Read Online The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James by Walter Starkie - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Walter Starkie
Ads: Link
the atonement which King Henry Plantagenet made at the tomb of St. Thomas at Canterbury.
Men, however, did not visit Compostella only to secure forgiveness of sin. Their motive often arose from a mental contract they had made with St. James himself. They pledged themselves to undertake the pilgrimage and make an offering at the Saint’s shrine, if he would grant their request. For this reason the journey was not always one of penitence, but sometimes one enabling the pilgrim to express his gratitude in the form of a costly offering to the Saint. In tins way the treasures of the Cathedral of Santiago and of all the other churches along the road grew in wealth and prosperity.
In early days it was considered not only a duty but an honour to entertain the pilgrim and help him on his journey; thus charitable persons shared in the blessings that descended upon him. Pilgrims were instruments for winning grace and the monarchs encouraged them by granting them letters of commendation. Charlemagne imposed it as a legal obligation that pilgrims should be given roof, hearth and fire wherever they travelled. It was owing to their claim to be pilgrims that the Original Band of raggle-taggle Indian Gypsies were received with open arms when they knocked at the gates of Europe in 1417.
Before the pilgrim set off from his town he went to confession and communion in his parish church and his name was publicly read out before the altar by the parish priest. Pilgrims were a familiar sight in the French and Spanish countryside in the spring and summer. They travelled together in great numbers, as it was dangerous to be a lonely wanderer on the roads that were infested by highwaymen. As they slowly wended their way they cheered their hearts by chanting hymns and psalms like the Israelites of old when they journeyed to Jerusalem. Some of these psalms are called in the Authorized Version Songs of Degrees , and signify the steps and progressions in ascent to sanctity, such as Levavi oculos meos in montes and Laetatus sum in his. Of the mediaeval hymns chanted by the pilgrims, especially by the Teutons, who were famed for their singing, there were two included in the Codex Calixtinus by Aymery Picaud: ‘The Little Hymn’ and ‘The Great Hymn of St. James’.
The latter was sung in later days in a French translation and it is significant to note that in the refrain the pilgrims pray to the Blessed Virgin and to her Son Jesus to give them grace,
Qu’en Paradis nous puissions voir
Dieu et Monsieur Saint Jacques
In 1718 a manual of pilgrim songs was made from those sung by the pilgrims from the' Abbey of Moissac, who were known by the picturesque name of Les Rossignols Spirituels, —the Nightingales of the Spirit—on account of their singing as they tramped the Road of St. James.
In the morning when they set out they looked at the weather and the horizon, for they remembered the proverb:
Rouge vespre et blanc matin
C’est la journée du pèlerin.
The pilgrim had to accustom himself to all weathers, and there was another proverb celebrating his stoicism:
Vent du soir et pluie du matin
N’étonnent pas le pèlerin.
The rain in the morning he actually welcomed, for then the dust disappeared.
To give a touch of ritual to the start, the pilgrims at first would launch out into the Cantique Spirituel which was also called La Grande Chanson:
Aymery Picaud wrote the fifth book of the Codex Calixtinus, we are told, mainly as a guide for those who travelled on foot; if so they must have been powerful foot-sloggers in the twelfth century, doing thirty to forty miles a day through wild mountain country, liable to attacks at all times, and with the constant spectre of hunger to harass them. Even in the nineteenth century thirty miles a day considerably exceeds the estimate given by Richard Ford for a well-used horse. The road, however, never changes, and even today we may plan our journey from Aymery’s itinerary, and it adds zest to the
Men, however, did not visit Compostella only to secure forgiveness of sin. Their motive often arose from a mental contract they had made with St. James himself. They pledged themselves to undertake the pilgrimage and make an offering at the Saint’s shrine, if he would grant their request. For this reason the journey was not always one of penitence, but sometimes one enabling the pilgrim to express his gratitude in the form of a costly offering to the Saint. In tins way the treasures of the Cathedral of Santiago and of all the other churches along the road grew in wealth and prosperity.
In early days it was considered not only a duty but an honour to entertain the pilgrim and help him on his journey; thus charitable persons shared in the blessings that descended upon him. Pilgrims were instruments for winning grace and the monarchs encouraged them by granting them letters of commendation. Charlemagne imposed it as a legal obligation that pilgrims should be given roof, hearth and fire wherever they travelled. It was owing to their claim to be pilgrims that the Original Band of raggle-taggle Indian Gypsies were received with open arms when they knocked at the gates of Europe in 1417.
Before the pilgrim set off from his town he went to confession and communion in his parish church and his name was publicly read out before the altar by the parish priest. Pilgrims were a familiar sight in the French and Spanish countryside in the spring and summer. They travelled together in great numbers, as it was dangerous to be a lonely wanderer on the roads that were infested by highwaymen. As they slowly wended their way they cheered their hearts by chanting hymns and psalms like the Israelites of old when they journeyed to Jerusalem. Some of these psalms are called in the Authorized Version Songs of Degrees , and signify the steps and progressions in ascent to sanctity, such as Levavi oculos meos in montes and Laetatus sum in his. Of the mediaeval hymns chanted by the pilgrims, especially by the Teutons, who were famed for their singing, there were two included in the Codex Calixtinus by Aymery Picaud: ‘The Little Hymn’ and ‘The Great Hymn of St. James’.
The latter was sung in later days in a French translation and it is significant to note that in the refrain the pilgrims pray to the Blessed Virgin and to her Son Jesus to give them grace,
Qu’en Paradis nous puissions voir
Dieu et Monsieur Saint Jacques
In 1718 a manual of pilgrim songs was made from those sung by the pilgrims from the' Abbey of Moissac, who were known by the picturesque name of Les Rossignols Spirituels, —the Nightingales of the Spirit—on account of their singing as they tramped the Road of St. James.
In the morning when they set out they looked at the weather and the horizon, for they remembered the proverb:
Rouge vespre et blanc matin
C’est la journée du pèlerin.
The pilgrim had to accustom himself to all weathers, and there was another proverb celebrating his stoicism:
Vent du soir et pluie du matin
N’étonnent pas le pèlerin.
The rain in the morning he actually welcomed, for then the dust disappeared.
To give a touch of ritual to the start, the pilgrims at first would launch out into the Cantique Spirituel which was also called La Grande Chanson:
Aymery Picaud wrote the fifth book of the Codex Calixtinus, we are told, mainly as a guide for those who travelled on foot; if so they must have been powerful foot-sloggers in the twelfth century, doing thirty to forty miles a day through wild mountain country, liable to attacks at all times, and with the constant spectre of hunger to harass them. Even in the nineteenth century thirty miles a day considerably exceeds the estimate given by Richard Ford for a well-used horse. The road, however, never changes, and even today we may plan our journey from Aymery’s itinerary, and it adds zest to the
Similar Books
