Far From Being Encouraged To
Exercise A Humble And Abnegatory Spirit On The Voyage, He Is To Be At
Pains
To secure a berth in the middle of the ship, and not to mind
paying fifty ducats for to be
In a good honest place, "to have your ease
in the galey and also to be cherysshed." Still more unchristian are the
injunctions to run ahead of one's fellows, on landing, in order to get
the best quarters at the inn, and first turn at the dinner provided; and
above all, at Port Jaffa, to secure the best ass, "for ye shall paye no
more for the best than for the worste."
But while this book was being published, new forces were at hand which
were to strip the thin disguise of piety from pilgrims of this sort. The
Colloquies of Erasmus appeared before the third edition of Informacon
for Pylgrymes, and exploded the idea that it was the height of piety to
have seen Jerusalem. It was nothing but the love of change, Erasmus
declared, that made old bishops run over huge spaces of sea and land to
reach Jerusalem. The noblemen who flocked thither had better be looking
after their estates, and married men after their wives. Young men and
women travelled "non sine gravi discrimine morum et integritatis."
Pilgrimages were a dissipation. Some people went again and again and did
nothing else all their lives long.[6] The only satisfaction they looked
for or received was entertainment to themselves and their friends by
their remarkable adventures, and ability to shine at dinner-tables by
recounting their travels.[7] There was no harm in going sometimes, but
it was not pious.
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