"El que ya tuvo vista, y no tiene ojos, "El que hablar no puede, aunque con lengua "Si aqueste viene de sus miembros manco, "A quien de prision saca, ó cautiverio, "Da toda alma fiel gracias al cielo, A implorar el auxilio soberano." Cristoval de Mesa, El Patron de España, ff. lxxii. p.! The high altar at Compostella is, as all the altars formet were in Galicia and Asturias, not close to the wall, but a low detached from it. It is ten feet in length, and very va with a splendid frontispiece of silver. The altar ibet a hollow, and at the Gospel end there is a small door, t opened except to royal visitors, and when a new Archbis first comes to take possession. It was opened for Ambros de Morales, because he was commissioned to inspect i churches: nothing, however, was to be seen within ext two large flat stones, which formed the floor, and at the esi of them a hole about the size of an orange, but filei viz mortar. Below is the vault in which the body of Santiaga said to be deposited in the marble coffin wherein it was kazal The vault extends under the altar and its steps, and some back under the Capella Mayor: it is in fact a part ofà Crypt walled off with a thick wall, "para dexar cerrado un todo el santo cuerpo." The Saint, whose real presence is thus carefully concessi receives his pilgrims in effigy. The image is a half figure stone, a little less than life, gilt and painted, holding in hand a book, and as if giving a blessing with the other. "E en cabello," without either crown or glory on the head, br large silver crown is suspended immediately above, almost as to touch the head; and the last ceremony which a paga performs is to ascend to the image, which is over the altar a staircase from the Epistle side, kiss it reverently est head, embrace it, and place this crown upon it, and then g down on the Gospel side. - Viage de Morales, t. xx. p. is "Ingens sub templo fornix, et claustra per umbras E longè veniam exorant atque oscula figunt The sepulchre was thus closed by the first Archbishop D Diego Gelmirez, “que ya de ninguna manera se puede ve ni entenderse como está. Y esto hizo con prudentiss consejo aquel gran Principe y valeroso Perlado, y con re rencia devota, porque cada uno no quisiese ver y tratar aqu precioso relicario comunmente, y sin el debido respete; q se pierde sin duda quando los cuerpos santos y sus sept pueden ser vistas vulgarmente de todos." Morales, Lis c. vii. § 67. A print of the sepulchre, from an illuminated drawing the manuscript of the Historia Compostelana, is given in th *For note, see the following page. Which well they might when ways were safe; And therefore rich and poor As folks now make a tour. The poor with scrip, the rich with purse, They took their chance for better for worse, 20th volume of the España Sagrada. And in that history (pp. 50, 51.) is the following characteristic account of the enlargement of the altar by D. Diego Gelmirez. "Among the other worthinesses, with the which the aforesaid Bishop in no inactive solicitude hastened to decorate his church, we have been careful to defend from the death of oblivion whatsoever his restauratory hand did to the altar of the said church. But, lest in bringing forward all singular circumstances we should wander into devious ways, we will direct our intention to the straight path, and commit to succeeding remembrance so far as our possibility may reveal those things which we beheld with our own eyes. For of how small dimensions the altar of Santiago formerly was, lest we should be supposed to diminish it in our relation, may better be collected from the measure of the altarlet itself. But as religion increased in the knowledge of the Christian faith, that another altarlet, a little larger than the other, was placed over it by those who were zealous for their holy faith, our ancient fathers have declared unto us as well by faithful words, as by the assured testimony of writings. But the aforesaid bishop being vehemently desirous of increasing the beauty of his church, and seeing that this little altar, though thus enlarged, was altogether unworthy of so great an apostle, thought it worthy of pious consideration to aggrandize the apostolic altar. Wherefore, being confirmed thereunto by the prudent counsel of religious men, although the canons stoutly resisted him in this matter, he declared