Choosing St. James: Motivations for Going to Santiago

CHOOSING ST. JAMES: MOTIVATIONS FOR GOING TO SANTIAGO Diana Webb King's College, London In 1343, Henry Bolle and Michael Seymakers set off from Kent for Santiago de Compostela, "for the amendment of their lives". We know this only because twenty-one years later they were called upon to give evidence before an inquest that William Sepvans was indeed of full age and able to inherit (Calendars, 11 n. 611). Iftheir estimates of their own ages were remotely accurate, Michael Seymakers was not yet thirty in 1343 and Henry Bolle not yet twenty. As they did not answer questions they were not asked, there was no reason for them to explain why they had chosen to go to Santiago rather than to any other destination. Had they made their pilgrimage three years earlier or later we would probably never have known about it at all; nor do we know whether they made other pilgrimages, in England or abroad, in the course oftheir lives. A trawl ofthe Inquisitions Post Mortem held during the reigns ofthe three Edwards, a period of a little over a century (1272-1377), turns up the names of some 152 individuals who either as witnesses remembered pilgrimages they had themselves performed or were remembered by others as having done so. This may not seem a large number in absolute terms, but given the fortuitous character of the record it is not unimpressive, representing as it must merely a small fraction ofthe total La corónica 36.2 (Spring 2008): 39-57 40Diana WebbLa corónica 36.2, 2008 number of Englishmen who went on pilgrimage at home or abroad. Of this total 122 (80%) had gone (or at least set off for) Santiago and many others who cannot be counted had done so, such as the boatload from the Welsh Marcher country who were drowned at Dunster in 1332 on their outward journey. By contrast, only nine individuals were remembered as having gone to Rome during the same period. Many of these pilgrims must have had companions who were neither named nor counted; there are occasional references to "others" or "neighbors" who accompanied the named individual. The value of this and other English record sources was pointed out by Constance Storrs, who attempted a list of English pilgrims to Santiago between 1107 and 1484 (157-69). The list also includes those who received the royal permission to make an overseas pilgrimage, many of whom also registered attorneys for the duration of their absence. The royal records identify large numbers who went to Rome in 1350 to receive the indulgences of the second Holy Year, but overall they reinforce the impression ofSantiago's preponderant popularity with those Englishmen who could afford the time, money and energy to make an overseas pilgrimage. The phenomenon was not of course a peculiarly English one. A survey of pilgrimage souvenirs found in Scandinavia found that Santiago souvenirs comfortably outnumbered those from all other sources put together (Christian Krötzl 386). Pilgrims also went in large numbers to Galicia from much further south in Europe. Between about 1360 and 1480 the clerks ofthe Opera di San Jacopo, the office ofworks of St. James in the cathedral ofthe Tuscan city of Pistoia, recorded the names of over three thousand pilgrims, the vast majority of them going to Santiago, who received alms from the charitable funds of the Opera to assist with their journey (Webb, "St. James in Tuscany"). The true numbers must have been much greater, for the volume of registers for the years 1407-1417 is missing. The clerks usually recorded the pilgrim's name and his or her place oforigin, for the amount of alms given would normally vary according to whether he or she was a citizen of Pistoia, an inhabitant of the adjacent territory or a "foreigner" from further afield in Italy or beyond. The Pistoia records identify a few individuals who made the Santiago pilgrimage more than once, even frequently (Webb, "St. James in Tuscany" Choosing St. James41 230-32). Between 1380 and 1403, the name Piero del Bene or di Bene, an inhabitant of the parish of San Marco, occurs no fewer than fourteen times; in 1403 he...