The Age of Erasmus: Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and LondonAllen, P. S. (Percy Stafford)
History
The Age of Erasmus: Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London
Allen, P. S. (Percy Stafford)
Erasmus, Desiderius, -1536; Renaissance
Let us turn now to an individual narrative,[38] that of Felix Fabri, a
learned and sensible Dominican of Ulm (1442-1502). He had already made
the journey once, out of piety, in 1480, with the company mentioned
above, which had only nine days on shore. He was desirous to go also
to St. Catherine's at Mount Sinai because she was his patroness-saint,
to whom he had devoted himself on entering the Dominican order on her
day (25 November) in 1452; and accordingly for the second time, in
1483, he procured from the Pope the permission, which every one
needed, to visit the Holy Land: those that went without this being
ipso facto excommunicate, until they did penance before the Warden of
the Franciscans at Jerusalem. He gives us a picture of all that he
went through, in the most minute details. During the day we see the
pilgrims crowded together on deck, some drinking and singing, others
playing dice or cards or that unfailing pastime for ship-life, chess.
Talking, reading, telling their beads, writing diaries, sleeping,
hunting in their clothes for vermin; so they spend their day. Some for
exercise climb up the rigging, or jump, or brandish heavy weights:
some drift about from one party to another, just watching what is
going on. Our good friar complains of the habits of the noblemen, who
gambled a great deal and were always making small wagers, which they
paid with a cup of Malmsey wine. He also tells how the patron, to
beguile the journey, produced a great piece of silk, which he offered
as a prize for the pilgrims to play for.
[38] It has been translated by Mr. Aubrey Stewart for the
Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, vols. 7-10, 1892-3.
At meal times, to which they are summoned by trumpets, the pilgrims
race on to the poop: for they cannot all find seats, and those that
come late have to sit among the crew. Noblemen, who have their own
servants, are too fastidious to mingle with the crowd; and pay extra
to the cooks,--poor, sweating fellows, toiling crossly in a tiny
galley--for food which their servants bring to them on the main-deck,
or even below. After the pilgrims, the captain and his council dine in
state off silver dishes; and the captain's wine is tasted before he
drinks it. At night all sleep below, in a cabin the dirt of which is
indescribable. They wrangle over the places where they shall spread
their beds, and knives are drawn. Some obstinately keep their candles
burning, even though missiles come flying. Others talk noisily; and
the drunken, even when quiet, snore. No wonder the poor friar longed
for the peace of his own cell at home in Ulm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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