Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe : Travel in Time and Space

Why did people travel in Medieval Europe? They traveled as pilgrims for salvation. They traveled as knights for adventure and dream. They traveled as scholars for new knowledge. They traveled to satisfy their curiosity and adventurous spirit. This paper discussed the case of pilgrimage. People could not stop moving out of their home for pilgrimage. They were moved by some kind of impulse. The paper clarified the historical background for this boom of pilgrimage in Medieval Europe. The paper pointed out that there existed some kind of continuity of sacred sites before and after the introduction of Christianity. Sacred sites were where people felt cured and where they could experience miracles. After the Crusades to the East, many sacred relics were brought back to the West and most churches and abbeys kept them. Patron saints, through their relics, performed miracles and they attracted many pilgrims who were charmed by such miracles. The paper also asked who pilgrims were and what their motives were. From England, people of higher social status traveled to Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago de Compostela. People of lower status also visited such great sacred sites on the Continent but in most cases visited the local shrines like the ones at Canterbury, Walsingham and Oxford, etc. The author concluded that the twelfth century was the period when religious people regarded ""the apostolic life"" as ideal and themselves engaged in it and ordinary people went out for pilgrimage. But both of them, in different religious forms, tried to follow the life of Christ and his disciples while pursuing their salvation