (iv. § 351) an old description of Rome, originally intended for the use of pilgrims This may have dated from the 7th century.
The pilgrimages to Rome received their greatest impetus through the inauguration of the so-called Year of Jubilee (q.v). On the 22nd of February 1300 the bull of Boniface VIII., Antiquorum habet fidem, promised plenary indulgence to every Roman who should visit the churches of the apostles Peter and Paul on thirty days during the year, and to every foreigner who should perform the same act on fifteen days. At the close of the Jubilee this dispensation was extended to all who had expired on the way to Rome. This placed the pilgrimage to Rome on a level with the crusades—the only mode of obtaining a plenary indulgence. The success of the papal bull was indescribable. It is computed that, in the Year of Jubilee, on an average, 200,000 strangers were present in the city during the day. The greatest number of the pilgrims came from southern France, England sending comparatively few on that occasion (see Gregorovius, Gesch. d Stadt Rom. v. 546 sqq.). The Jubilee dispensation according to the edict of Boniface VIII. was to be repeated each century, but this period was greatly abridged by succeeding popes (see Jubilee, Year of), so that in the years 1350 1390 1423, 1450, 1475, 1500, the troops of pilgrims again came streaming into Rome to obtain the cherished dispensation.
Of the other pilgrim-resorts, we shall only emphasize the most important. Priority of mention is due to St James of Compostella (Santiago, in the Spanish province of Galicia). Here the attraction for the pilgrim was the supposed possession of the bod) of James the son of Zebedee. The apostle was executed (A.D. 44) by conwmand of Herod Agrippa (Acts xii. 1); and at the beginning of the medieval period it was believed that his corpse 11 as laid in Palestine(Vehant. F01tzm.carm. v. 144, viii. 3). The first connexion of the apostle with Spain is to be traced in the Poema de aris b. Mar. et xii. apost. dedic., which is ascribed to Aldhelm (d 709) and contains a story of his preaching in that country T he earliest account of the transference of his relics to the Peninsula is found in Notker Balbulus (d. 912, Martyrol. in Jut xxv.). But in Spain belief in this cherished possession was universal, and, step by step, the theory won credence throughout the West. In 1059, Archbishop Wido of Milan journeyed to St James (Damiani, Acta mediol. p. 98); and a little later we hear of bands of pilgrims from Germany and France. In England, indeed, the shrine of St James of Compostella became practically the most favoured devotional resort; and in the 12th century its visitation had attained such popularity that a pilgrimage thither was ranked on a level with one to Rome or Jerusalem (Honor August. Spec. eccl. p. 828). In Paris, after 1419 there existed a special hospice for the “fraternity of St James,” in which from 60 to 80 pilgrims were received each day, fed and presented with a quarter of a denarius (Dulaure, Hist. de Paris (1842), i. 531). Even in the period of the Reformation the “Song of St James” was sung in Germany (Wackernagel, Kirchenlied, ii. No. 1246); and in 1478 pilgrimages to that shrine were placed by Sixtus IV. on official equality with those to Rome and Jerusalem (Extrav. comm. c. 5, De poenit. v. 9).
In France St Martin remained the chief goal of the pilgrim; while Notre Dame de Sous-Terre in Chartres (with a portrait of the “black Virgin”), Le Puy-en-Velay (dep. Haute Loire), and others, also enjoyed considerable celebrity. In England pilgrimages were made to the tomb of the murdered archbishop, Thomas Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral. The setting of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales gives a vivid idea of the motley company of pilgrims; but it seems probable that Germany also sent a contingent (Gervas. Cantuar. chr. ann. 1184; Ralph de Diceto, Ymag. hist. ann. 1184). In addition, Walsingham, Peterborough, St Davids, Holywell, and St Andrews in Scotland were much frequented. In lower Germany, Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle, in Switzerland Einsiedeln, were the principal resorts.
In Italy the church of the Archangel on Mt Gargano was one of the most ancient centres of the pilgrimage, being visited even by the monk Bernard (vide supra). Later the Portiuncula church at Assisi displaced all other religious resorts, with the exception of Rome, but in the 15th century it was overshadowed in turn by the “Holy House” at Loretto on the Adriatic. According to an extravagant legend, the house of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth was transported by angels, on the night of the 9th–10th of May 1291 to Dalmatia, then brought to the Italian coast opposite (Dec. 10, 1294), till, on the 7th of September 1295 it found rest on its present site. The pilgrimage thither must have attained great importance as early as the 15th century; for the popes of the Renaissance found themselves constrained to erect an imposing pilgrim church above the “Holy House.”
