Page 71

Ch. II THE PILGRIMAGES TO PALESTINE 71 
at Jerusalem. St. Rhadegund, ex-queen of Clothar the Frank, employed agents
who brought her a rich haul, including a fragment of the Cross, acquired
at Constantinople, and the finger of St. Mamas of Cappadocia, several of
whose other bones were obtained by pilgrims from Langres. Women were particularly
zealous in this pursuit. It was a lady from Guienne who returned home with
a phial containing the blood of St. John the Baptist, and a lady from Maurienne
who brought back his thumb.'~ 
 Throughout the sixth century pilgrims continued to visit the east in great
numbers, and several Itineraries were written to help them on their way,
such as those of the travelers Theodosius and Antoninus Martyr. There were
still constant trade connections with the east; and it was not difficult
for a pilgrim to obtain a passage in a merchant-ship, probably Syrian-owned,
traveling between Provence or Visigothic Spain and the ports of Syria and
Egypt.16 
 With the Arab conquest of Syria and Egypt, the pilgrimtraffic was necessarily
interrupted. For some centuries there was no sea-borne trade between the
Moslem east and the Christian west. Pirates infested Mediterranean waters.
The new rulers of Palestine were suspicious of strangers; and in any case
the journey was increasingly expensive, and wealth in the west was declining.
But intercourse was not entirely broken off; and the western church still
thought with sympathy and longing of the holy places. Many of the popes were
still of oriental origin and had oriental connections. In 652 pope Martin
I was accused of friendly dealings with the Moslems and acquitted himself
by showing that his motive was to be able to send alms to Palestine.17 While
most pilgrims now contented themselves with journeys to nearer shrines, such
as Rome, there were still some hardy enough to brave the perils of the east.
In 670 the Frankish bishop, Arculf, set oUt on travels that brought him to
Egypt, Syria, and Palestine and home by Constantinople, but he was away for
many years and suffered many hardships.18 We hear of other pilgrims of the
time, such as the Picard, Vuiphy of Rue, and the Burgundians, Bercaire and
Waimer of Montier~en_Der.19 
 15 For the question of relics see H. Delehaye, Les Origines de culte des
martyres (znd ed., Brussels, 1938), pp. 73—91; Jean Ebersolt, Orient
et occident (Paris and Brussels, 5928), 
I, 32—39. 
 16 The itineraries of Theodosius and Antoninus are given in Itinera Hierosolymitana
(ed. Tobler and Molinier, Société de l'orient 1at~n, I, Geneva,
i88o), p. 2. 
 17 Pope Martin I, Ep. XV, in FL LXXXVII, 199—zoo, letter to Theodore.
 18 Arculf's journey was described by his disciple, Adamnan, De locis sanctis,
tr. J. R. Macpherson (FFTS, III). 
 19 Vita S. Wlphagii (Acta sanctorUm, Jun. tom. II, June 7), pp. 30—35;
Miracula S. Bercharii (Acta sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti, saec. II), p.
849.