74-0 



PILGRIMAGES. 



stantly taken up by a priest, wbo stood in readi- 

 ness, to prevent the next comer from stealing it in 

 depositing bis own offering. At an altar, appar- 

 ently in the outer chapel, was exhibited the cele- 

 brated relic of the Virgin's milk. It was enclosed 

 in a crystal, to prevent the contamination of lips, 



" Whose kiss 



Had been pollution onto aught BO chaste," 



and set in a crucifix. The pilgrims knelt on the 

 steps of the altar to kiss it, and, after the cere- 

 mony, the priest held out a board to receive their 

 offerings, like that with which tolls were collected 

 at the foot of bridges. The sacred relic itself, 

 Erasmus says, was excessively like chalk mixed 

 with the white of eggs, and was quite solid. The 

 image of the Virgin and her Son, as they made 

 their salute, also appeared to him to give them a 

 nod of approbation. 



An incident of a personal kind illustrates the 

 bigotry and intolerance which prevailed at these 

 places. After the ceremony of kissing the sacred 

 milk, Erasmus requested his friend to inquire for 

 . him, in the mildest manner, what was the evidence 

 that it was indeed the true milk? The priest 

 appeared at first not to notice the question ; but, 

 on its being repeated, his countenance assumed an 

 expression of astonishment and ferocity, and in a 

 tone of thunder he asked if they had not authentic 

 inscriptions of the fact ? From the violence of his 

 manner, they expected every instant to have been 

 thrust out as heretics, and were glad to make their 

 peace by a present of money. The inscription 

 which he referred to was found, after some search, 

 fixed high upon a wall, where it was scarcely legi- 

 ble. They contrived, however, to read it; but 

 found it to contain merely a history of this precious 

 relic from the tenth century, when it was pur- 

 chased by an old woman near Constantinople, with 

 an assurance, from which arose its fame, that all 

 other portions of the Virgin's milk had fallen on 

 the ground before they were collected, while this 

 was taken directly from her breast. 



At Canterbury, which Erasmus has also de- 

 scribed, there appears to have been less variety of 

 incident. The pilgrim was there chiefly employed 

 in doing honour to the relics of almost countless 

 saints, and pre-eminently to those of Becket. 

 "On the north side of the choir," he says, "the 

 guides opened several doors, and the pilgrim beheld 

 an immense collection of bones of all kinds skull- 

 bones, jaw-bones, teeth, hands, fingers, &c. which 

 they kissed as they were severally taken out." At 

 his visit an arm was presented to them to salute, 

 with the flesh still upon it, and bloody. In doing 

 honour to the relics of Becket, they kissed the 

 rusty point of the sword that split his skull, and 

 the fissure in the skull itself, exposed for that pur- 

 pose in a silver case. Near his monument their 

 eyes were gratified with the sight of his hair-shirt, 

 his belt, and trowsers. His neckerchief was also 

 shown them, dirty with his sweat, and spotted 

 with his blood; and even the rags on which he 

 blew his saintly nose, still bearing evidence of 

 their use. Such exhibitions were perfectly con- 

 sistent with the genius of canonization, and with 

 that love of disgusting subjects, which was not 

 unfrequently mingled with ideas of sanctity. 



All pilgrimages to canonized shrines were pro- 

 fessedly devotional ; but they had often a near 

 relation to some personal want or secular interest 

 of the devotee. This arose from that subdivision 

 of the Romish as of the classical calendar which 



assigned a tutelary deity to almost every situation 

 or contingency of life ; and in consequence filled 

 the country with shrines of a pacific virtue. The 

 superstition here alluded to is quaintly detailed in 

 a passage in Sir Thomas More's " Dyalogue on the 

 Adoracion of Ymages." 



" We set," says the interlocutor of the dialogue, 

 " every saint in his office, and assign him a craft 

 such as pleaseth us. Saint Loy we make a horse- 

 leech ; and because one smith is too few at the 

 forge, we set Saint Ippolitus to help him. Saint 

 Appolonia we make a tooth-drawer, and may 

 speake to her of nothing but sore teeth. Saint 

 Sythe, women set to seek their keyes. Saint 

 Roke we appoint to see to the great sickness, and 

 with him we join Saint Sebastian. Some saints 

 serve for the eye only, and some for a sore breast. 

 Saint Germain only for children, and yet will he 

 not once look at them, but if their mothers bring 

 with them a white loaf and a pot of good ale. 

 And yet is she wiser than Saint Wylgeforte ; for 

 she, good soul, is, as they say, content to be 

 served with oats, peradventure to provide a horse 

 for an evil husband to ride to the devil, for that is 

 the thing she is so sought for; insomuch that 

 women have changed her name, and, instead of 

 Saint Wylgeforte, call her Saint Uncumber, because 

 they reckon that for a peck of oats she will not 

 fail to uncumber them of their husbands." 



The enumeration here given might be carried 

 much further. Saint Anne, for example, was sup- 

 posed to have a peculiar efficacy in recovering lost 

 goods ; and Saint Leonard in assisting debtors to 

 escape from prison. St Sebastian was all-power- 

 ful against the plague, Saint Petronel against 

 fevers, Saint Genovv against the gout, &c. In the 

 same manner every trade bad its patron saint ; and 

 even the cat-catcher could hope for no success in 

 his profession, without the kindly interference of 

 St Gertrude. From the same local and specific 

 efficacy, some shrines that were uncanonized en- 

 joyed a repute little inferior to those which could 

 boast of a celestial patron. A singular shrine of 

 this kind existed at Winfarthing, in Norfolk, con- 

 taining a precious relic, called " the good sword of 

 Winfarthing.'' It was efficient in the recovery of 

 lost property, and of horses stolen or strayed, and 

 in the still more important office of shortening the 

 lives of refractory husbands. To obtain its inter- 

 ference in this way, the impatient help-mate was 

 simply required to enter the church on every Sun- 

 day through the year, and set up a lighted candle 

 before the relic. 



The pilgrimages to sanative wells and fountains 

 must be reckoned among those to specific shrines. 

 Springs of this kind, when consecrated, were gen- 

 erally found in the neighbourhood of some chapel, 

 or monastery, of their patron saint, within which 

 a part of the ceremony usually took place. The 

 counties of Norfolk and Suffolk contained sanatory 

 wells, of various efficacy at Woolpit, East Dereham, 

 Wereham, Bawburgh, &c. The effect of these 

 wells was probably not always imaginary. In many 

 instances, a medical as well as a religious benefit 

 might arise from the ceremony which the visitor 

 underwent. Thus, at Saint Nun's pool, in Corn- 

 wall, celebrated for curing madness, the treatment 

 of the patient might, from physical causes, have 

 this effect. The sanative stream was received into 

 a large square cistern, capable of being filled to any 

 depth. The lunatic was made to sit upon the 

 brink, with his back to the water, and, by a sud- 





