Pilgrimage Guaranteed Pardon
In the shrewd management of the Church at this time, pilgrimages were substituted for penances, and troublesome sinners were sent out of their country on a pious mission which promised forgiveness if it could not pledge reform. It at least secured a period of quiet to their families and of security to the neighborhoods from which they came.
The Bollandist manuscripts afford many details of the pilgrim life at Jerusalem which had, however, to be enjoyed by permission of the infidel, always a bitter portion in the pilgrim's cup.
Round of Pilgrim Duties
On arrival they prepared themselves by fasting and prayer. Then, covered by a mourning robe, they visited the Church of the Sepulcher. The robe thus attained such sanctity that it was preserved until death and enshrouded the owner at burial. They then visited, in turn, the sacred spots in and adjacent to the city. This accomplished, they
sought the holy mountains of the Sermon, the Transfiguration, and Ascension. Then they washed their sins away in Jordan, and tore off palm-leaves near Jericho to attest on their homeward journey that the holy pilgrimage was complete.
The tenth and eleventh centuries thus kept by the thousands of pilgrims yearly, all Christian Europe became informed of the conditions which obtained in the land where Christ suffered for the sins of men.
Services to Pilgrims
Slowly there grew up a devotion which was nearly equal to a secondary religion. Service rendered to a pilgrim was almost the same as being a pilgrim. Nor did the pilgrims fail to profit by the reverence they inspired. Some of them paid their way by their prayers. There is record of one who paid his fare for a voyage from Alexandria to Palestine with a copy of the Evangelists.
On the St. Bernard, on Mt. Cenis, on the frontiers of Hungary, in Asia Minor, as well as in Palestine, hospitals and hostelries were built by the faithful as works of salvation.