Examine and Comment on the practice of pilgrimage during medieval times and its significance in the medieval church

On 21st Febraury 1172, Becket was canonised by Pope Alexander III which brought a larger number of pilgrims to Canterbury. By making someone a saint this would increase their popularity and make them better known. The cult of Thomas Becket had now officially began and thus leading to more people wanting to make their pilgrimage to Canterbury.One can only assume that Pope Alexander heard about Thomas Becket through  news of him spreading because of pilgrims.

Pilgrims also came to Canterbury to seek penance from St Thomas Becket. Penace was a common reason for many pilgrims to go on a pilgrimage. This was the idea that if you commited a sin you would carry out a pilgrimage to beg forgiveness at the shrine of a saint such as Thomas Becket.  Chaucer (c1340 -1400) described,

‘when a man has sinned openly, of which sin the fame is openly spoken in the country…Common penance is that priests enjoin men commonly in certain cases, as for to go, peradventue, naked in pilgrimages or barefoot’

One example of a pilgrim who walked in a sackcloth among pilgrims and also barefoot was Henry II, who was also the most famous pilgrim who sought forgiveness

Furthermore he was also the most famous royal pilgrim who sought redemption at Becket’s shrine after his men murdered the Archbishop. He walked barefoot from the West gate of the city to Becket’s tomb. He allowed himself here to be scourged. This was not an unknown act amongst pilgrims. It was a frequent practice and seen as a punishment for those who were making a penance at Canterbury. The pilgrims would be beaten with rods by the clergy. Pilgrimage can also be seen as a spiritual journey as Langland describes that ’You must travel , both men and women, through Humility, until you arrive at Conscience: there Christ may know for certain that you love God above all else‘.  So, this highlights the religious importance behind doing a penance as well.

It was mainly local people who would come to visit Beckets tomb up to 1220 when his bones were translated to the new Trinity Chapel which stood on the site of the old Trinity Chapel. However, why did they choose to move his body there?  a Canterbury monk explains that it stands on the site of the old Trinity Chapel,

‘ where he celebrated his first mass, where he was wont to prostrate himself with tears and prayers, under whose crypt for so many years  he was buried, where God for his merits had performed so many miracles, where poor and rich, kings and princes, had worshipped him, and whence the sound of his praises had gone forth into all lands’.

These associations with the Archbishop was why they chose to translate his body to the new Trinity Chapel  

Festivals Celebrated at Canterbury  

Festivals celebrated at Canterbury would also attract more pilgrims to Canterbury. People would crowd around the doors outside the Cathedral on the vigils of the Translation and of saint’s Martyrdom. Here pilgrims may spend the night. Examples of activities that pilgrims would do include prayers, devotions, games and music. However, this would also give the opportunity for many thieves to steal from the pilgrims as they would often wander around the large crowds. Becket’s translation led to the annual Canterbury fair on the 7th July which was The Feast of the Translation. Many booths and stalls would be opened making a lot of money from visitors. As the Feast of the Translation was set in the summer and not the winter like The Feast of St Thomas of Canterbury has attracted a larger number of pilgrims from further away. It is said that the first jubilee in 1220 gained a sum of £1,142 5s . This sum was mainly made up of the offering to the saint’s shrine and also the site of the martyrdom

There were also other factors which affected the revenue which were of a more social and political nature. For example when the Cathedral hosted the Black Prince’s funeral in 1376 and the crowning of King George and Queen Isabella in Canterbury Cathedral this saw extremely high amounts in these years.

The Customary and revenue at Canterbury

It was very important for the shrine to be well guarded every day and night because they had many important tasks to carry out. There was a guide of the custodians duties called the Customary which was written by two monks. There were two guards in the Trinity Chapel one was temporal and the other spiritual. In the summer they would get up at five and it would be six in the winter. They would celebrate a daily Mass in honour of Becket at his shrine and the spiritual guard was responsible for this as well as ringing a bell to gather the pilgrims . These guards also had to ensure that the pilgrims were well looked after because many would be exhausted so they would be offered food and  refreshments. Before the Feast of the Translation they had to prepare the shrine for the festivities which were about to take place. The Customary also lists the expenditures from the coins that were offered at the shrine. We assume that because of the many people that visited the shrine the Cathedral generated a great amount of revenue. However, Woodruff calculate that even though there were large some of money received by the Cathedral  on both of its own Jubilee years of 1320 and 1370 the cellarer’s expenditures were extremely large and the accounts show an unfavourable balance. In other words, this emans that more money had been spent than generated at Canterbury Cathedral at this time.

The Corona

Beyond the Trinity Chapel at the very eastern end of the Cathedral a special unique chapel was added to protect the Corona or ‘Becket’s Crown’ which was a thin saucer of bone that had been sliced from the Saint‘s skull. This would have also brought more pilgrims because it was a holy relic. Pilgrims would venerate the segment of skull that had been set in a golden likeness of his head encrusted with gold.

