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Pope Urban II at the end of the eleventh "*#tlkling6"century developed the "indul- gence," a formal remittance of punishment for sins by visiting certain shrines. Pilgrims, like widows and orphans, had the legal status of a miserabilis persona, which gave Moncler Womens Jackets In Limited Edition Down Jacket White them special protection en route to fulfill their vows. The crowds of pilgrims benefited innkeepers and merchants, while they enriched the churches. When Henry VIII dissolved the Canter- bury Cathedral priory, he hauled away twenty-six cartfuls ofjewels and precious metals, the gifts of grateful pilgrims. Pilgrim shrines, too, like modern tourist centers, had their ups and downs. The appeal of the tomb of Saint Thomas at Canterbury, popular in the late eleventh century, declined with rumors in the next century that the saint had lost his power to work miracles.Pilgrimage had its own ritual. A pilgrim was blessed by a priest at theoutset, took a special oath, carried a staff, and wore a distinctive garment, with a bag for provisions hanging at his side. When he returned home his hat bore the badge of the shrine he had visited. Like modern tourists, pilgrims organized in groups pumps blue and engaged experienced guides to find the way and lead them to hospitable inns. Illustrated pilgrim Baedekers with maps noted sights along the way and warned of risks to health and purse."Now let us ryde, and herkneth what I seye And with that word we ride forth our weye."To make his journey count for penance the pilgrim was expected to suffer. In addition to suffering the usual trials of medieval travel, the more devout would walk barefoot, while fasting and constantly praying. But as the institution became popular it became more pleasant, less a penance than a travel holiday. Pilgrims who joined the tours from Venice to Muslim Jerusa- lem went to see the exotic, buy souvenirs, and then write their own journals. Sir John Mandeville (who, if there was such a person, must have been a contemporary of Chaucer) wrote the most popular travel book of the age,toward the sick." We now know that at least half of Florence's ioo,ooo population Moncler Womens Jackets In Multiple Logo Grey died in that plague year. People would retire apparently well Moncler Womens Jackets In Bady Down Black and die of the disease before they awoke. Seldom did an afflicted person survive more than five days. The usual course was much shorter. A doctor, it was said, might catch the disease at the patient's bedside and die before he could leave the room. The chronicler of Florence, Giovanni Villani (1280?-1348) ended his life in the middle of a sentence-punctuated by the Black DeathLuckily for us, Boccaccio was there and survived to write the Decameron between 1348 and 1352. His eyewitness account of the plague became the"Introduction to the First Day." "To take pity on people in distress is a human quality which every man and woman should possess," Boccaccio begins, while asking the reader's sympathy for his own frustration in love. To all who have been kind to him he offers this book and "where it seems to be most needed"-to women.