his determination to demolish the habitacle which was made in the likeness of the sepulchre below, in which sepulchre we learn, without all doubt, that the remains of the most holy apostle are inclosed. They indeed repeatedly asserted that a work which, rude and deformed as it was, was nevertheless edified in honour to the remains of such holy personages, ought by no means to be destroyed, lest they themselves or their lord should be stricken with lightning from heaven, and suffer the immediate punishment of such audacity. But he, like a strenuous soldier, protected with the impenetrable shield of a good resolution, forasmuch as, with the eye of his penetration, he perceived that they regarded external things more than inner ones, trampled upon their fears with the foot of his right intention, and levelled to the ground their habitacle, and enlarged the altar, which had originally been so small a one, now for the third time, with marble placed over and about it on all sides, making it as it ought to be. Without delay also he marvellously began a silver frontispiece for this egregious and excellent work, and more marvellously completed it." There used to be interpreters at Compostella for all languages; lenguageros they were called. They had a silver wand, with a hand and finger pointed at the top, to show the relics with. Among those relics is the head of St. James the Less; a grinder, in a splendid gold reliquary, of one St. James, it has not been determined which; one of St. Christopher's arms, of modest dimensions; and seven heads of the Eleven Thousand Virgins. These are from the list which Morales gives: but that good and learned man, who often swallowed the bull and stuck at the tail, omits some more curious ones, which are noticed in an authentic inventory. (España Sagrada, t. xix. p. 344.) Among these are part of our Lord's raiment, of the earth on which he stood, of the bread which he brake, of his blood, and of the Virgin's milk. A late editor of Old Fortunatus is reminded in one of his From many a foreign land, With a scallop-shell in the hat for badge, notes of Martinus Scriblerus, by a passage in the play, which, as he should have seen, is evidently allusive to such relics as those at Compostella. there can I show thee The ball of gold that set all Troy on fire: Which dropp'd from Heaven when Phaeton fired the world. "Huc Lysiæ properant urbes, huc gentes Iberæ P. Bartholome Pereira, Paciecidos, lib. vii. p. 117. Fray Luys de Escobar has this among the five hundred proverbs of his Litany: — It seems to allude to this superstition, meaning, that it is a journey which all must take. The particular part of the pilgrimage, which must be performed either in ghost or in person, is that of crawling through a hole in the rock at El Padron, which the apostle is said to have made with his staff. In allusion to this part of the pilgrimage, which is not deemed so indispensable at Compostella as at Padron, they have this proverb: "Quien va à Santiago, y non va à Padron, ó faz Romería ó non." The pilgrim, indeed, must be incurious who would not extend his journey thither; a copious fountain, of the coldest and finest water which Morales tasted in Galicia, rises under the high altar, but on the outside of the church; the pilgrims drink of it, and wash in its waters, as the apostle is said to have done: they ascend the steps in the rock upon their knees, and finally perform the passage which must be made by all: " y cierto, considerado el sitio, y la hermosa vista que de alli hay á la ciudad, que estaba abaxo en lo llano, y á toda la ancha hoya llena de grandes arboledas y frescuras de mas de dos leguas en largo, lugar es aparejado para mucha contemplacion."— Viage de Morales, p. 174. One of Pantagruel's Questions Encyclopediques is, "Utrum le noir Scorpion pourroit souffrir solution de continuité en sa substance, et par l'effusion de son sang obscurcir et embrunir la voye lactée, au grand interest et dommage des Lifrelofres Jacobipetes."— Rabelais, t. ii. p. 417. 