The Black Death (1349 -51) in the fourteenth century also had its impact on the practice of pilgrimage in Canterbury. The potbreak in 1348-9 led to the shrine of St Thomas Becket benfiting finacialy through generous offerings. Around this time many may have gone to Canterbury in the hope that they would be healed. At this time when the Black Death was at its worse St Thomas saw some very generous offerings as well as St Mary who was in the undercroft  

However, in the 1400s how did the practice of pilgrimage develop? Offerings from pilgrims would add up to £700 at the shrine alone itself. Was the practice of pilgrimage at Canterbury  any different at all from its earlier stages ? It wasn’t an ordered process anymore. It would be a much noisier atmosphere compared to the early stages of pilgrimage at Canterbury. Many pilgrims would visit Becket’s shrine at the apex of steps and altars. For a few coins pilgrims had the opportunity to see the canopy of Becket’s shrine raised up and this would reveal gold and silver ornaments and gems and rubies. After the pilgrims had seen the sights at Canterbury and spent a night perhaps at Eastbridge Hospital they would leave the next day with phials of Canterbury water. This was their proof to their neighbours that they had seen he famous tomb of Thomas Becket.

However criticisms of pilgrimage to Canterbury soon developed and it is becoming more and more evident that people were lavishly spending their money on souvenirs. William Thorpe was charged with heresy by the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1407 because he expressed his views of how he believed that it was a disservice to God by wasting money and forming rleations with lascivious women in places such as Canterbury as well as Walsingham . Did the medieval pilgrims actually abuse pilgrimage or was their behaviour natural because of society at the time. This is certainly the reason as  People in medieval times were eager to travel to new places and were probably overwhelmed by the sights and wanted to purchase items as proof that they had seen the famous tomb. However, the more people that came to Canterbury Cathedral the more revenue that was gained  Diana Webb notes that in 1370 Simon Sudbury, bishop of London told a group of pilgrims that were on their way to Canterbury for the Jubilee indulgence that they would receive no benefit from it. The group of pilgrims who had heard this accused the bishop of criticising the merits of Thomas Becket. They prophesised that the bishop would meet an evil end and he was killed by the rebels from Watt Tyler’s rebellion in 1381.It was also commonly believed that as saints were able to leave their graves so a man didn’t have to come in contact with a relic to invoke them or even punished by them. Then when a woman called Aliza heard that a woman had lost their sight after visiting Becket’s tomb she

‘burst out laughing, saying, ‘Others whom the Martyr receives in sickness, he sends back healed, you, however, went there well, and now return blind. While dissolved in laughter, Aliza was suddenly blinded, and eventually only partially cured’.

Others may citicise motive such as going on pilgrimage for casual sexual experiences and some may use the journey in order to commit adultery. Is there any evidence however that pilgrimage was abused in this manner? Sarah hopper tells us that most of Chaucer’s pilgrims show to a certain degree their lack of moral values and spiritual discipline. This  

 

In 1500 a Venetian described how he saw the shrine        

‘the magnificence of the tomb of St Thomas the martyr, Archbishop of Canterbury, is which surpasses all belief’. This was certainly the case until the Reformation where it is written that  twenty -six wagons were required to transport all the trasures away from Becket’s shrine when Henry VIII destroyed it.  After  1538 when Henry VIII destroyed Becket’s shrine and his bones there was no longer the amazing shrine for pilgrims to see.    

However, pilgrimage had again changed before Henry VIII destroyed the shrine . In 1532 there was evidence in a decrease of revenue. In one of the sacristy’s books a note that the combined offerings at the cathedral added up to £ 13 13s 3d and this about thirty times less than received at the shrine when pilgrimage activity at Canterbury was at its highest. After the Reformation, Canterbury saw a significant decrease in pilgrims visiting the Cathedral. In 1538 when Henry VIII destroyed Becket’s shrine and his bones there was no longer the amazing shrine for pilgrims to see.    

Overall, pilgrimage to Canterbury had developed greatly in medieval times from Becket’s martyrdom in 1170 to the Reformation in 1538.  Early key episodes such as Becket’s murder in 1170, his canonization in 1173 and his translation have seen a significant increase in pilgrims coming to Canterbury. The main motive seems to be in order to get healed because it is was news of his miracles spreading further that more  people visited the tomb and then the shrine. Its most significant increase as suggested my most scholars such as Dianan Webb, was in 1220 when his bones were translated because of what medieval life was like this would have been a breathtaking and an amazing sight to behold. As time goes on motives may have been more based on seeing and just as an opportunity to travel. There are criticisms that have developed and even though we assume because of the large number of pilgrims that visited Canterbury and even though large sums were offered, it seems that because of large expenditures this did not make the cathedral much of a profit. When Henry VIII destroyed the shrine this meant that there wasn’t much for people to see anymore seeing what seemed to be an end to pilgrimage at Canterbury. Overall, I believe it was Thomas Becket who William Langland describes ‘a symbol of resistance to oppression of the Church by the secular power of his day’ which was the main reson that pilgrims ventured to Canterbury.

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