Read Online The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James by Walter Starkie - Free Book Online
Authors: Walter Starkie
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a patron saint who would intercede for Spain as St. Theresa had done in the case of Philip II, who, they argued, would have remained, God knows how long, in Purgatory but for the Saint from Avila, who ransomed him by her intercession from there on the eighth day. Quevedo scorned the intercession of women even when canonized: he clamoured for the hounds of war and the vision of St. James the Moor-slayer on his great white charger riding triumphantly in the storm clouds. And Quevedo, whose indignation, at times, is Swiftian in its intensity, was not alone in conjuring up the spirit of the warlike Apostle at'a critical moment of Spain’s history. * Even the wordly, much travelled diplomat Saavedra Fajardo, the Spanish representative at the Peace of Westphalia, which sounded the knell for Spain as a military power, becomes as mystical a devotee of Santiago as Quevedo when he has to speak from the heart as a Spaniard: ‘His Highness Don John of Austria ordered the Cross and the following words to be embroidered on all his banners: “With these arms I vanquished the Turks: with these I hope to conquer the heretics.” These and the standard of Constantine I will use to show the princes with what confidence they may hoist the flag of religion, for immediately divine spirits will appear to defend that flag: two of them on white chargers were seen fighting in the vanguard of the Battle of Simancas when King Ramiro II conquered the Moors.... And at the Battle of Merida, in the days of Alfonso IX, there appeared that Son of the Thunderbolt, Santiago, Patron of Spain leading the squadrons with his sword dripping gore.’ *
At Westphalia in 1648, let us add, Saavedra Fajardo did not speak as a chauvinistic Spaniard but as a model European, one who saw that the mad divisions between the nations would bring untold calamities upon Europe such as could only be warded off with the divine help of a crusading Spain led by Santiago Matamoros.
CHAPTER 2
PILGRIMS
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoon.
Shakespeare Hamlet
D ANTE, homesick, in exile and forever thinking of his distant friends, was the first universal writer to define the word ‘Pilgrim’. In the Vita Nuova he tells us that the word may be understood ‘in a wide sense, for whoever is outside his fatherland is a pilgrim; whereas in the narrow sense, none is called a pilgrim save he who is journeying towards the sanctuary of St. James of Compostella or is returning therefrom. For there are three separate denominations proper to those who undertake journeys to the glory of God. They are called Palmers ( Palmieri ) who go beyond the seas eastwards, whence many a time they bring palm-branches. And Pilgrims ( Peregrini ), as I have said, are they who journey to the holy sanctuary of Galicia, because the tomb of St. James was farther from his birthplace than that of any other Apostle. And there is a third sort who are called Romers ( Romei), in that they go whither those whom I have called pilgrims went: which is to say, unto Rome.’ *
Deh peregrini che pensosi andate
forse di casa che non v e presente,
venite voi da si lontana gente.
Compostella possessed for the genuine pilgrim an advantage over Rome because, like Jerusalem, it lay in a country lying under the heel of the Saracens, and had to be redeemed from the Infidel. Thus the Crusades ran in two directions: one for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and the other for the protection of the shrine at Compostella. And in the great international movement of the Crusades to the Holy Land, Spain was the only country exempt, because it was considered of paramount importance to the cause of Christendom that Spain should be liberated, and Pope Pascal II laid down the rule that no Spanish knight should take part in the Eastern Crusade, for he had more than enough to do at home. Foreign knights, on the other hand, from France, England and elsewhere,
At Westphalia in 1648, let us add, Saavedra Fajardo did not speak as a chauvinistic Spaniard but as a model European, one who saw that the mad divisions between the nations would bring untold calamities upon Europe such as could only be warded off with the divine help of a crusading Spain led by Santiago Matamoros.
CHAPTER 2
PILGRIMS
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoon.
Shakespeare Hamlet
D ANTE, homesick, in exile and forever thinking of his distant friends, was the first universal writer to define the word ‘Pilgrim’. In the Vita Nuova he tells us that the word may be understood ‘in a wide sense, for whoever is outside his fatherland is a pilgrim; whereas in the narrow sense, none is called a pilgrim save he who is journeying towards the sanctuary of St. James of Compostella or is returning therefrom. For there are three separate denominations proper to those who undertake journeys to the glory of God. They are called Palmers ( Palmieri ) who go beyond the seas eastwards, whence many a time they bring palm-branches. And Pilgrims ( Peregrini ), as I have said, are they who journey to the holy sanctuary of Galicia, because the tomb of St. James was farther from his birthplace than that of any other Apostle. And there is a third sort who are called Romers ( Romei), in that they go whither those whom I have called pilgrims went: which is to say, unto Rome.’ *
Deh peregrini che pensosi andate
forse di casa che non v e presente,
venite voi da si lontana gente.
Compostella possessed for the genuine pilgrim an advantage over Rome because, like Jerusalem, it lay in a country lying under the heel of the Saracens, and had to be redeemed from the Infidel. Thus the Crusades ran in two directions: one for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and the other for the protection of the shrine at Compostella. And in the great international movement of the Crusades to the Holy Land, Spain was the only country exempt, because it was considered of paramount importance to the cause of Christendom that Spain should be liberated, and Pope Pascal II laid down the rule that no Spanish knight should take part in the Eastern Crusade, for he had more than enough to do at home. Foreign knights, on the other hand, from France, England and elsewhere,
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