The Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages

In Italy the church of the Archangel on Mt. Gargano was one of the most ancient centres of the pilgrimage. Later the Portiun cula church at Assisi displaced all other 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–ioth of May 1291 to Dalmatia, then brought to the Italian coast opposite (Dec. io, 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 impos ing pilgrim church above the "Holy House." The significance of the pilgrimage for the religious life of later mediaevalism cannot be adequately estimated. The possession of any extraordinary relic was everywhere considered a sufficient claim for the privileges of indulgences; and wherever this privilege existed, there the pilgrims were gathered together. All these pil grimages, 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 values 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 delu sion 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) reprobated the superstition which was wedded to the pil grimage (c. 13) ; and it would be easy to collect similar judg

ments, delivered in every centre of mediaevalism. But, funda mentally, pilgrimages in themselves were rejected by a mere handful: the protest was not against the thing, but against its excrescences.

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 con secrated by ecclesiastical history. On the other hand, while in the Eastern Church things have undergone little change the develop ments in the Roman Church show important divergences. The Year of Jubilee, in 1525, was unprecedented in its scant attend ance, but the jubilees of 1575 and i600 again saw great armies of pilgrims marching to Rome (see JUBILEE, YEAR OF). Fresh pil grim resorts sprang up; mediaeval shrines, which had fallen on evil days, emerged from obscurity. The 19th century 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 mediaeval figures. The dedica tion of the church of Lourdes, in 1876, took place in the presence of 3o bishops, 3,00o priests and Ioo,000 pilgrims. 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 sites 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.-Michelant and Raynaud, ltineraires a Jerusalem rediges en francais ass Xle , Xlle, XIIIe siecles (1882) ; R. Rohricht and H. Meisner, Deutsche Pilgerreisen each dem heilgen Land (1882, new ed., 'goo) ; L. Conradi, Vier rheinische Paleistina-Pilgerschriften des XIV ., XV., XVI. Jahrhunderts (1882) ; G. B. de Rossi, Roma sotter ranea, i. 128 sqq. (1864) ; J. Marx, Das Wallfahrten in der katholischen Kirche (1842) ; article "Pilgrimage" in the Catholic Encyclopaedia; article "Pilgrimage" in Hastings, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (dealing with the custom as rooted in Mohammedan, Babylonian, Buddhist, Hindu and Japanese religions, as well as in Judaism and Christianity), with numerous references.