Sigeric and His Journey to Rome: The Via Francigena, 990 AD: In His Footsteps, 2019 AD

By Cecilia Weston-Baker

Walking long distance across a large part of Europe is quite daunting. You tell your friends you’re going to walk from the southeastern-most tip of the UK across France, over the massive range of the Alps and down to Rome and they look at you as though you are crazy. But what would your friends have thought a thousand years ago? Rome must have seemed remote and the journey quite terrifying. Life now is very different from that of the described short, nasty and brutish tenth century. But was it so bad? This book follows two travellers as they set off from Canterbury on their journey to the eternal city of Rome. One is Archbishop Sigeric, who journeyed to Rome in AD 990 to collect the pallium that conferred the Pope’s authority on him, and the other is now in the 21st century, a thousand years later treading in his footprints. Has the road changed much?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Apr 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781398426931

Cecilia Weston-Baker

Cecilia has had a long career as both an in-house and freelance picture researcher working for many publishers in the UK on illustrated reference and non-reference books. She is a passionate long-distance walker whose aim is to get people off their sofas and join her in getting healthier and fitter and also caring more about the countryside by respecting the beauty of nature. She is deeply passionate about history and loves spending time researching various fascinating periods of history. She was on the steering committee and was then voted as a founder trustee of the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome when it became a charity. She has walked the long-distance route between Canterbury and Rome twice amongst other routes in the UK, Spain and across the hot landscapes of Australia. She has interests in photography, the great outdoors and endless reading of everything. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Book preview

Sigeric and His Journey to

Rome: The Via Francigena,

990 AD

In His Footsteps, 2019 AD

Cecilia Weston-Baker

Austin Macauley Publishers

Sigeric and His Journey to Rome: The Via Francigena, 990 AD

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Tenth Century: Canterbury to Dover

Twenty-First Century: Dover to Wisques

Tenth Century: Dover to Atherats (Arras)

Twenty-First Century: Wisques to Arras

Tenth Century: Atherats (Arras) to Mundlothuin (Laon)

Twenty-First Century: Arras to Laon

Tenth Century: Mundlothuin (Laon) to Rems (Reims)

Twenty-First Century: Laon to Chalons

Tenth Century: Rems (Reims) to Bysiceon (Besancon)

Twenty-First Century: Chalons to Besancon

Tenth Century: Bysiceon (Besancon) to Losanna (Lausanne)

Twenty-First Century: Besancon

Tenth Century: Losanna (Lausanne) to Petrecastel (Bourg St Pierre)

Twenty-First Century: Besancon to Bourg St Pierre

Tenth Century: Petrecastel (Bourg St Pierre) to Agusta (Aosta)

Twenty-First Century: Bourg St Pierre to Etroubles

Tenth Century: Agusta (Aosta) to Everi (Ivrea)

Twenty-First Century: Etroubles to Ivrea

Tenth Century: Everi (Ivrea) to near Sce Domnine (Fidenza)

Twenty-First Century: Ivrea to Vercelli

Tenth Century: Sce Domnine (Fidenza) to Puntremel (Pontremoli)

Twenty-First Century: Vercelli to Piacenza

Tenth Century: Puntremel (Pontremoli) to Seocine (Siena)

Twenty-First Century: Piacenza to Lucca

Tenth Century: Seocine (Siena) to the Road After Arbia (Ponte d’Arbia)

Twenty-First Century: Lucca to San Gimignano

Tenth Century: Arbia (Ponte d’Arbia) to Sce Flauiane (Montefiascone)

Twenty-First Century: San Gimignano to Siena

Tenth Century: Sce Flauiane (Montefiascone) to Castrum Viterbii (Viterbo)

Twenty-First Century: Siena to Montefiascone

Tenth Century: Sutaria (Sutri) to the City of St Peter (Rome)

Twenty-First Century: Montefiascone to Sutri

Tenth Century: Schola Saxonum (Saxon Quarter)

Twenty-First Century: Sutri to Rome

Bibliography

About the Author

Cecilia has had a long career as both an in-house and freelance picture researcher working for many publishers in the UK on illustrated reference and non-reference books. She is a passionate long-distance walker whose aim is to get people off their sofas and join her in getting healthier and fitter and also caring more about the countryside by respecting the beauty of nature. She is deeply passionate about history and loves spending time researching various fascinating periods of history. She was on the steering committee and was then voted as a founder trustee of the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome when it became a charity. She has walked the long-distance route between Canterbury and Rome twice amongst other routes in the UK, Spain and across the hot landscapes of Australia. She has interests in photography, the great outdoors and endless reading of everything. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Dedication

For my sister: my reader and artist, and enduring encourager.

