[Music] [Music] hi everyone i'm jacob lachner and it's thursday so that means it's time for another history video i actually missed the last couple of thursdays but hopefully i'll be back on track starting this week anyway as usual i ran a poll that allowed the viewers to decide the topic of this week's video and people most wanted to hear about what it was like to go on a medieval pilgrimage a pilgrimage is a journey to a place of religious significance as an act of religious devotion people of all faiths to this day of course go on pilgrimages with it being a very important part of islam but in this video we'll be focusing on medieval pilgrimage and primarily on pilgrimage as a christian act this video is something of a companion piece to the one on what it was like to go to church in the middle ages in that it describes another important aspect of popular religion pilgrimage wasn't something that everyone could experience over the course of the entirety of the middle ages of course but by the later middle ages it became increasingly possible for people of many walks of life to go on pilgrimages this video has two parts first i'm going to discuss the reasons that people went on pilgrimage in the first place and in the second part i'm going to take a look at three specific pilgrimage destinations and what they were like one reason was that your priest told you to as part of the sacrament of penance i talked about that sacrament in depth on the video on what it was like to go to church in the middle ages but suffice it to say if you had committed a sin you had to go to confession and tell your priest what your sin was then the priest would order some form of penance that would absolve you of your sins for minor sins this could include something as simple as saying a few penitential prayers but it could also include a requirement to go on a pilgrimage going on a pilgrimage was quite the undertaking even if you were going to a more local shrine so you usually had to commit a pretty big sin for your priest to tell you to do this one example where we have several records of people going on pilgrimage for penance is for the sin of adultery and remember if you didn't complete this pilgrimage and you were a medieval christian you believed that you had to do it in order to be forgiven for your sin and thus be able to obtain the best afterlife possible not everyone went on pilgrimage because they were forced to for their own salvation though in fact the majority of medieval pilgrims went on pilgrimages out of a desire to visit the shrine of a particular saint they had an affinity for these shrines usually contained the tomb and remains of the individual and these tombs occupied an interesting liminal space between our world and the afterlife when you visited a shrine and prayed there you were right next to the physical remains of someone you believed was residing in heaven if you were at a saint shrine you had a much more direct line to the saint's soul in the afterlife the remains of that individual were believed to have very real mystical power to such an extent that it was possible for those afflicted with various conditions and illnesses to be cured simply by being in the presence of the tomb so those are the two main reasons that medieval people went on pilgrimage they were either required to out of penance or they simply wanted to out of their own religious devotion now what kind of places did people visit on these pilgrimages as you can see on this map there were pilgrimage destinations all over the place but i want to focus on three of the most popular destinations jerusalem santiago de compostela in spain and canterbury in england let's start with jerusalem this place as a pilgrimage shrine is the most obvious of the three in fact it was and is an important pilgrimage destination for all three abrahamic faiths for jews this is because it was the location of the temple for muslims it's because muhammad made a visit to jerusalem during his night journey and for christians it's because it was the place where jesus spent his last days was executed and resurrected jerusalem is one of the earliest pilgrimage locations we have a record of and this became true especially after the construction of the church of the holy sepulchre this was a project overseen by the roman emperor constantine's mother helena the complex was built on top of what she believed to be both jesus's tomb and golgotha the location of his execution the massive complex was and is the main reason why christians want to visit jerusalem obviously the city itself and the surrounding area also contain many other important locations from jesus's last days such as the garden of gethsemane and the hall of the last supper one can see how visiting these places from the life of the central figure of your religion would have a major impact on you and it would also make him seem a lot more real if you were in medieval europe reading about the events of jesus's last days it wasn't necessarily that easy for you to visualize what it was like in jerusalem but if you went yourself you certainly could obviously for most european christians going to jerusalem was a massive undertaking and it was usually only the wealthy that could visit a location that was this distant you either had to take a punishing long overland route that involved going through the desolate and hot asia minor or you had to take a difficult oversea journey that was especially risky before about 1100 ce when ship technology improved either way getting there and back from france for example would take you close to two years you were also at risk of being robbed on your journey one of the major problems with pilgrimage was that you had to carry all your money with you for your entire journey it isn't like you could just go to an atm once you got to jerusalem this made pilgrims major targets for highway robbers and the like when muslims conquered the city in 637 christian pilgrims and jewish ones for that matter continued to be permitted to visit the city this was partly because of the muslim practice of tolerating both jews and christians but also