page_title: Religion in Medieval England
section_title: Pilgrimages
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Medieval England / Pilgrimages
caption_attribution_description: English: This rare pilgrim's flask, one of only a few to survive intact, was made to be worn around the neck as a protective talisman. It was once filled with holy water from the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury.
context_page_description: Medieval Religion Unlike religion in the modern world, medieval religion had deep significance and central importance in the lives of most individuals and nations. There was hardly any concept of a secular nation where religion did not play any role in the affairs of the states
  Religion in Medieval England includes all forms of religious organisation, practice and belief in England, between the end of Roman authority in the fifth century and the advent of Tudor dynasty in the late fifteenth century. The collapse of Roman authority brought about the end of formal Christian religion in the east of what is now England as Anglo-Saxon invaders took control of large sections of the island. The movement towards Christianity began again in the late sixth and seventh centuries. Pope Gregory I sent a team of missionaries who gradually converted most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, while Scots-Irish monks were active in the north of England. The process was largely complete by the end of the seventh century, but left a confusing and disparate array of local practices and religious ceremonies.
context_section_description: Pilgrimages were a popular religious practice throughout the Middle Ages in England. Typically pilgrims would travel short distances to a shrine or a particular church, either to do penance for a perceived sin, or to seek relief from an illness or other condition. Some pilgrims travelled further, either to more distant sites within Britain or, in a few cases, onto the continent.
  During the Anglo-Saxon period, many shrines were built on former pagan sites which became popular pilgrimage destinations, while other pilgrims visited prominent monasteries and sites of learning. Senior nobles or kings would travel to Rome, which was a popular destination from the seventh century; sometimes these trips were a form of convenient political exile. Under the Normans, religious institutions with important shrines, such as Glastonbury, Canterbury and Winchester, promoted themselves as pilgrimage destinations, maximising the value of the historic miracles associated with the sites. Accumulating relics became an important task for ambitious institutions, as these were believed to hold curative powers and lent status to the site. By the twelfth century reports of posthumous miracles by local saints were becoming increasingly common in England, adding to the attractiveness of pilgrimages to prominent relics. Major shrines in the late Middle Ages included those of Thomas Becket at Canterbury, Edward the Confessor, at Westminster Abbey, Hugh of Lincoln, William of York, Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was buried at Pontigny Abbey in France, Richard of Chichester, Thomas Cantilupe of Hereford, St Osmund of Salisbury and John of Bridlington.
caption: A pilgrim's flask, carried as a protective talisman, containing holy water from the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral
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