The robe is said to have been of wool, sometimes of a very shaggy appearance. (Fig. 2.)
The hat was round, with a wide brim, and was commonly made of felt. But the special insignia of a pilgrim were his scrip and staff. The scrip was a small bag, slung by a cord over the shoulder to hold his food and a few necessaries, and to it was often affixed a special sign or token, indicating the pilgrimage he was making. The pilgrim to the Holy Land, too, wore a cross formed by two strips of coloured cloth sewn on the shoulder of his robe. Different colours were used to indicate the nationality of the pilgrims—e.g., the English wore a white cross, the French red, and the Flemish green.
The staff or bourdon varies in appearance in different MSS., but was generally like a long walking stick, often with a knob at the top and one lower down. (Figs. 1 and 3.) Sometimes below the top is a hook (Fig. 2), to which a water-bottle or small bundle could be attached.
Many pilgrims also carried bells, as they were “thought to possess locomotive and other miraculous powers.” (Cutts.)
When the pilgrim reached the Holy Land and had visited the holy places, he was entitled to wear the palm, showing that he had accomplished his pilgrimage, and from this badge he was known as a Palmer. Probably it was fastened as a sprig of palm on the hat or scrip.
To give an idea of the number who undertook these pilgrimages, it may be mentioned that in one month during the First Jubilee, 200,000 of them went to Rome.
The chief badge for this journey bore the effigies of St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Cross Keys, and another was the Vernicle or Kerchief of St. Veronica. The sign of the Compostella was a scallop shell. (Fig. 8.)
These badges, known also as Pilgrims’ signs or Pilgrims’ tokens (Pl. [60], Figs. 4, 6, 8, 10), were made of lead or pewter, and as one was obtained at each shrine visited, a pilgrim who made a long journey might come back with many of these signs displayed about his person.
The chief sign of the Canterbury pilgrimage was an ampul or ampulla or flask of lead or pewter.