Fig. 287.—Reliquary in chased copper (front and reverse), with movable Panels, and containing round the Crucifixion Scene, and in the space between the columns, Relics of Apostles, Fathers of the Church, Saints, and Martyrs.—Flemish work of the Thirteenth Century, preserved in the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, at Mons.
Fig. 288.—Robert I., Duke of Normandy, father of William the Conqueror, seized with illness during his pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1035), is carried in his litter by negroes: hence his jocular saying, “I am being taken by demons into Paradise.”—From a Miniature in the “Chroniques de Normandie,” a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin Didot.
That model of pilgrims, the good King Louis IX., collected, in the course of his unsuccessful expeditions (1248–1270), a number of relics (Figs. 290 to 293, and 305). These, brought back to France as trophies of the crusade, were offered as gifts to ancient and venerable churches already possessing many valuable relics, or deposited in new churches which were built expressly for their reception, as in the case of the Sainte Chapelle at Paris. And this brought about the increase of pilgrimages throughout Europe, in which the worship, not only of relics but of miraculous images, was ardently pursued. At the end of the thirteenth century, which was undoubtedly the most brilliant as it was the most solemn epoch of Christian art, in respect to the processional and itinerant acts of devotion, there were said to be no less than ten thousand Catholic sanctuaries, all of more or less celebrity, and each of which attracted its share of pilgrims, either for its Madonna or Notre-Dame. This was exclusive of the numberless images of Notre-Dame which were occasionally honoured by a special worship, and which were erected at cross-roads, at street-corners, and upon the fronts of houses, as a protection for the wayfarer and for the inhabitants of the locality. Many dioceses, such as those of Soissons and Toul, each contained from sixty to seventy places of pilgrimage.
Fig. 289.—The Pilgrims of Emmaus.—Pilgrim’s dress in the second half of the Thirteenth Century.—Portion of the celebrated Altar-piece of Mareuil-en-Brie, reproduced in its entirety in the article “Liturgy and Ceremonies.”
The authentic titles of the principal pilgrimages, apart from those of Rome and Jerusalem, thus date from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Some, no doubt, were anterior to this period, but their origin, though attested by tradition, cannot be said to rest upon any indisputable evidence. Of this nature are the celebrated devotions of Notre-Dame of Loretto, of our Lord’s robe at Trèves, of the seamless robe of Jesus Christ in the village of Argenteuil, near Paris, of St. Larme at Vendôme, of St. Face at Chambéry, of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples, of the stole of St. Hubert, &c.
Fig. 290.—The Crown of Thorns brought into France.—The three lower compartments represent: 1, the first visit of the king to the Sainte-Chapelle, expressly built to receive the crown of thorns; 2, the reception of the crown, presented by Baldwin II., Emperor of Constantinople, and brought to Paris in 1239; 3, the adoration of the crown in the Sainte-Chapelle by the king and his mother, Blanche of Castille. Above are the Island of Cyprus, the Crusaders’ fleet, and a battle with the Saracens, as recalling the crusade of Louis IX.—In the Burgundian Library, Brussels. (Fifteenth Century.)