partly because of the economic benefits of being such a pilgrimage hotspot in short jerusalem was one of the hottest tourist destinations in the world and throughout the history of the city its economy has been pretty dependent on international visitors and just like tourist destinations you visit today jerusalem was filled with various services that catered to them you could stay in various hospices that cater to people who spoke your native language you could go on tours led by locals who know the area or you could dine in a tavern that served local cuisine basically jerusalem was bustling with people trying to sell services and things to tourists which is still pretty much true of the city today souvenirs were also a big part of this some of them were a bit shady and tourists really got ripped off like people selling things they claimed to be part of the true cross that jesus was crucified on so tourists got ripped off a lot something that still happens to tourists today one of the more popular tourist items that could be purchased were pilgrimage badges and these were a thing at almost all the major pilgrimage sites in the medieval world if you completed your pilgrimage to jerusalem for example you could buy a pilgrimage badge featuring christ on the cross but the most popular jerusalem badge was in the shape of a palm frond this was a kind of plant not present in europe and for most medieval europeans a palm frond automatically meant jerusalem this is something you could wear for the rest of your life as evidence that you completed this important pilgrimage and actually there are lots of modern last names that are derived from this palm frond badge if you know anyone with the last name palm palmer or palmeiro it's likely someone in their family went on this pilgrimage at some point in their life and the very fact that people came to be known for going on that pilgrimage shows you how important they were just the possibility of pilgrimage to jerusalem was important to many christians and that possibility becoming endangered is actually part of what led to the first crusade as i noted earlier muslim conquest of jerusalem happened in the 7th century and the various muslim dynasties that ruled for about four centuries welcomed christian pilgrims but this changed when the seljuk turks conquered the city from the fatimid caliphate in the 1080s the seljuks were much less tolerant than their predecessors and they also didn't do much to keep the pilgrimage route safe as earlier rulers had done pilgrims who tried to go east in the 1080s and early 1090s were in grave danger and many did not come home as i noted earlier pilgrimage was already pretty dangerous but it became even more so in the wake of seljuk conquests when pope urban ii called for the first crusade in 1095 he made mention of pilgrimage to the city no longer being possible in addition to acknowledging that the byzantine emperor needed their help against the seljuks in fact urban framed the crusade as an armed pilgrimage to jerusalem so jerusalem really was the ultimate pilgrimage location for medieval european christians but as i noted it wasn't exactly something everyone could afford to do luckily there were other important pilgrimage destinations scattered throughout europe and if you really wanted to go to one or had to in order to receive absolution of your sins you could go to one of these instead the other two pilgrimage locations i want to talk about canterbury and santiago de compostela were much closer to home from mini pilgrims and there were still major shrines let's talk about canterbury first you might actually be pretty familiar with it because it's featured in one of the most important works of english literature and medieval literature ever jeffrey chaucer's canterbury tales it is a collection of various tales that has a frame story involving pilgrims traveling from southern cathedral in london to canterbury cathedral on a pilgrimage this is a distance of about 60 miles which shows you that this type of pilgrimage is a far cry from one to jerusalem it would only take a few weeks to get there and back as opposed to a couple of years on the journey each of these pilgrims tells a different story but why are they traveling to canterbury in the first place well they're going to visit the shrine of saint thomas becket becca has a pretty amazing story one that's actually been made into a hollywood movie in short he was a friend of king henry ii who had been appointed to the position of archbishop of canterbury this was the highest church office in all of england beckett was not an especially religious man before this and henry did this both to help out his friend by giving him a prominent position and also because he thought it would give him greater control over the church of england but beckett experienced an epiphany became pious and actually dedicated himself to his duty as archbishop as it became clear that henry could not control his old friend the tension between the two increased up until the fact that henry apparently said in the presence of some of his vassals that he wished beckett were dead these men acted on what the king had told them and they burst into the canterbury cathedral and killed beckett this made beckett into a martyr and his shrine at the canterbury cathedral became the national pilgrimage destination for those in england it was also much cheaper to go to and some of the pilgrims professions in the canterbury tales show us that a wide spectrum of society was able to go on this journey just to name a few of the characters there was a knight a priorus and a physician but there was also a cook a miller and a plowman as beckett's shrine grew in popularity canterbury transformed into something of a tourist destination just like jerusalem though not quite on as grand of a scale the city was filled with various people selling souvenirs and other services including once again false relics in fact one of the characters in chaucer's canterbury tales talks a lot about false relics this character called the partner is in many ways meant to criticize some aspects of the church