The Age of Pilgrimage: The Medieval Journey to God

Rating:
Summary: a classic re-issued
Review: buyers should be aware that this is not a new book. it is a reprint, under a new title, of sumption's classic 1970s book on pilgrimage.

it is an outstanding work - entertaining despite the seriousness of the scholarship. if you are planning a trip to santiago, this book will tell you more about those who have walked the road before you than a whole shelf full of new-age "camino as the path to enlightenment" books that have appeared in recent years.



Rating:
Summary: Sings with vibrancy
Review: The Catholic church has always presented a series of intriguing enigmas to anyone with the time or interest to look beneath the surface. But most interesting of all, perhaps, is the road that was taken on its journey toward ever-increasing decay. That road is illustrated no where so well as the medieval pilgrimages. Sumption has done an excellent job of bringing to life the people and places that were so prominent in the religious lives of everyone, peasant and prince, during the middle ages.

In a tone light enough to engage any reader, but which never lends itself to frivolity, Sumption expounds on the origins of the popular pilgrimages, beginning with the "cult of the relics" and the almost idolatrous adulation of the saints as encouraged by the papacy. Miracles, healing, penitential pilgrimages - all are opened up to the modern mind with astounding clarity and lucidity.

Sumption closes with a salvo of chapters on the "great age" of the pilgrimages, in which pious humility gave way to mere curiosity and even stylistic fads. His descriptions of the holy destinations - Jerusalem, Rome, Canterbury - sing with vibrancy, as he invites us to partake of the crowded streets of the Jubilees, the writhing crowds engaged in mass flagellation, and the combined adoration and skepticism exhibited in the widely varied thousands of pilgrims traversing the roads to the Holy Land.

An excellent read, not only for those interested in the defined subject matter, but also those seeking the little gems about daily life and social mores in the middle ages. In this tidy volume, originally published under the title PILGRIMAGE, Sumption has set the bar very high indeed.


Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive and well-written
Review: The topic of medieval Christian pilgrimage is obviously large. Sumption does the reader a service by bounding the topic in a way that still provides an excellent overall view. The Age of Pilgrimage focuses primarily on the years between 1100 and 1500. It concentrates its attention during this period on the French cultural center (England, Northern Spain and Southern Italy).

The book is intuitively structured and flows very naturally for the reader. Sumption begins with the relevant background: relics and the cult of relics, saints, traditions of pilgrimage and retreat. He then moves to the periods relevant to pilgrimage before looking specifically at the pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome. The chapter on the Crusades as a pilgrimage movement is particulary interesting.

I actually bought the book looking for more historical background regarding the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Unfortunately, Sumption chooses not to address Santiago in the same detail as he addresses Rome and Jerusalem. However, the Way of St. James is such an important part of the medieval pilgrimage experience that I still got quite a bit of relevant history and background.

The book is full of wonderful anecdotes and quotations. It should appeal to virtually any historian (armchair or otherwise) but will have particular value to people with interest in Saints, the history of the Catholic church, medieval history and (obviously) historical background to the pilgrimage experience. The 2003 edition is an update of the 1975 book by Sumption which was simply titled Pilgrimage.