There is a MS. in the British Museum entitled _The Pilgrim_. It is an allegorical poem in the manner of the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and sets forth the adventures of the traveller. The illustration (Pl. I) and description were probably taken from experience of earthly pilgrimage. “Charity” is seen welcoming strangers, [p006] at which work she was always busy in mediæval England:— “And I suppose for my beste There to herborewe and to reste On ther cam and preyed me And her name was _Charite_ To pylgrymes in goodly wyse Sche dyde moste trewely the seruyse With chere benygne and glad uysage She brought hem to ther herbergage.”[5] Among shrines which the pious Englishman visited may be mentioned Bury St. Edmunds, Westminster, Durham, Beverley, St. Albans, Waltham.[6] THIRD PERIOD (1270–1470) [Illustration: 2. A PILGRIM] (a) _Pilgrimage and Vagrancy._—The greatest century of pilgrimage was past, but vagrancy was an ever-increasing problem, and inasmuch as it affected the social life of England, it affected hospitals, directly or indirectly. In the Statute of Labourers, drawn up in 1350, an attempt had been made to restrain desultory wandering, idleness, mendicancy and indiscriminate almsgiving. This was followed by many ordinances, local and general. By a proclamation in 1359 the municipal authorities of London declared that such unworthy beggars “do waste divers alms, which would otherwise be given to many poor folks, such as lepers, blind, halt, [p007] and persons oppressed with old age and divers other maladies.” In 1369 they issued a precept “for mendicants, vagrants and pilgrims to leave the city.” The Statute of Westminster (1383) ordered inquiry concerning vagabonds “wandering from place to place, running in the country more abundantly than they were wont in times past.” The Act of 1388 declared that those who “go in pilgrimage as beggars” when fit for employment, should be dealt with according to the previous Statute. It will be observed that these measures were framed from an economic standpoint, not to check pilgrimage as such. Although pilgrimage was declining, there were still many pilgrims. Some of these were professional palmers, and hirelings fulfilling vows by proxy; for there are numerous bequests in the fourteenth century to persons undertaking journeys on the testator’s behalf to Canterbury, Walsingham, and Bury St. Edmunds, as well as to St. James of Compostella, Rome, or the Holy Land. The special “Jubilee” at Canterbury in 1420 was attended by 100,000 persons, and in 1434 thousands set sail for Compostella.