And Murray, without whom I may well have ended up in Krakow instead of Rome and with whom I have walked many, many miles. I hope we have many more miles in our legs for further adventures along the way.

Copyright Information ©

Cecilia Weston-Baker (2021)

The right of Cecilia Weston-Baker to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398426924 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398426931 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2021)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the Confraternity of Pilgrims to Rome trustees, specifically to Mary Kirk, who ran through the text and gave me excellent advice. I would also like to send a huge thank you to Alix Henley and Fred Adelmann for their oasis in times of exhaustion and sore feet. I may still be hobbling if not for you. However, perhaps my gratitude is greatest for the staff at both the archives of the Canterbury Cathedral and the library at the British Museum who have helped me more than I can say.

Quote from the Venerable Bede:

Lege Feliciter

(May you read happily)

The world is a book

and those who do not travel

read only one page.

– St Augustine of Hippo

Introduction

What would it have been like to walk across Europe a thousand years ago? Was it dangerous? What would you need to organise before you left? What if you never came back? What if you were robbed? What if no one spoke your language? How would you get food? What would you take with you? Where would you sleep? What would you eat? Where could you even start to look for answers to any of these questions…?

A thousand years ago, Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, set out on the long journey down to the city of St Peter, as Rome was then called, to receive his pallium. Now, a thousand years later, I have followed his lead and made my own journey in his footsteps. His journey was an obligation to get this pallium, then made out of pure white lamb’s wool, that acted as the symbol of the Pope’s authority. Mine was to enjoy the experience of a very long walk.

We don’t know much about Sigeric’s early background or upbringing. I guess he was born in the 920s or 930s. We know he was educated by the reforming churchman Dunstan, later Saint Dunstan at the newly re-established school at Glastonbury Abbey. Either he was from a noble family who could pay for him to go there or it is possible he was sent as an oblate, a child that is offered up to God. How doesn’t matter – the point is that he probably received the best education possible at the time. We know too he was appointed as bishop of Sonning and Ramsbury before being appointed abbot of the Abbey of St Augustine in Canterbury. His elevation to the archbishopric at Canterbury in 989 is referenced with a single sentence in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: he was invested archbishop and went afterwards to Rome to collect his pall. The Chronicle does mention him one other time – his suggestion to King Aethelred (the Unready) to pay a vast amount of silver to persuade the marauding Vikings to leave. A poor suggestion since more than once they came back asking for more and even threatened to burn the cathedral in Canterbury if they didn’t get their silver. So that’s about it. In the twentieth century, however, his name cropped up again when a researcher at the British Library found a diary of his journey to Rome and subsequently plotted the route that is now referred to as the Via Francigena, the route through France.

The tenth century is a particularly fascinating century – an age described as nasty, brutish and short. The Roman occupiers had left at the beginning of the fifth century, gone home after Rome was harried by warring tribes. Those tribes from the far east, from the great steppes and beyond, had inexorably moved west. Some historians think that the period known as the Migration Period (c375 to late 538) was caused by poor harvests and heavy rains as well as harsh cold winters. Procopius, the Byzantine historian remarked in 536 the sun gave forth its light without brightness and it seemed like an eclipse for its beams were not clear. These disasters caused famines so people moved to where the weather was better and the food more abundant. They fled west. The peoples of the east hounded the tribes of Western Europe, the Angles and the Saxons amongst others, who fled across the small sea and to Britain. It wasn’t long that the Anglo-Saxons (as the Angles and the Saxons had become) were being harried themselves by the Vikings – the age this book is set in.

Times were changing fast. The peoples all over Europe were coalescing into larger more fixed kingdoms especially, as it was in the time of Charlemagne, in what is now predominately France. Even though his kingdom’s power waned after his death other factors continued to have more influence and create a more settled world. Christianity, led by the Church in Rome, was the greatest strength in society. Paul Collins captured the dynamism of the tenth century with the title of his most fascinating book, The Birth of the West, when he described the century as the age of the creation of Europe.