considered problematic in the late 14th century the profession of a partner was to sell indulgences in other words he had been commissioned and approved by the church to go and preach to people and offer them remission of their sins but he did it in exchange for money in short if you had the money you could get the same penance that others had to do various penitential acts for this was a big problem by the second half of the 14th century and by making this man a partner chaucer is intentionally trying to make him somewhat unlikable something that has driven home even more by his discussion of relics i'm going to read an excerpt but to sort of set the stage for it before the portion that i'm going to read this partner talks about how he gives a sermon and how it's always exactly the same he knows it by memory and doesn't even really listen to the words himself and then he talks about selling indulgences the portion i'm going to read talks about what he does after each of his sermons i show forth my crystal reliquaries crammed full of rags and bones saints relics they are or so they suppose then have i in brass a shoulder bone of some holy jews sheep good men say aye of my words take heed if this bone be washed in any well if a cow or calf or sheep or ox swell that any worm has eaten or by viper stung take water of that well and wash his tongue and it is healed and non and furthermore of pox and scan and every sore shall every sheep be healed that of this well drinks a draft take heed also what i tell if the good man who the beast owns will every week before the crows while fasting drink of this well a draft as jacob our elder taught his beasts and his stalk shall multiply and sire also it heals jealousy for though a man may be fallen in a jealous rage let him make of this water a potion and never shall he more his wife mistrust here is a mitten also that you may see he who his hand will put in this mitten he shall have multiplying of his grain when he has sown be it wheat or oats provided that he gives me pennies or groats he continues on a lot longer than this sounding much more like a salesman than anything else before eventually revealing quote when the ignorant people have sat down i preach and tell a hundred false stories or more in quote after which he also notes my intent is not but to profit and not at all for correction of sin in short in addition to selling indulgences as a partner he also takes advantage of his position by selling false relics something that were very common at pilgrimage destinations one can easily imagine the partner during his time in canterbury picking up some new fake relics to sell to unsuspecting christians so yeah fake relics are a problem at all pilgrimage sites and lots of people fell for them especially if someone with papal authority like a partner was claiming their authenticity pilgrims to canterbury cathedral just like pilgrims to jerusalem could also purchase a badge souvenir in this case it generally featured the mitre of a bishop to represent thomas beckett or it featured beckett himself the final pilgrimage destination that i want to discuss is santiago de compostela which is located in the northwest iberian peninsula apart from jerusalem and rome santiago de compostela was the most popular pilgrimage destination in the middle ages the city itself is called santiago de compostela and it gets its name from santiago or santiago which itself comes from the latin sanctus jacobus who is referred to in english as saint james james was one of the twelve apostles and according to legend he traveled to the iberian peninsula as part of his mission after he went back to jerusalem he was executed by herod agrippa and according to this legend after that his followers took his remains back to compostela apparently fulfilling his wishes thus even though he died in jerusalem his remains are stored in compostela the location was so popular that there was a well-known network of routes pilgrims could take called the way of santiago and it contained many other less prominent pilgrimage destinations along the way so on your way to santiago de compostela you would stop and visit a bunch of other pilgrimage shrines like with jerusalem and canterbury you received a badge after making this pilgrimage in this case it was usually in the shape of a scallop shell the meaning behind this badge is less certain than the first two we discussed but probably relates to a legend related to the moving of his body from jerusalem to spain while at sea one of their horses fell into the water something that would normally result in the certain death of the animal but they managed to rescue it and when they did it was covered in scallop shells this miracle that saved the horse's life was credited to st james whose body was on the boat and thus the scallop shell is his symbol so medieval people went on pilgrimage out of religious devotion and in order to receive absolution of sins the ability to go on pilgrimages to a place like jerusalem was not something attainable by everyone but by the later middle ages it was very possible to go on more localized pilgrimages to places that were closer to your home some of the more popular medieval destinations were jerusalem canterbury and santiago de compostela as we discussed in this video these journeys were difficult in trying but people wanted to go on them so that they could be close to the remains of an important holy figure while their physical remains were on earth their soul was in heaven and this made the tombs of these figures important liminal spaces it was also believed that these tombs were places where miracles occurred with regularity so sometimes the sick or ill would visit them in hopes of being cured that does it for this week's video if you enjoyed it please like it and share it so that others can enjoy it too if you want to make sure you catch future videos don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications and if you want to see some more of my videos including several more in medieval religion you should see some playlists on your screen shortly thanks for watching [Music] you