2 "The escallops, being denominated by ancient authors the Shells of Gales, or Galicia, plainly apply to this pilgrimage in particular." — Fosbrooke, British Monachism, p. 423. Fuller is therefore mistaken when, speaking of the Dacres For the scallop shows in a coat of arms, That of the bearer's line Some one, in former days, hath been To Santiago's shrine. family (Church Hist., cent. xii. p. 42.), who gave their arms gules, three scallop-shells argent, he says, "which scallopshells, (I mean the nethermost of them, because most concave and capacious,) smooth within, and artificially plated without, was ofttimes cup and dish to the pilgrims in Palestine, and thereupon their arms often charged therewith." That the scallop belonged exclusively to the Compostella pilgrim is certain, as the following miracle may show. "The ship, in which the body of the Apostle was em. barked, passed swiftly by a village in Portugal called Bouzas, wherein there dwelt a noble and powerful lord, who on that day married one of his daughters to the son of another person as considerable as himself, lord of the land of Amaya. The nuptials were celebrated in the village of Bouzas, and many noble knights of that province came to the solemnity. One of their sports was that of throwing the cane, and in this the bridegroom chose to bear a part, commanding a troop, that he might display his dexterity. The place for the sport was on the coast of the ocean, and the bridegroom's horse, becoming ungovernable, plunged into the sea, and sunk under the immensity of its waters, and, at the moment when the ship was passing by, rose again close beside it. There were several miracles in this case. The first was, that the sea bore upon its waves the horse and horseman, as if it had been firm land, after not having drowned them when they were so long a time under water. The second was, that the wind, which was driving the ship in full speed to its port, suddenly fell, and left it motionless; the third, and most remarkable was, that both the garments of the knight, and the trappings of the horse, came out of the sea covered with scallop-shells. "The knight, astonished at such an unexpected adventure, and seeing the disciples of the Apostle, who with equal astonishment were looking at him from the ship, asked them what it was that had brought him where he found himself. To which the disciples, being inspired by Heaven, replied, that certes Christ, through the merit of a certain servant of his, whose body they were transporting in that.ship, had chosen to manifest his power upon him, for his good, by means of this miracle.' The knight then humbly requested them to tell him who Christ was, and who was that Servant of his of whom they spake, and what was the good which he was to derive. The disciples then briefly catechised him; and the knight, having thus been instructed, said to them, 'Friends and sirs, you, who have served Christ and his holy Apostle, which I as yet have not done, ask of him to show you for what purpose he has put the scallop-shells upon me, because so strange a marvel cannot have been wrought without some great mystery.' With that the disciples made their prayer accordingly, and when they had prayed, they heard a voice from Heaven, which said thus unto the knight, Our Lord Christ has thought good to show by this act all persons present and to come, who may choose to love and serve this his servant, and who shall go to visit him where he shall be interred, that they take with them from thence other such scallop-shells as these with which thou art covered, as a seal of privilege, confirming that they are his, and will be so from that time forward; and he promises that afterwards, in the Day of the last Judgement, they shall be recognised of God for his; and that, because of the honours which they have done to this his servant and friend, in going to visit him and to venerate him, he will receive them into his glory and his Paradise.' "When the knight heard these words, immediately he made the disciples baptize him; and while they were so doing, he noticed, with devotion and attention, the ceremonies of the And the staff was bored and drilled for those sacred ministry, and, when it was done, he took his les them, commending himself to their grace, and intrat them that they would commend him in their prayers to Ch and his Apostle Santiago. At that instant the wind, w till then had been still, struck the sails, and the ship beg cleave the wide sea. The knight then directed his toward the shore, riding upon the water, in sight of the g multitude, which from the shore was watching him; when he reached the shore, and was