Pilgrims on the Route to Santiago De Compostela, Spain: Evidence from the 12Th-Century Pilgrim’S Guide

1 The Experience of Medieval Pilgrims on the Route to Santiago de Compostela, Spain: Evidence from the 12th-century Pilgrim’s Guide Tessa Garton* College of Charleston, South Carolina, USA The dramatic rise in popularity of the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in the 11th and 12th centuries is reflected in the 12th-century Pilgrim’s Guide, which provides information about shrines to visit and the experiences of pilgrims along the four main routes through France and northern Spain – routes which are used by pilgrims to this day. This chapter examines the information provided in the Pilgrim’s Guide with an emphasis on the physical, visual and spiritual experiences of pilgrims along the route. The Guide describes the characteristics of the lands, peoples, local customs and food and drink experienced on the journey, as well as the miraculous qualities of saints whose shrines should be visited on the way, and in some cases the visual imagery of their shrines. Scholars have tended to emphasize the typical ‘pilgrimage church’ plan exemplified by the churches at Santiago, Toulouse or Conques, but a study of both the guide and the surviving churches reveals a rich variety of architectural forms and imagery that would have been experienced by 12th-century pilgrims along the pilgrimage routes. Each shrine emphasized the validity and significance of its relics, and the arrangement of the sacred space and visual imagery was frequently designed to demonstrate the miraculous powers or qualities of the local saint, as well as to encourage, warn and influence the behaviour and beliefs of devotees visiting the shrine. Methods of communication about the experiences of pilgrims have changed in recent times, as well as the religious emphasis; modern pilgrims have easy access to information about the journey and place less emphasis on the power of holy relics and more on the inner spiritual experience, but many aspects of walking the Camino remain the same. The 12th-century Pilgrim’s Guide the Camino to Santiago de Compostela has taken place against a dramatic increase in Insights into the experience of individual pil- access to, and exchange of, information about grims in the modern world are often provided the experiences of pilgrims. Through online by pilgrim narratives, such as the multiple sto- media as well as written records, modern pil- ries of pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, or grims can communicate with a wide network Richard Burton’s account of his Hajj, analysed of other pilgrims and can disseminate their sto- by Suzanne van der Beek (Chapter 4, this vol- ries and experiences to a large audience. In ume) and Aateka Khan (Chapter 6, this volume), contrast, 12th-century pilgrims to Santiago de respectively. The recent revival of interest in Compostela would generally have learned of * Address for correspondence: [email protected] © CAB International 2018. 1 2 Tessa Garton the experiences of others, and disseminated The Routes, Lands and Peoples their own, by word of mouth, and they have left along the Way no personal written records. It is therefore much more difficult to access their individual The Guide provides practical information about experiences. We can, however, gain some in- the routes travelled by pilgrims, opening with a sights through a remarkable 12th-century description of four possible routes: manuscript, the Pilgrim’s Guide, which forms part of a collection of texts in the Codex Callixti- which, leading to Santiago, converge into one nus and which describes the routes and shrines near Puente la Reina, in Spanish territory. One to be visited along the Way of St James through goes through St Gilles, Montpellier, Toulouse, and the Somport; another passes through Notre France and Spain. Dame of Le Puy and Ste-Foy at Conques and The Codex was probably written and com- St-Pierre at Moissac; another proceeds through piled around 1140 by three authors, the primary Ste-Marie-Madeleine of Vézelay, St-Leonard of one being a French cleric, possibly Aymeric Pi- the Limousin and the city of Périgueux; another caud. It provides an anthology of information for goes from St-Martin of Tours to St-Hilaire of pilgrims, including sermons, miracles, liturgical Poitiers, St-Jean d’Angély, St-Eutrope of Saintes texts, musical pieces, descriptions of the route, and the city of Bordeaux. sites to visit along the way and local customs. The (Shaver-Crandell and Gerson, 1995, p. 65) final section, the Pilgrim’s Guide, provides infor- Since all had to travel initially from home, either mation and advice for pilgrims (Shaver-Crandell on foot or horseback or by boat, there was a and Gerson, 1995; Gerson et al., 1998; Ashley much larger network of routes that would have and Deegan, 2009). Few 12th-century pilgrims been used to join the major routes, and which no would have had the opportunity to see, or the