English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages (XIVth Century)

by J. J. Jusserand

J.

ALBERT GATE,
July 7th, 1889.

At the time of “les longs espoirs et les vastes pensées,” so far back that I have but a hazy recollection of him, the young author of these pages had formed so bold a plan that he kept it to himself, which was to write, if a long life were granted him, a complete description of the English people, during it is true a single century, the fourteenth, that period, of unique interest, when, after long years of probation, it became certain that England would be English and nothing else, when the language was formed, the first masterpieces were written, the chief traits of the national character became permanent, the principal institutions were founded, and even a first attempt at Reformation was launched.

Old Barthélemy Saint Hilaire, the indefatigable translator of Aristotle, used to say to me when he was our Foreign Minister: one must select, early in life, a vast intellectual task, that will be like a literary companion, a long-lived one, which you can never lose, because it is sure to outlive you. The author of this study thought the ampler work would be his literary companion.

But his official duties thereupon became more exacting, and as they had a first claim, he had to part with his companion, whom, as will happen in life’s pilgrimage, others replaced at later stages of the journey. He desired, however, that some trace be left of an early comradeship: hence the present essay, illustrated in part from his pen-and-ink sketches, also a token of comradeship.

The need of this new issue has supplied the occasion for a revision of the text, with numerous corrections and additions, written in a land unsuspected by the best-travelled of the ever-moving heroes of these pages, written too at a time when the Hundred years war of Chaucerian days has been replaced by a Hundred years peace, and when great deeds performed in common are, if we and our successors prove in any way worthy of our dead, the harbingers of a friendship not to be broken between France, England and America.

J.

WASHINGTON, 1920.

• CONTENTS
  • PREFACE • [7]
  • TABLE OF CONTENTS • [11]
  • LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS • [13]
  • INTRODUCTION • [23]
  • PART I —— ENGLISH ROADS
    • I. ROADS AND BRIDGES • [29]
    • II. THE ORDINARY TRAVELLER AND THE CASUAL PASSER-BY • [90]
    • III. SECURITY OF THE ROADS • [149]
  • PART II —— LAY WAYFARERS
    • INTRODUCTORY NOTE • [181]
    • I. HERBALISTS, CHARLATANS, MINSTRELS, JUGGLERS, AND TUMBLERS • [183]
    • II. MESSENGERS, ITINERANT MERCHANTS AND PEDLARS • [223]
    • III. OUTLAWS, WANDERING WORKMEN, AND PEASANTS OUT OF BOND • [254]
  • PART III —— RELIGIOUS WAYFARERS
    • I. WANDERING PREACHERS AND FRIARS • [283]
    • II. THE PARDONERS • [312]
    • III. PILGRIMS AND PILGRIMAGES
      • 1. Pilgrimages, their motives: to fulfil a vow, to spite the king, to regain health • [338]
      • 2. Principal English pilgrimages; the one of European celebrity, St. Thomas of Canterbury • [346]
      • 3. Piety, merriment, abuses. Real and false relics. Signs and brooches. Pilgrim stories. Honest and false pilgrims • [357]
      • 4. Pilgrimages beyond sea, Calais, Boulogne, Chartres, Rocamadour, St. James of Compostela, Cologne, Rome. Offerings left and indulgences gained. Helping gilds. Faith, superstition, and scepticism. Pilgrimages by proxy • [370]
      • 5. The holy journey to Jerusalem. Pilgrims in the days of St. Jerome. Pilgrims in arms, the crusades. Itineraries and Journals. “Mandeville,” William Wey, the lord of Anglure • [395]
  • CONCLUSION • [419]
  • APPENDIX • [423]
    • I. Patent of King John entrusting a French cleric with the completion of London Bridge, 1201 • [425]
    • II. Petition concerning an old bridge, with arches too low and too narrow to allow boats to pass, 1442 • [426]
    • III. London Bridge and its maintenance • [427]
    • IV. Inquests as to the maintenance of bridges, temp. Ed. I and Ed. II • [429]
    • V. The King’s journeys. Petitions and statutes concerning the Royal Purveyors • [430]
    • VI. The recurrence of leet-days and visits of Justices • [431]
    • VII. The dress of the worldly monk • [432]
    • VIII. Noblemen’s exactions when travelling • [433]
    • IX. Passage of the Humber in a ferry • [433]
    • X. The right of sanctuary • [434]
    • XI. A monopoly of minstrelsy for the King’s own minstrels • [435]
    • XII. Popular English songs of the Middle Ages • [437]
    • XIII. Indulgences and the theory of the “Treasury” according to Pope Clement VI • [438]
    • XIV. Sermon accompanying the display of a pretended papal bull (on the occasion of the coming of Henry of Lancaster) • [439]
    • XV. Ecclesiastical documents concerning chiefly English pardoners • [440]
    • XVI. The first recorded crucifix in England sculptured from life • [445]
    • XVII. The pilgrimage of Reynard • [446]
  • INDEX • [449]