surrounded by them. related to them what had happened. The natives, astre. at the sight of such stupendous miracles, were convertel the knight, with his own hand, baptized his bride." The facts are thus related, to the letter, in the Sandr Portugues, from whence the Breviaries of Alcobaça S Cucufate copied it, and that of Oviedo in the Hymnfr Apostle's Day,.. from which authorities the moderna ti taken it. The Genealogists say that the Vieyras of Pr are descended from this knight, because the scallop i 15 by that name in their tongue, and that family bear it t arms. The Pimenteles make the same pretensions a bear four scallops in their shield. The Ribadaneyrasast vance a similar claim, and they bear a cross with five K "This is the origin of the shells with which the s who come to visit the body of our glorious Paris, =" themselves, the custom having, without doubt, been pres by tradition from that time. The circumstances are comin by pictures representing it, which from ancient tims been preserved in various cities. In the church of St. de Aracœli at Rome, on the Gospel side, there is a qu chapel, dedicated to our glorious Patron; it was pas the year 1441, and in one compartment this adventur represented: there is the ship, having the body of the app on the poop, and the seven disciples on board: clow ship, upon the sea, is a knight upon a black horse, with › saddle and trappings, both covered with scallop-sheik same story is painted in the parish church of Sa Madrid: and it is related in a very ancient manuscript. is preserved in the library of the Monastery of St. Ju Reyes, at Toledo. In the Ancient Breviary of the Church of Oviedo, mention is made of this prodigy a verses, upon the vesper of the glorious Saint. 'Cunctis mare cernentibus, Finally, the fact is authenticated by their Holiness! ander III., Gregory IX., and Clement V., who in ther grant a faculty to the Archbishop of Compostella, the may excommunicate those who sell these shells to 1 5 anywhere except in the city of Santiago, and they as reason, because the shells are the badge of the Apokr tiago. And thus in the Church of St. Clement & which is enriched with the body of St. Clement, F.p Martyr, is a picture of the Apostle Santiago, apparent) than five hundred years old, which is adorned with s shells on the garment and hat, as his proper badge.”—A de Galicia, vol. i. pp. 95, 96. Gwillim, in his account of this bearing, says nothing origin. But he says "the Escallop (according to Dies is engendered of the Dew and Air, and hath no blood in itself, notwithstanding in man's body of any other! turneth soonest into blood. The eating of this fish rat -to cure a surfeit. Such (he adds) is the beautiful she For note, see the following page. THE LEGEND. PART I. ONCE on a time three Pilgrims true, Being Father and Mother and Son, For pure devotion to the Saint, This pilgrimage begun. Their names, little friends, I am sorry to say, From France they came, in which fair land They were people of good renown, And they took up their lodging one night on the way In La Calzada town. nature hath bestowed upon this shell, as that the Collar of the Order of St. Michel in France, in the first institution thereof, was richly garnished with certain pieces of gold artificially wrought, as near as the artificer could by imitation express the stamp of nature." - Display of Heraldry, p. 171. (first edit.) One of the three manners, in which Santiago is commonly represented, is in the costume of a Compostellan pilgrim, with a scallop-shell in his hat. All three are described in a book, as rare of occurrence as curious in its subject, thus intitled, "Pictor Christianus Eruditus: sive, De Erroribus, qui passim admittuntur circa pingendas atque effingendas Sacras Imagines. Libri Octo cum Appendice. Opus Sacræ Scripturæ, atque Ecclesiastica Historia studiosis non inutile. Authore R. P. M. Fr. Joanne Interian de Ayala, Sacri, Regii, ac Militaris Ordinis Beatæ Mariæ de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum, Salmanticensis Academiæ Doctore Theologo, atque ibidem Sanctæ Theologiæ cum Sacrarum Linguarum Interpretatione Professore jam pridem emerito. Anno D. 1730, Matriti: Ex Typographia Conventus præfati Ordinis." fol. One of the Censors of this book says, "Prodit in lucem Pictor Christianus eruditissimi pectoris eruditissimus