[169] At the present day, the Hospital of the Pellegrini at Rome is capable of entertaining seven thousand guests, women as well as men; to be entitled to the hospitality of the institution, they must have walked at least sixty miles, and be provided with a certificate from a bishop or priest to the effect that they are bonâ-fide pilgrims. (Wild’s “Last Winter in Rome.” Longmans: 1865.)
[170] In the latter part of the Saxon period of our history there was a great rage for foreign pilgrimage; thousands of persons were continually coming and going between England and the principal shrines of Europe, especially the threshold of the Apostles at Rome. They were the subject of a letter from Charlemagne to King Offa:—“Concerning the strangers who, for the love of God and the salvation of their souls, wish to repair to the thresholds of the blessed Apostles, let them travel in peace without any trouble.” Again, in the year 1031 A.D., King Canute made a pilgrimage to Rome (as other Saxon kings had done before him) and met the Emperor Conrad and other princes, from whom he obtained for all his subjects, whether merchants or pilgrims, exemptions from the heavy tolls usually exacted on the journey to Rome.
[171] At the marriage of our Edward I., in 1254, with Leonora, sister of Alonzo of Castile, a protection to English pilgrims was stipulated for; but they came in such numbers as to alarm the French, and difficulties were thrown in the way. In the fifteenth century, Rymer mentions 916 licences to make the pilgrimage to Santiago granted in 1428, and 2,460 in 1434.
[172] King Horn, having taken the disguise of a palmer—“Horn took bourden and scrip”—went to the palace of Athulf and into the hall, and took his place among the beggars “in beggar’s row,” and sat on the ground.—Thirteenth Century Romance of King Horn (Early English Text Society). That beggars and such persons did usually sit on the ground in the hall and wait for a share of the food, we learn also from the “Vision of Piers Ploughman,” xii. 198—
“Right as sum man gave me meat, and set me amid the floor,
I have meat more than enough, and not so much worship
As they that sit at side table, or with the sovereigns of the hall,
But sit as a beggar boardless by myself on the ground.”
[173] In the romance of King Horn, the hero meets a palmer and asks his news—
“A palmere he there met
And fair him grette [greeted]:
Palmer, thou shalt me tell
All of thine spell.”
[174] Wallet.
[175] Pillow covering.
[176] Called or took.