The alms of pilgrims and other travellers were a valuable asset in the funds, for it was customary for those so journeying to spend much in charity by the way. On the penitential pilgrimage of Henry II to Canterbury (1174) “as he passed on his way by chapels and hospitals he did his duty as a most devout Christian and son of Holy Church by confession of sin and distribution of offerings and gifts.”[115] Halting at Harbledown he left the sum of forty marks, probably because the hospital belonged to the bereaved archbishopric. Long afterwards, another king—John of France—passed along the road, leaving at sundry hospitals a substantial proof of his gratitude for release from captivity. Among his [p192] expenses are included gifts to “les malades de 4 maladeries depuis Rocestre jusques à Cantobérie, pour aumosne”; also to the communities of St. James’, St. John’s at the Northgate, St. Mary’s, and Harbledown, and to the brethren of Ospringe; whilst the king gave as much as twenty nobles to the Maison Dieu, Dover, where he was received as a guest.[116] Situated close to the highway, on the hill which eager travellers were about to climb to catch their first sight of the grand tower of Canterbury, the Harbledown lepers benefited by the gifts of pilgrims for three and a half centuries. Treasured in the hospital (Pl. V) was a relic of “the glorious martyr” to whose shrine they wended. “This fragment of his [p193] shoe supports this little community of poor men,” says Ogygius in the _Colloquy on Pilgrimages_,[117] where Erasmus describes his visit to Canterbury with Dean Colet sometime before the year 1519. Shortly after leaving the city, where the road becomes steep and narrow, there is, he says, a hospital of a few old men. One of the brethren runs out, sprinkles the travellers with holy water, and presently offers them the upper part of a shoe, set with a piece of glass resembling a jewel. This the strangers are invited to kiss. (Bale satirizes this custom where he says, “here ys the lachett of swett seynt Thomas shewe.”) Colet is indignant, but Erasmus, to appease the injured brother, drops a coin into his alms-box. The quaint old box is still kept at Harbledown, and is figured above. FOOTNOTES: [107] Madox, _Formulare Ang._, p. 424. [108] P.R.O. Ancient Deeds, A 11562. [109] Charter Roll 17 John, m. 8. [110] Communicated by the Town Clerk. [111] Surtees Soc., 114, p. 278. [112] Records of Nottingham, ii. 99. [113] The word was retained after the Reformation, e.g. 1573, “paid to a pardoner that gathered for the hospital of Plympton” (T. N. Brushfield, _Devonshire Briefs_). [114] Prynne, _Usurpation of Popes_, p. 1137, and Close 34 Edw. I, m. 1. [115] Chron. and Mem., 67, i. 487. [116] Soc. de l’Histoire de France, 1851, p. 194. [117] Pilgrimages of Walsingham and Canterbury—Ed. Nichols, 1849, p. 63. [p194] CHAPTER XIV RELATIONS WITH CHURCH AND STATE