Pilgrimage as Metaphor (1)

1
Pilgrimage as Metaphor (1)
These all died in faith speaking of OT
figures, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of
them, and embraced them, and confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For
they that say such things declare plainly that
they seek a country. And truly, if they had been
mindful of that country from whence they came,
they might have had the opportunity to have
returned. But now they desire a better country,
that is, an heavenly wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God for he hath
prepared for them a city. Hebrews, 1113-16
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Pilgrimage as Metaphor (2)
Suppose, then, we were wanderers in a
strange country, and could not live happily away
from our fatherland, and that we felt wretched in
our wandering, and wished to put an end to our
misery, determined to return home. We find,
however, that we must make use of some
conveyance, either by land or water, in order to
reach that fatherland where our enjoyment is to
commence. But the beauty of the country through
which we pass, and the very pleasure of the
motion, charm our hearts, and turning these
things which we ought to use into objects of
enjoyment, we become unwilling to hasten the end
of our journey and becoming engrossed in a
factitious delight, our thoughts are diverted
from that home whose delights would make us truly
happy, Such is a picture of our condition in this
life of mortality. We have wandered far from
God and if we wish to return to our father's
home, this world must be used, not enjoyed, so
that the invisible things of God may be clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are
made--that ism, by means of what is material and
temporary we may lay hold upon that which is
spiritual and eternal. Augustine, De Doctrina
Christiana
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The pilgrims leaving Canterbury (from a MS of
John Lydgates Siege of Thebes)
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Canterbury Cathedral
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Canterbury Cathedral
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Canterbury Cathedral
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The pilgrim steps, Canterbury
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The martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket (from a 15th
c. MS)
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Reliquary (for the Duc de Berrys thorn)
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Reliquary (St. Valentine)
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Reliquary (St. Luke)
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Reliquary (companion of St. Ursula)
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(No Transcript)
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Durham Cathedral
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Durham Cathedral
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Tomb of St. Cuthbert (Durham)
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Course of the plague, 1346-53
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(No Transcript)
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Santiago de Compostella
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The Crypt, Compostella
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Chartres Cathedral
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Chartres Cathedral (west front)
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The Nativity (Chartres)
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The Labyrinth (Chartres)
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Last Judgment Tympanum (Autun)
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The Elect (Autun)
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The Damned (Autun)
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The Damned (detail)
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Relics of Lazarus (Autun)
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Vezelay
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Vezelay (west front)
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Vezelay (tympanum, west front)
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Vezelay (nave, facing east)
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Vezelay (nave, looking west)
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Vezelay (the crypt)
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Crypt (Vezelay)
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Relics of Mary Magdalene (Vezelay)
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Relics of Mary Magdalene (Vezelay)
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Ste. Chapelle, Paris
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Ste. Chapelle (upper chapel, looking west)
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Ste. Chapelle (upper chapel, looking east)
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The crown of thorns
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Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris
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Some other attitudes toward pilgrimage
Some light-minded and inquisitive persons go on
pilgrimages not out of devotion, but out of mere
curiosity and love of novelty. All they want to
do is travel through unknown lands to investigate
the absurd, exaggerated stories they have heard
about the east. Jacques de Vitry, Historia
Hiersolymitana (13th c.)
Pilgrims and palmers made pacts with each
other To seek out Saint James and saints at
Rome They went on their way with many wise
stories And had leave to lie all their lives
after. I saw some that said they's sought after
saints In every tale they told their tongues
were tuned to lie More than to tell the
truth--such talk was theirs. Piers Plowman B
Prol.46-52 (circa 1378)
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Pilgrimage and the souvenir
Nompar de Caumont (early 15th century)bought
several pieces of fine colored silk at Jerusalem,
together with four pieces of rope the length of
the Holy Sepulchre, three silk purses,
thirty-three silver rings and twelve silver
crucifixes which had touched the Holy Sepulchre,
a number of relics of doubtful worth, a bag of
Jerusalem soil, a black embroidered purse, two
pairs of golden spurs, four roses and a phial of
Jordan water to distribute amongst his relatives
and tenants when he returned. From Pilgrimage
An Image of Mediaeval Religion, Jonathan Sumption
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Lollard views of pilgrimage

• And again I said, "As their works shew, the
  most part of men or women that go now on
  pilgrimages have not these foresaid conditions
  nor loveth to busy them faithfully for to have.
  For (as I well know, since I have full oft
  assayed) examine, whosoever will, twenty of these
  pilgrims, and he shall not find three men or
  women that know surely a Commandment of God, nor
  can say their Pater noster and Ave Maria nor
  their Credo, readily in any manner of language.
  And as I have learned, and also know somewhat by
  experience of these same pilgrims, telling the
  cause why that many men and women go hither and
  thither now on pilgrimages, it is more for the
  health of their bodies, than of their souls, more
  for to have richesse and prosperity of this
  world, than for to be enriched with virtues in
  their souls, more to have here worldly and
  fleshly friendship, than for to have friendship
  of God and of His saints in heaven. For
  whatsoever thing a man or woman doth, the
  friendship of God, nor of any other Saint, cannot
  be had without keeping of God's commandments.
• For with my Protestation, I say now, as I
  said at Shrewsbury, though they that have fleshly
  wills, travel for their bodies, and spend mickle
  money to seek and to visit the bones or images,
  as they say they do, of this saint and of that
  such pilgrimage-going is neither praisable nor
  thankful to God, nor to any Saint of God since,
  in effect, all such pilgrims despise God and all
  His commandments and Saints. For the commandments
  of God they will neither know nor keep, nor
  conform them to live virtuously by example of
  Christ and of his Saints
• Also, Sir, I know well, that when divers men
  and women will go thus after their own wills, and
  finding out one pilgrimage, they will ordain with
  them beforehand to have with them both men and
  women that can well sing wanton songs and some
  other pilgrims will have with them bagpipes so
  that every town that they come through, what with
  the noise of their singing, and with the sound of
  their piping, and with the jangling of their
  Canterbury bells, and with the barking out of
  dogs after them, they make more noise than if the
  King came there away, with all his clarions and
  many other minstrels. And if these men and women
  be a month out in their pilgrimage, many of them
  shall be, a half year after, great janglers,
  tale-tellers, and liars.
• The Examination of Master William Thorpe, priest,
  Of Heresy, Before Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of
  Canterbury, In the Year of our Lord 1407 (from
  Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, ed. Alfred W.
  Pollard)