The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

know
    From another one?
    By his cockle hat and staff
    And his sandal shoon.
    Shakespeare Hamlet

    D ANTE, homesick, in exile and forever thinking of his distant friends, was the first universal writer to define the word ‘Pilgrim’. In the Vita Nuova he tells us that the word may be understood ‘in a wide sense, for whoever is outside his fatherland is a pilgrim; whereas in the narrow sense, none is called a pilgrim save he who is journeying towards the sanctuary of St. James of Compostella or is returning therefrom. For there are three separate denominations proper to those who undertake journeys to the glory of God. They are called Palmers ( Palmieri ) who go beyond the seas eastwards, whence many a time they bring palm-branches. And Pilgrims ( Peregrini ), as I have said, are they who journey to the holy sanctuary of Galicia, because the tomb of St. James was farther from his birthplace than that of any other Apostle. And there is a third sort who are called Romers ( Romei), in that they go whither those whom I have called pilgrims went: which is to say, unto Rome.’ *

    Deh peregrini che pensosi andate
    forse di casa che non v e presente,
    venite voi da si lontana gente.

    Compostella possessed for the genuine pilgrim an advantage over Rome because, like Jerusalem, it lay in a country lying under the heel of the Saracens, and had to be redeemed from the Infidel. Thus the Crusades ran in two directions: one for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem and the other for the protection of the shrine at Compostella. And in the great international movement of the Crusades to the Holy Land, Spain was the only country exempt, because it was considered of paramount importance to the cause of Christendom that Spain should be liberated, and Pope Pascal II laid down the rule that no Spanish knight should take part in the Eastern Crusade, for he had more than enough to do at home. Foreign knights, on the other hand, from France, England and elsewhere, were allowed to engage in the Spanish Crusade. For this reason the pilgrimage to Compostella acquired the prestige of a crusade and it was chosen for its unusual difficulty. Indeed, Montaigne reminds us that Italians made their vows and went on pilgrimages rather to James in Galicia, whereas those of Galicia preferred to journey to Our Lady of Loretto. *
    The ancient pilgrims went fervently and heartily on their pilgrimages, and they mortified their flesh, like the three young clerics of Ireland described in the Book of Lismore. Clerical pilgrims, however, soon lost their reputation for sanctity, for the anonymous author of the Regula Magistri of the eighth century says of clerical tramps that they have no choice but to travel, to whom the whole world is closed, since they can submit to no rule or discipline. Their pilgrimage is not for the sake of their souls, but for the sake of their bellies. ‘ ’Tis the belly’s call compels these men to be travellers, always wiping off their sweat with the straw of a stranger’s bed. Since they have no taste for the discipline of a monastery, they may not live and work in a fixed place like, other men, but must keep moving on from day to day, walking, begging, sweating and whining. Always wandering, they know not where their last moments will overtake them, nor in what grave their bones will rest.’ *
    The pilgrimage to the Holy Land was only for valiant and adventurous spirits, who were prepared to fight their way through hostile countries, and, moreover, the Moslems of Syria were more furious and intolerant than the Moors in Spain, who were disposed to trade and even to consort with their Christian neighbours.
    Already in the eleventh century the pilgrimage to Compostella was well known in England, and by the following century the vigorous propagandist Archbishop, Diego de Gelmirez, made it rank in fame with Jerusalem and Rome. In spite of the romantic appeal that the journey through the passes of the Pyrenees and North Spain had for the adventurous, the spiritual benefits to be derived from Compostella Were not at first as great as those from Rome and Jerusalem. Compostella, however, possessed one supreme asset compared with the other two centres, and this was the unfailing memory of St. James. St. Peter and St. Paul at Rome and the guardian angels at Jerusalem were inclined at times to forget the names, the pleas and the devotion of crusaders and pilgrims, but St. James never forgot his devotees. Sometimes he did not