The Road to Santiago: Pilgrims of St. James

century). I then remembered that St. Jude was the Apostle of lost and despairing causes. He was the brother of St. James the Great and St. John the Evangelist, the ‘Sons of Thunder’. His companion among the Apostles was St. Simon Zelotes, believed traditionally to have been the husband at the marriage feast of Cana. * St. Jude and St. Simon together preached the gospel in Syria and Mesopotamia and both were martyrized: St. Jude was killed by a club and St. Simon by a saw and artists often represent them carrying these emblems. Even in death they were not parted, for their relics were discovered in the same casket. The commentary on St. Jude ends with the words: ‘St. Jude est invoqué au loin sous le titre de Patron de Causes Désespérées.’ No wonder he gets all the attention of the pilgrims, said I to myself as I watched a pale-faced woman brushing away her tears as she muttered prayers to herself.
    The interior of the cathedral is noble in its proportions: the lofty nave with its round-arched barrel vault, the extended transepts and the high triforium with external windows lighting the nave—all made me regret that I did not see the cathedral at a crowded moment of pilgrimage. Every device has been utilized by the mediaeval artist to increase the space for pilgrims: there are many naves, transepts, ambulatories that circle the whole church, chapels radiating from the choir and, above, balconies to hold the crowds that came on special feast days. Few churches, nevertheless, give so satisfying a sensation of the unity as well as the complex, polyphonic nature of mediaeval Christianity, at a moment when the Pope had asserted the sovereign will of the papal tiara over the imperial crown, and called upon the knights of Europe to defend the Holy Land in the First Crusade of 1096. The cathedral from the outside, with its octagonal bell-tower soaring triumphantly, resembles a mighty galleon of brick and stone ready to sail.
    In the tympanum is represented the Ascension of Christ, who is surrounded by his angels. Below the Saviour the twelve Apostles are all gazing up at Him completely wrapt up in their vision. The other door worthy of note is called la Porte des Comtes, because on the right of it is a niche holding three sarcophagi, containing the bodies of three Counts of Toulouse. The capitals of the pillars of the door are grotesque reminders of the wages of sin: in one, two devils are plunging their forks into the belly of a lustful sinner; in another we see the miser with his purse round his neck; in a third two serpents bite the breast of an adulterous woman, who is held by two devils; in a fourth a wicked rich man has his head caught in the jaws of a two-bodied dragon, and finally there is a capital showing the soul of the poor man Lazarus being carried up to heaven.
    I was sorry to leave the refuge of the church, for the monotonous downpour continued and there was not a taxi to be seen anywhere.
    Eventually, after I had found a cosy restaurant and eaten a heavy vegetable soup, a côte de porc and drunk a carafe of Bordeaux, my spirits rose and I prepared myself for a further bout of sight-seeing. Fortunately one of my old friends from the University of Toulouse, whom I knew in Spain, came to my rescue and acted as cicerone. From him I learnt that Toulouse boasts of having the most ancient literary society in Europe, the Académie des Jeux Floraux, which was founded in 1323 by seven young troubadours eager to maintain the prestige of the Langue d’Oc and the traditions of‘Gay Saber’. Toulouse was in continual contact with Aragon in those days, for the troubadours of Provence and Le Toulousain were sure of a warm welcome whenever they had to seek refuge there from persecution.
    Aimeric de Peguilhan and Giraut de Bornelh, when they left Provence for Aragon and Castile, were entertained royally and given palfreys, jewels and many presents. In modern days, too, owing to the links between the Catalan and Provençal languages, the friendship between Barcelona and Toulouse has grown even more intimate, but the University of Toulouse has also maintained quite as close cultural relations with Castile as with Aragon and Catalonia. Every year recently it used to be the custom in the summer months for the University of Toulouse to hold courses of languages and of literature in Burgos, at which Spanish as well as French scholars lectured. There was in fact, a constant interchange between professors of Toulouse and