doubt allowed pilgrims to take in as many ability to read, a copy of the Pilgrim’s Guide, and shrines and pilgrimage destinations as possible it was not a resource to be consulted en route like on the way. Each of the routes described in the a modern-day guide. Only 12 manuscript copies Guide starts at a major shrine, and the text em- survive, and there can never have been a large phasizes the importance of visiting shrines number of copies available (Shaver-Crandell and along the way, describing the characteristics and Gerson, 1995, p. 24). The Guide might, however, miracles of the saints at each site. But the Guide have been read to pilgrims by a local priest before does not focus only on spiritual or religious ex- they set off. This is implied by the passage at the periences; but it also provides an account of the end of Chapter III: ‘If I have enumerated only physical and cultural experiences of the journey. briefly the said towns and stages along the way, it Chapter VII describes ‘The Names of the Lands is so that pilgrims setting out for Santiago can, and Characteristics of the Peoples on the Road to having heard this, anticipate the expenses neces- St James’, displaying prejudices and fears typical sitated by the journey’ (Shaver-Crandell and Ger- of travellers in strange and foreign lands. One of son, 1995, p. 28). Information about the pilgrim- the most pejorative descriptions is that of the age would no doubt have been disseminated to people of Navarre who, the Guide asserts: prospective pilgrims by the local priest and by former pilgrims as they prepared for their jour- are repulsively dressed, and they eat and drink ney, and a liturgical ceremony was developed in repulsively. For in fact all those who dwell in the the 11th century for departing pilgrims. The rit- household of a Navarrese, servant as well as ual involved the blessing of their staff and scrip, master, maid as well as mistress, are accustomed items which became the identifying character- to eat all their food mixed together from one pot, istics of a pilgrim (Ashley and Deegan, 2009, not with spoons but with their own hands, and p. 65). they drink with one cup. If you saw them eat, you By examining some of the descriptions of, would think them dogs or pigs. If you heard them speak, you would be reminded of the barking of and evaluating the advice to, pilgrims given in dogs. For their speech is utterly barbarous. This the Codex Callixtinus, and by analysing some of is a barbarous race unlike all other races in the surviving monuments referred to in the customs and in character, full of malice, swarthy Guide, we can gain a greater understanding of in colour, evil of face, depraved, perverse, the experience of 12th-century pilgrims. perfidious, empty of faith and corrupt, libidinous, Medieval Pilgrims’ Experience on the Route to Santiago de Compostela 3 drunken, experienced in all violence, ferocious It is worth reiterating that, although the and wild, dishonest and reprobate, impious and Guide’s author was an educated cleric, pilgrims harsh, cruel and contentious, unversed in came from all walks of life, and many of those anything good, well-trained in all vices and travelling on foot could not have been much more iniquities . in everything inimical to our French elegant in dress or eating habits than the descrip- people. For a mere nummus, a Navarrese or a tion of the people of Navarre. This may be illus- Basque will kill, if he can, a Frenchman. In certain regions of their country . when the trated by a capital from the 12th-century chapel Navarrese are warming themselves, a man will of the pilgrim’s hostel in Navarrete (Navarre), show a woman and a woman a man their which depicts two seated pilgrims, wearing private parts. The Navarrese even practice hooded and belted tunics, one clearly identified unchaste fornication with animals. For the by his staff and scrip, the other holding a goblet Navarrese is said to hang a padlock behind his (Fig. 1.1). Both are eating ‘with their own mule and his mare, so that none may come near hands’ and appear to be drinking ‘with one cup’ her but himself. He even offers libidinous kisses in a manner not unlike the description of the to the vulva of woman and mule. Navarrese. A second capital depicts two figures (Shaver-Crandell and Gerson, 1995, p. 73) in their underwear, one grooming the hair of I have quoted this passage at some length as it the other, possibly removing head lice (Fig. 1.2). gives some idea of the mixture of observation, The capitals, now incorporated, along with the myth, prejudice and scandalous gossip presented portal and windows, into the entrance to the in the Guide and of the reaction to different ra- cemetery at Navarrete, come from the chapel of cial, linguistic and regional characteristics as the hospital and inn of St Juan de Acre, which pilgrims travelled through France and northern was founded just east of Navarrete in c.1185 Spain.

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