The significance of the pilgrimage for the religious life of later medieval ism cannot be adequately estimated. The possession of an extraordinary relic, a bloody Host, or the like, was everywhere considered a sufficient claim for the privileges of indulgences; and wherever this privilege existed, there the pilgrims were gathered together. All these pilgrimages, great and small, were approved and encouraged by the Church. And yet, during the whole of the middle ages, the voice of suspicion in their regard was never entirely stilled. Earnest men could not disguise from themselves the moral dangers almost inevitably consequent upon them, they recognized, moreover, that many pilgrims were actuated by extremely dubious motives, and they distrusted the exaggerated value set on outward works. The Roman papacy had no more zealous adherent than Boniface; yet he absolutely rejected the idea that Englishwomen should make the journey to Rome, and would willingly have seen the princes and bishops veto these pilgrimages altogether (Ep. 78). The theologians who surrounded Charlemagne held similar views. When the abbess Ethelburga of Fladbury (Worcestershire) found her projected pilgrimage impracticable, Alcuin wrote to her, saying that it was no great loss, and that God had better designs for her: “Expend the sum thou hast gathered for the journey on the support of the poor; and if thou givest as thou canst, thou shalt reap as thou wilt” (Ep. 300). Bishop Theodulf of Orleans (d. 821) made an energetic protest against the delusion that to go to Rome availed more than to live an upright life (Carm. 67). To the same effect, the synod of Chalon-sur-Saone (813) re probated the superstition which was wedded to the pilgrimage (c. 13); and it would be easy to collect similar judgments, delivered in every centre of medievalism. But, fundamentally, pilgrimages in themselves were rejected by a mere handful: the protest was not against the thing, but against its excrescences. Thus Fridank, for instance, in spite of his emphatic declaration that most pilgrims returned worse than they went, himself participated in the crusade of Frederick II.
V. The Modern Pilgrimage.—The Reformation eradicated the belief in the religious value of visits to a particular locality. It is only pious memory that draws the Protestant to the sites consecrated by ecclesiastical history. On the other hand, while in the Eastern Church things have undergone little change,—the pilgrims, in addition to the Holy Land, visiting Mt Athos and Kiev—the developments in the Roman Church show important divergences. The Year of Jubilee, in 1525, was unprecedented in its scant attendance, but the jubilees of 1575 and 1600 again saw great armies of pilgrims marching to Rome. ​Fresh pilgrim resorts now began to spring up, and medieval shrines, which had fallen on evil days, to emerge from their obscurity. In the 16th century we must mention the pilgrimages to the “Holy Mount” at Gorz on the Austrian coast, and to Montserrat in the Spanish province of Barcelona: in the 17th century, those to Luxemburg, Kevelaer (Gelderland), Notre Dame de Fourviere in Lyons, Heiligenberg in Bohemia, Roermond in the Netherlands, &c. The 18th century, which witnessed the religious Aufklarung, vsas not favourable to the pilgrimage. Enlightened bishops and princes prohibited it altogether: so, for instance, Joseph II. of Austria. Archbishop Clement Wenceslaus of Trier forbade, in 1777, the much-frequented, medieval “leaping-procession” of Echternach (duchy of Luxemburg). The progressive theologians and clergy, moreover, assumed a hostile attitude, and, in 1800, even the Curia omitted the Year of Jub1lee. The 10th century, on the other hand, led to an extraordinary revival of the pilgrimage. Not only did new resorts spring into existence—e.g. La Salette in Dauphine (1846), and more particularly Lourdes (1858) in the department of Hautes Pyrenees—but the numbers once more attained a height which enables them to compete with the medieval figures. It is computed that 60,000 pilgrims were present in La Salette on the 29th of September 1847, the first anniversary of the appearance of Mary which gave rise to the shrine. The dedication of the church of Lourdes, 1n 1876, took place in the presence of 30 bishops, 3000 priests and 100,000 pilgrims. In 1877 the number rose to 250,000, and similar statistics are given of the German and Austrian devotional resorts. The sanctuaries of Aix-la-Chapelle are said to have been visited by 65,000 pilgrims on the 15th of July 1860; and on the following Sunday by 52,000. From 25,000 to 30,000 persons take part each year in the resuscitated “leaping-procession” at Echternach; and the annual visitants to the “Holy Mount” at Gorz are estimated at 50,000. No new motives for the pilgrimage emerged in the 19th century, unless the ever-increasing cultus of the Virgin Mary may be classed as such, all of the new devotional s1tes being dedicated to the Virgin. For the rest, the desire of acquiring indulgences maintains its influence: but doubting voices are no more heard within the pale of the Roman Catholic Church.
Bibliography.—Itinera hierosolymitana saec. IV.-VIII., rec. P. Geyer (Vienna, 1898), Itin. hierosol. et descr. terrace sanctae, ed. T. Toller and A. Molimer (Geneva, 1879–1885); H. Michelant and G. Raynaud, Itinéraires à Jérusalem rédigés en français au XIᵉ, XIIᵉ, XIIIᵉ siècles (Geneva, 1882); R. Rohricht and H. Meisner, Deutsche Pilgerreisen nach dem heiligen Land (Berlin, 1882, new ed., Innsbruck, 1900), L. Conradi, Vier rheinische Palastina-Pilgerschriften des XIV., XV., XVI. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 1882); G. B. de Rossi, Roma sotterranea, i. 128 sqq (Rome, 1864); J. Marx, Das Wallfahrten in der katholischen Kirche (Trier, 1842); W. E. Scudamore, Dict. of Christ. Antiquities, vol. ii. (London, 1880)  (A. H.*)