Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages: A Reader(Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures)

Pilgrimage inspired and shaped the distinct experiences of commoners and nobles, men and women, clergy and laity for over a thousand years. Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages: A Reader is a rich collection of primary sources for the history of Christian pilgrimage in Europe and the Mediterranean world from the fourth through the sixteenth centuries. The collection illustrates the far-reaching significance and consequences of pilgrimage for the culture, society, economics, politics, and spirituality of the Middle Ages. Brett Edward Whalen focuses on sites within Europe and beyond its borders, including the holy places of Jerusalem, and provides documents that shed light upon Eastern Christian, Jewish, and Islamic pilgrimages. The result is an innovative sourcebook that offers a window into broader trends, shifts, and transformations in the Middle Ages.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter One: The Origins of Christian Pilgrimage 1. Pausanias's Guide to Greece 2. Josephus on the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem 3. The Promised Land in Christian Scripture 4. Eusebius on the Constantinian Peace 5. The Discovery of the True Cross 6. Julian the Apostate and the Temple Mount 7. The Pilgrimage of Etheria 8. Jerome on the Pilgrimage of Paula 9. Jerome on the Cult of Saints 10. The Life of Melania the Younger 11. The Breviary of Jerusalem 12. Life as Pilgrimage: Augustine's Confessions Chapter Two: Saints, Travelers, and Sacred Spaces in the Early Medieval West 13. The Churches of Rome 14. Devotion in Italy: Paulinus of Nola's Letters 15. Gregory of Tours on Shrines and Miracles in Merovingian Gaul 16. Pilgrims as Wanderers: The Voyage of Saint Brendan 17. Penance and Pilgrimage 18. Saint Boniface on Pilgrimage: Advice and Criticism 19. Charlemagne and the Churches of Rome 20. Regulating Pilgrimage in the Carolingian Empire 21. The Translation and Miracles of Saints Marcellinus and Peter 22. Criticizing the Cult of Saints: Claudius of Turin's Complaint 23. The "Saracen" Sack of Saint Peter's Basilica Chapter Three: Jerusalem and the Holy Places under Islamic Rule 24. A Christian Reaction to the Islamic Capture of Jerusalem 25. The Night Journey of Muhammad 26. The Pilgrimage of Arculf 27. The Hodoeporicon of Saint Willibald 28. Charlemagne's Legendary Journey to the East 29. The Monk Bernard's Journey to Jerusalem 30. Mukaddasi's Description of Syria 31. Diary of a Journey through Syria and Palestine Chapter Four: Pilgrimage Before and After the Millennium 32. Popular Devotion and the Peace of God 33. The Miracles of Saint Foy 34. A Penitent Pilgrim in Irons 35. The Destruction of the Holy Sepulcher 36. Millennial Devotion and Pilgrimage to the Holy Land 37. The Pilgrimage of Richard of Verdun 38. The German Pilgrimage of 1064-65 39. A Canterbury Monk at Constantinople Chapter Five: Pilgrimage and Holy War 40. Peter the Hermit's Pilgrimage 41. The Conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 42. The Relics of Saint George at Anchin 43. Monastic Criticisms of Crusading and Pilgrimage 44. The Pilgrimages of Bohemond of Taranto 45. The Travels of Saewulf 46. Pilgrimage from Russia to the Holy Land 47. The Tomb of the Patriarchs 48. Richard of Cornwall's Crusade Chapter Six: Pilgrimage and Medieval Society 49. Guibert of Nogent, On Saints and their Relics 50. Accommodating Pilgrims at the Church of St-Denis 51. Miracles at the Shrine of Thomas Becket 52. The Marvels of Rome 53. A Miracle of Mary Magdalene 54. The Pilgrim's Guide to St-James at Compostella 55. Liturgy for Pilgrims and Crusaders 56. Medieval Exempla and Pilgrimage 57. Jewish Host Desecration and Christian Veneration Chapter Seven: Pilgrimage and the Wider World 58. Muhammad al-Idrisi's Description of Jerusalem 59. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela 60. Rabban Sauma's Journey from the East 61. Ibn Battuta on the Pilgrimage Sites of Mecca 62. The Pilgrimage of Mansa Musa 63. Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo at Constantinople 64. Pero Tafur at Jerusalem Chapter Eight: Pilgrimage and Piety in the Late Middle Ages 65. The Jubilee Year of 1300 66. Pilgrimage and Satire: The Canterbury Tales 67. Margery Kempe's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem 68. The Tribulations of Brother Felix 69. The Pilgrimage of Arnold von Harff 70. Thomas More on Saints, Shrines, and Pilgrims 71. Martin Luther on the Papacy and Pilgrimage 72. Mexico Meets Jerusalem: Motolinia's History of the Indians of New Spain Index of Topics Sources

About the Author :
Brett Edward Whalen is Associate Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages (Harvard University Press, 2009).

Review :
Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, the sixteenth volume of the University of Toronto Press's "Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures" series, provides an impressively comprehensive collection of medieval pilgrimage narratives. (Comitatus) Overall, the volume supplies an invaluable teaching tool which-like others in the series-is ample and diverse enough to be deployed effectively in many types of courses. Study questions after each selection primarily encourage close reading and a search within the texts for answers, with some opportunities for speculative imagination and comparisons of different sources. (The Medieval Review)