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
After a time came traders selling rushes and branches of trees to make
beds, unguents and perfumes and frankincense to burn, and attar of
roses from Damascus. Others brought bread and water and lettuces and
hot cakes made with eggs, which the pilgrims gladly bought; and, as
the day wore on, with the much going to and fro the ground was slowly
dried under their feet. At nightfall appeared a man armed, whom they
took to be the owner of the caves. With menaces he extorted from each
of them a penny, and in the morning again, before they could come out,
another penny; to their great indignation against the captains and
dragoman, who were sleeping in tents higher up the hill, and had by
contract undertaken all these charges. So long as they were there, the
pilgrims suffered continual annoyance from the Turks, who ran in among
them pilfering, breaking any wine bottles they found, and provoking
them to blows, in order to secure the fines of which the pilgrims
would then be mulcted. One young man was so disgusted at it all that
he went back on board and gave up his pilgrimage; living with the crew
till the party came back from Jerusalem. They were indeed entirely in
the hands of the Turks. It was not a case of moving when they were
inclined. When the Turks wished, they were allowed to go forward: till
then they were confined like prisoners. No date was fixed: the
pilgrims just had to wait in patience, hoping that tomorrow or
tomorrow or tomorrow would see them start.
Fabri records, however, that there was some justice available. Petty
wrongs must go unredressed; but a pilgrim who had been gulled into
buying coloured glass as gems to the value of five ducats, recovered
his money by complaining to the local governor. A subordinate came
down, took the money from the fraudulent trader by force, and restored
it to its owner. Again Fabri testifies to the careful way in which the
escort protected the company from molestation on its way up to
Jerusalem. He is also at pains to refute the idea that the Turks
compelled them to ride on donkeys, lest the land should be defiled by
Christian feet: rather, he says, it is for our comfort and
convenience. And indeed there was sufficient refutation in the
regulation which compelled them to dismount on reaching any village
and proceed through its narrow streets on foot.
Whilst waiting at Jaffa, Fabri to his great delight fell in with the
donkey-boy who had gone up with him three years before; and was able
to secure him again. The boy welcomed him, especially as Fabri had
brought him a present of two iron stirrups from Ulm; and all the way
served him most faithfully, picking him figs and grapes from the
gardens they passed, sharing water and biscuit, and even giving him a
goad for his mount--a concession which was not allowed to the ordinary
pilgrim.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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