English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
History
English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)
Jusserand, J. J. (Jean Jules)
Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages -- England; England -- Social life and customs -- 1066-1485; Travel, Medieval
[541] William Wey, in the fifteenth century, thus mentions the
catacombs: “Item ibi est una spelunca nuncupata Sancti Kalixti
cimiterium, et qui eam pertransit cum devocione, illi indulgentur
omnia sua peccata. Et ibi multa corpora sanctorum sunt, que nullus
hominum numerare nequit nisi solus Deus,” “The Itineraries of William
Wey,” Roxburghe Club, 1857, p. 146. Wey, like the author of the poem,
sometimes mentions prodigious numbers of bodies of martyrs; at the
church called Scala Celi, “sunt ossa sanctorum decem millia militum;”
in one single part of St. Peter’s at Rome, are “Petronella et xiii
millia sanctorum martyrum.”
[542] William Wey said of the church of the Holy Cross: “Item, ibi
sunt duo ciphi, unus plenus sanguine Ihesu Cristi, and alter plenus
lacte beate Marie Virginis,” “Itineraries,” p. 146. Those who drink
at the three fountains which gushed out at the death of St. Paul are
cured of all maladies; those who visit the church of St. Mary of the
Annunciation will never be struck by lightning; at the church of St.
Vivian there is “herba crescens quam ipsa plantavit et valet contra
caducum morbum.” At the church of St. Sebastian is shown a foot-print
of Jesus; and it is, in fact, still to be seen there at the present
day. Ibid. pp. 143–148.
[543] In the Borghese chapel.
[544] “The Stacions of Rome,” fourteenth century, ed. F. J.
Furnivall, Early English Text Society, 1867. Another version of the
“Stacions,” with variants, was printed by the same in “Political,
Religious, and Love Poems,” Early English Text Society, 1866, p. 113.
See in this last volume notes by W. M. Rossetti on the “Stacions,”
pp. xxi–xlviii, paralleling the information furnished by the English
author with that given by the Italian Francino, who wrote on the same
subject in 1600, and whose numbers are much less exaggerated. Mr.
Rossetti states also what is still shown at Rome of the relics named
in the “Stacions.”
The Saint Luke legend appears in a somewhat different form in William
Wey, according to whom the saint was about to paint when he fell
asleep, and the angels made the picture for him, “Itineraries,” p.
143. A similar legend is attached to the great wooden crucifix of
Byzantine workmanship, called in the middle ages the “Saint Vou”
(the Holy Face, _vultus_), at Lucca, begun by Nicodemus after the
Ascension, and miraculously finished during his sleep. Bédier,
“Légendes épiques,” 1908, II. 210.
[545] “Ye Solace of Pilgrimes, a description of Rome _circa_ A.D.
1450, by John Capgrave,” ed. Mills and Bannister, Oxford, 1911, 4º.
[546] As well as that of the author of the poem. This immensely
popular work of unknown date was in existence anyhow in the XIIth
century. See “Mirabilia Urbis Romæ, the Marvels of Rome,” with notes
by F. M. Nichols, London, 1889.
[547] “Le Saint Voyage de Jhérusalem du Seigneur d’Anglure,” ed.
Bonnardot and Longnon, “Société des Anciens Textes Français,” 1878,
pp. 3, 4.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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