fœtus, obstetricante N. RR. P. M. Fr. Josepho Campazano de la Vega." The work was published by the Master's direction at the cost of the Order; the Master dedicated it to N. Señora de las Mercedes as " elaboratum excultumque quantum potuit," by her assistance; and there is a censura prefixed by Ferreras the Historian, speaking forcibly of the importance of the undertaking, and of the great ability with which it is executed. Instead of perceiving that Santiago is represented in the costume of his own pilgrims, this author supposed that the Saint is so attired because he had travelled over Spain! The whole passage is curious for its grave and cool credulity. "Sanctus Jacobus Zebedei filius, Hispaniæ primarius (quidquid alii commenti sint) Patronus atque Apostolus, bifariam sæpius a Pictoribus describitur. Pingitur enim peregrini habitu, oblongo innixus baculo, ex quo etiam bursa pendeat, et circa humeros amiculo, quod Hispani Esclavinam vocant; insuper et cum galero satis amplo, quem tamen ornant conchæ, quæ circa littus maris passim se offerunt: Totum id ex eo arbitror proficisci, quod Hispaniam celerrimè, et ut decebat Tonitru filium, peragraverat ; ubi postmodum corpus ejus è Hierosolymis translatum condigno honore colitur. Sed ab aliis etiam cum gladio pingitur, cumque libro aperto. Quæ pictura (inquit frequens nobis author) etsi rarior sit, priori *Molan. lib. iii. c. 2. Now, if poor Pilgrims they had been, And had lodged in the Hospice instead of the Inn, My good little women and men, Why then you never would have heard, This tale of the Cock and the Hen. For the Innkeepers they had a daughter, As Potiphar's daughter, I think, would have been This wicked woman to our Pierre Behaved like Potiphar's wife; And, because she fail'd to win his love, She resolved to take his life. So she pack'd up a silver cup And then, as soon as they were gone, tamen est præferenda, quod ex Sacra Scripturà desumpta sit, et martyrium ejus explicat. Quod ita habetur, Occidit autem Jacobum fratrem Joannis gladio.' Sæpè etiam pingitur equo insistens, armatusque gladio, acies Maurorum impigrè perrumpeus, eosque ad internecionem usque cædens. Quod non exiguâ cum Hispani nominis gloriâ rectè fit; cùm sæpè visus sit pro Hispanis in aëre pugnans; de cujus rei fide dubium esse non potest iis qui interfuerunt ejus Ecclesiastico afficio, ubi illud metricè habetur, "Tu bello cùm nos cingerent, Es visus ipso in prælio, Equoque et ense acerrimus Mauros furentes sternere. Atque idem alibi solutá oratione describitur illis verbis +; Ipse etiam gloriosus Apostolus in difficillimis præliis palàm se conspiciendum præbens, Hispanos adversus Infideles pugnantes mirificè juvit.'"-Lib. vii. c. ii. pp. 320, 321. 1 Sir John Hawkins says, "that the pilgrims to St. James of Compostella excavated a staff, or walking stick, into a musical instrument for recreation on their journey.". History of Music, vol. iv. p. 139., quoted in Fosbrooke's British Monachism, p. 469. Mr. Fosbrooke thinks that "this ascription of the invention of the Bourdon to these pilgrims in particular is very questionable." Sir John probably supposed with Richelet that the Bourdon was peculiar to these pilgrims, and therefore that they had invented it. Mr. Fosbrooke more than doubts the Etymon from a musical use. "The barbarous Greek Bogdovia," he observes, "signified a beast of burden, and the Bourdon was a staff of support. But the various meanings of the word, as given by Cotgrave, make out its history satisfactorily. Bourdon, a drone, or dorre-bee, (Richelet says, "grosse mouche, ennemie des abeilles,") also the humming or buzzing of bees; also the drone of a bagpipe; also a pilgrim's staff; also a walking staff, having a sword, &c. within it. "It was doubtless applied to the use of pitching the note, or accompanying the songs with which pilgrims used to recreate themselves on their journeys, and supposed by Menestrier to be hymns and canticles."- Fosbrooke, p. 422. In Germany" walking-sticks that serve as tubes for pipes, with a compressing pump at one end to make a fire, and a machine at the other for impaling insects without destroying their beauty, are common." (Hodgskin's Travels, vol. ii. p. 135.) I have seen a telescope and a barometer in a walking-stick, if that name may be applied to a staff of copper. In festo Translat. ejusdem. 30 Dec. |