As for one day or twayne.
Some layd their bookys on theyr kne,
And rad so long they myght nat se:
Alas! myne hede will cleve on thre!
Thus sayeth another certayne.”
The itinerary of two pilgrimages made by one English traveller still remains, and has been published by the Roxburghe Club. His name was William Wey, Bachelor of Divinity, formerly fellow of the Royal College of the most Blessed Mary at Eton beside Windsor. He travelled twice to Jerusalem, in 1458 and in 1462, and once to St. James of Compostella in 1465. He was “consecratus ad modum peregrinorum,” set apart by the special service: he received the license of the King, so that he was not to lose his fellowship by unauthorised absence; he left Eton to join the Augustines of Hedington, or Edinton; he made his last pilgrimage in the seventieth year of his age; and he died in the monastery in the year 1476 aged eighty-six. Evidently a strong man. He bequeathed, or gave, to the Brethren of Hedington, a great collection of valuable relics and curiosities from the Holy Land.
Unfortunately he tells nothing of the start or the return, beginning his pilgrimage at Venice. Here there was a regular service of ships, where captains undertook to do the “round trip”—to Jerusalem and back—for so much.
When he went to St. James of Compostella, there was a pilgrim fleet of six ships which sailed from Plymouth, viz. from Portsmouth, Bristol, Weymouth, Lymington, Plymouth—called the Mary White, and others—was this the annual pilgrim fleet? or was it only one of many such fleets?
The itineraries of Wey illustrate the comparative ease with which people travelled at that time. It was a long way to Palestine, but not too long for a man of seventy to undertake. The traveller relates stories of purses cut and jewels stolen, but there is no sense of other dangers or of any terrors: the pilgrims were taken on board; they were carried to the port; they were landed; they were conducted under escort to their shrines; and they were brought home again. It is noticeable that Wey’s two companions on his first pilgrimage were priests like himself. In Chaucer’s time, as is well known, all who could afford the time and money went on pilgrimage. Thus the wife of Bath:—
“Thrice hadde sche ben at Jerusalem: