Kingdoms, empires, and emirates in 1361

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Kingdoms, empires, and emirates in 1361
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Pilgrimage as Metaphor (2)
Suppose, then, we were wanderers in a
strange country, and could not live happily away
from our fatherland, and that we felt wretched in
our wandering, and wished to put an end to our
misery, determined to return home. We find,
however, that we must make use of some
conveyance, either by land or water, in order to
reach that fatherland where our enjoyment is to
commence. But the beauty of the country through
which we pass, and the very pleasure of the
motion, charm our hearts, and turning these
things which we ought to use into objects of
enjoyment, we become unwilling to hasten the end
of our journey and becoming engrossed in a
factitious delight, our thoughts are diverted
from that home whose delights would make us truly
happy, Such is a picture of our condition in this
life of mortality. We have wandered far from
God and if we wish to return to our father's
home, this world must be used, not enjoyed, so
that the invisible things of God may be clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are
made--that ism, by means of what is material and
temporary we may lay hold upon that which is
spiritual and eternal. Augustine, De Doctrina
Christiana (5th c.)
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Chartres Cathedral
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The Nativity (Chartres)
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Canterbury Cathedral
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Canterbury Relics

• Beckets coffined body
• His severed head (which privileged pilgrims could
  kiss)
• His haircloth underclothes
• A statue of the BVM, which was purported to have
  spoken to Becket
• The complete arms of 11 saints (St. George, St.
  Bartholomew, St. Mildred, St. Hugh, St.
  Wulfstan, St. Simeon)
• Fragments of the arms of two other saints
• The head of St. Swithun and the heads of other
  saints.
• Fragments of the Holy Sepulcher, the manger and
  the rock on which the Cross stood

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Canterbury Relics, part two

• The column to which Christ was tied when he was
  whipped.
• The stone on which Christ stood before the
  Ascension
• The bed of the Virgin Mary
• Aarons rod (Rome claimed to have the original)
• Wool woven by the Virgin Mary
• A piece of clay from which Adam was mad

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Some other attitudes toward pilgrimage
Some light-minded and inquisitive persons go on
pilgrimages not out of devotion, but out of mere
curiosity and love of novelty. All they want to
do is travel through unknown lands to investigate
the absurd, exaggerated stories they have heard
about the east. Jacques de Vitry, Historia
Hiersolymitana (13th c.)
Pilgrims and palmers made pacts with each
other To seek out Saint James and saints at
Rome They went on their way with many wise
stories And had leave to lie all their lives
after. I saw some that said they's sought after
saints In every tale they told their tongues
were tuned to lie More than to tell the
truth--such talk was theirs. Piers Plowman B
Prol.46-52 (circa 1378)
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Lollard views of pilgrimage

• And again I said, "As their works shew, the
  most part of men or women that go now on
  pilgrimages have not these foresaid conditions
  nor loveth to busy them faithfully for to have.
  For (as I well know, since I have full oft
  assayed) examine, whosoever will, twenty of these
  pilgrims, and he shall not find three men or
  women that know surely a Commandment of God, nor
  can say their Pater noster and Ave Maria nor
  their Credo, readily in any manner of language.
  And as I have learned, and also know somewhat by
  experience of these same pilgrims, telling the
  cause why that many men and women go hither and
  thither now on pilgrimages, it is more for the
  health of their bodies, than of their souls, more
  for to have richesse and prosperity of this
  world, than for to be enriched with virtues in
  their souls, more to have here worldly and
  fleshly friendship, than for to have friendship
  of God and of His saints in heaven. For
  whatsoever thing a man or woman doth, the
  friendship of God, nor of any other Saint, cannot
  be had without keeping of God's commandments.
• For with my Protestation, I say now, as I
  said at Shrewsbury, though they that have fleshly
  wills, travel for their bodies, and spend mickle
  money to seek and to visit the bones or images,
  as they say they do, of this saint and of that
  such pilgrimage-going is neither praisable nor
  thankful to God, nor to any Saint of God since,
  in effect, all such pilgrims despise God and all
  His commandments and Saints. For the commandments
  of God they will neither know nor keep, nor
  conform them to live virtuously by example of
  Christ and of his Saints
• Also, Sir, I know well, that when divers men
  and women will go thus after their own wills, and
  finding out one pilgrimage, they will ordain with
  them beforehand to have with them both men and
  women that can well sing wanton songs and some
  other pilgrims will have with them bagpipes so
  that every town that they come through, what with
  the noise of their singing, and with the sound of
  their piping, and with the jangling of their
  Canterbury bells, and with the barking out of
  dogs after them, they make more noise than if the
  King came there away, with all his clarions and
  many other minstrels. And if these men and women
  be a month out in their pilgrimage, many of them
  shall be, a half year after, great janglers,
  tale-tellers, and liars.
• The Examination of Master William Thorpe, priest,
  Of Heresy, Before Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of
  Canterbury, In the Year of our Lord 1407 (from
  Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse, ed. Alfred W.
  Pollard)

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From Kathy Lavezzo, Angels on the Edge of the
World Geography, Literature, and English
Community, 1000-1534 (Cornell, 2006)
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From Kathy Lavezzo, Angels on the Edge of the
World Geography, Literature, and English
Community, 1000-1534 (Cornell, 2006)
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Hereford World Map of Richard of Haldingham (c.
1300)
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Hereford Map (detail) monstrous races
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Hereford Map (detail)manticore
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Hereford Map (detail) Tower of Babel
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Cynocephalescf. Mandevilles Travels, p. 134
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Vezelay
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More Cynocephales (from the tympanum of Vezelay
cathedral)
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• So, just as it was not impossible for
  God to set in being natures according to his
  will, so it is afterwards not impossible for him
  to change those natures which he has set in
  being, in whatever way he chooses. Hence the
  enormous crop of marvels, which we call
  "monsters," "signs," "portents," or "prodigies"
  if I choose to recall them all and mention them
  all, would there ever be an end to this work?
  The name "monster," we are told, evidently comes
  from monstrare, "to show," because they show by
  signifying something "sign" (ostentum) comes
  from ostendere, "to point out," "portent" from
  portendere, "to portend," that is, "to show
  beforehand" (praeostendere), and "prodigy" from
  porro dicere, "to foretell the future".Now these
  signs are, apparently, contrary to nature and
  they are called "unnatural" and the Apostle uses
  the same human way of speaking when he talks of
  the wild olive being "unnaturally" grafted on to
  the cultivated tree, and sharing the richness of
  the garden olive. For us, however, they have a
  message. These "monsters," "signs," "portents,"
  "prodigies" as they are called, ought to "show"
  us, to "point out" to us, to "portend" and
  "foretell," that God is to do what he prophesied
  that he would do with the bodies of the dead,
  with no difficulty to hinder him, no law of
  nature to debar him from so doing.
• Augustine, City of God 218 (5th c.)

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Kingdoms, empires, and emirates in 1361
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Kingdoms, empires, and emirates in 1401
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Cf. Mandevilles Travels, p. 159
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Cf. Mandevilles Travels, p. 186
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Sources of Mandevilles Travels

• Albert of Aix, Historia Hierosolomitanae
  Expeditionis
• Jacopo de Voragine, The Golden Legend (c.1260)
• Jacques de Vitry, Historia Hierosolomitana
• John of Sacrobosco, De Sphaera (d. 1256)
• Odoric of Pordenone, Itinerarius (1330)
• pseudo-Odoric, De Terra Sancta
• William von Boldensele, Itinerarius (1336)
• William of Tripoli, De Statu Saracenorum (1270?)
• The Letter of Prester John
• Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale and
  Speculum Naturale, including
• extracts from John of Piano de Carpini, Pliny
  and Solinus (d. 1264)
• Pilgrims' manuals
• Alexander Romances, including 'Alexander's letter
  to Aristotle'
• Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus Miraculorum
  (1220s)
• Brunetto Latini , Livre dou Tresor
• Burchard of Mount Sion, Descriptio Terrae
  Sanctae

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Odoric of Pordenone The Vale Perilous (cp.
Mandeville, 173-74)   There was another terrible
thing which I saw there. Passing by a certain
valley, which is beside a pleasant river, I saw
many dead bodies, and in the valley also I heard
divers sweet sounds and harmonies of music,
especially the noise of citherns. I was greatly
amazed. This desert valley is in length seven or
eight miles at the least, into which anyone who
enters dies presently, and can by no means pass
alive through it. Moreover, I was tempted to go
in, and to see what it was. At length making my
prayers, and recommending myself to God in the
name of Jesus, I entered, and saw such swarms of
dead bodies there as no man would believe unless
he were an eye-witness thereof. At the one side
of the valley in a certain rock, I saw the face
of a man, which beheld me with such a terrible
aspect that I thought verily I should have died
in the same place. But always this sentence, "The
Word became Flesh, and Dwelt amongst us," I began
to pronounce, making the sign of the cross, and
nearer than seven or eight paces I dared not
approach to the face in the rocks. But I departed
and fled to another place in the valley,
ascending up to a little sandy mountain, where
looking round about, I saw nothing but heard the
citherns, which continued sounding and playing by
themselves without the help of musicians. And
being upon the top of the mountain, I found
silver there like the scales of fishes in great
abundance and I gathered some into my bosom to
show for a wonder, but my conscience rebuking me,
I cast it up. And so, by God's grace, I departed
without danger. And when the men of the country
knew that I was returned out of the valley alive,
they reverenced me, saying that I was baptized
and holy, and that the bodies were men subject to
the devils infernal, who used to play upon
citherns, to the end they might allure people to
enter, and so murder them. Thus much concerning
those things which I beheld most certainly with
mine eyes, I, Friar Odoric, have here written.
Many strange things also I have of purpose
omitted, because men will not believe them unless
they see them.
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Odoric of Pordenone Tibet (cp. Mandeville,
186-87)   Going on further, I came to a certain
kingdom called Tibet, which is in subjection to
the great Khan also, wherein I think there is
more bread and wine than in any other part of the
world. The people of this country do, for the
most part, live in tents made of black felt.
Their principal city Lhasa is surrounded with
fair and beautiful walls, being built of white
and black stones, which are disposed chequerwise
one by another, and curiously put together.
Likewise all the highways in this country are
exceedingly well paved. In this city none dare
shed the blood of a man, or of any beast, for the
reverence they bear a certain idol. In this city
their Abassi, that is to say, their Pope, is
resident, being the head and prince of all
idolaters, upon whom he bestows and distributes
gifts after his manner, even as our Pope of Rome
accounts himself to be the head of all
Christians.  The women of this country wear
their hair plaited in over a hundred tresses, and
they have two teeth in their mouths as long as
the tusks of a boar. When a man's father dies
among them, his son assembles together all the
priests and musicians that he can get, saying
that he is determined to honour his father. Then
they carry the body to a field, all his kinsfolk,
friends and neighbours accompanying them. Here
the priests with great solemnity cut off the
father's head, giving it to his son, which being
done, they divide the whole body into morsels,
and so leave it behind them, returning home with
prayers in the company of the son. So soon as
they are departed, certain vultures, which are
accustomed to such banquets, come flying from the
mountains, and carry away all the morsels of
flesh and from thenceforth a fame is spread
abroad that the said party deceased was holy,
because the angels of God carried him into
paradise. This is the greatest and highest honour
that the son can devise to perform for his
deceased father. Then the son takes his father's
head and, first cooking it and eating the flesh,
he makes of the skull a drinking cup, from which
himself with all his family and kindred do drink
with great solemnity and mirth, in the
remembrance of his dead father. Many other vile
and abominable things does this nation commit,
which I mean not to write, because men neither
can nor will believe, except they should have
sight of them.  
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William of Rubruck (d. 1293), Itinerarium Tibet
(cp. Mandeville, 186-87) Beyond these are the
people of Tibet, men which are in the habit of
eating the carcases of their deceased parents'
that for pity's sake they might make no other
sepulchre for them, than their own bowels.
However, of late they have left off this custom,
as they became abominable and odious to all other
nations on account of it. But they still to this
day make fine cups of the skulls of their parents
so that When they drink out of them, they may,
amidst 'all their jollities and delights, call
their dead parents to remembrance. This was told
me by one who saw it.
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Dindimus, King of the Brahmans from MS Bodley
264, c. 1400 (http//image.ox.ac.uk/show?collectio
nbodleianmanuscriptmsbodl264)

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Marco Polo sets out (Oxford, MS Bodley 264
f.218r)
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