This book is about the Via Francigena of a thousand years ago and of the modern route as I walk in Sigeric’s footsteps. I want to give a glimpse of how it could have been for him and his party to travel across the thousand miles or from Canterbury to Rome. It was a hugely volatile time and the dangers of the road were plenty. For the sake of this book I have taken the liberty of reversing the route the archbishop penned in his diary. Rather than starting in Rome as it does – I have him instead arriving in Rome to greet the Pope with the ceremonial kiss of the papal ring.

I would like to mention my enormous gratitude to all of those authors and historians and experts who have worked so hard and tirelessly to dig out all the information that I have garnered from endless hours of enjoyable reading. I have not referenced sources in text simply because similar information has come from a myriad of books and articles, the authors and titles of which I have listed in the bibliography. So now I must apologise in advance for any mistakes I’ve made – they are all mine and I beg everyone’s forgiveness. Finally, and not at all least I would like to mention my huge thanks to all those people, family and friends and sometimes complete strangers on the bus who have had to endure my total obsession with the tenth century. You are all saints in your way.

O noble Rome, mistress of the world, Most excellent of cities…

We sing a salutation to you forever.

We bless you and salute you throughout the ages!

(The pilgrim song – sung at the first site of Rome)

Tenth Century

Canterbury to Dover

‘I shouldn’t sigh,’ said the man quietly to himself as he stood in the breeze of the open window. ‘It’s not a very pious reaction even if I do feel the whole thing is such a waste of time.’ It was as close to a sigh as he would allow himself. ‘No,’ he said out loud, ‘this simply won’t do. I really needed to stop thinking like this.’ However, he continued to stand, looking down at the men far below, hammering loudly and shouting out even more loudly. They were yet again patching up the walls of the great cathedral. Last night on his late-night walk he’d seen a crack in the lintel of the main door, the portal into the great sacred space. Tomorrow was Pentecost and thousands of worshippers would be crowding in pushing and shoving and heavens knows how awful it would be if something happened. Not that it would but what if? The workers far below had no fears about that. They were shouting happily to one another as it was almost the end of the day and very soon, they could lay down their tools. Tomorrow was a day off.

The door opened behind him startling him slightly as Oswin poked his head in. ‘Lord, is there anything I can do for you?’

‘No, thank you Oswin, I need nothing now. I shall be joining the brothers for compline soon.’ Then he added after a second or two, ‘Have you sent word to Dover to have coin waiting for us for our journey for us to collect when we pass through?’

‘Yes, Lord, and heard that all will be ready when we want it. Have you decided when we shall be leaving?’

‘Soon Oswin. But not now, tomorrow we can celebrate the joyous occasion of Pentecost. Good night Oswin, I shall not need you again. You may join the others.’

‘Thank you, Lord, and may God be with you.’ Sigeric nodded his thanks as Oswin quietly closed the door behind him.

The journey. That’s why Archbishop Sigeric is in the mood to sigh. It will take many days to reach the city of St Peter. However, it is important to have the stole of office, this pallium that the Pope will rest on his shoulders. So, since the Pope won’t be coming to Canterbury any time soon, he has to go all the way to him. Turning slowly from the window he does sigh.

It wasn’t as though he hadn’t already travelled to the city of St Peter as a young monk and a pilgrim and there are many others who have also taken the pilgrim route to pray in front of the relics of St Peter. You could say it is becoming very fashionable: as a balm for the soul, or a penance, or indeed a bit of an adventure or holiday perhaps not that he, of course, would liken a holy pilgrimage to a holiday but you never know what is in the souls or consciences of some as they request permission from their overlords to travel abroad. Dunstan travelled there thirty years ago to collect his pallium. Then the great Bishop Wilfrid, who changed the course of Christianity in England from Celtic to Roman at the great Synod of Whitby in 664, who went two hundred years ago. Wilfrid travelled there quite a few times. His companion on his first journey was Bishop Biscop. He was a really experienced pilgrim. He journeyed first in 653. Then he went again in 665, again in 667 and 671 and 678 and finally his last trip in 685. He died five years later. Pilgrimages had become popular following Augustine’s arrival in 597, undertaken by everyone – prelates, kings, queens and ordinary folk too – King Ine for example had died and was buried there in 726 and even before him, in 689 King Caedwalla of Wessex was actually buried in the basilica of St Peter itself.

Sigeric let his mind wander over the story of his long-past archbishop predecessor, Augustine, who had arrived in Canterbury as a simple monk to bring the word of God to the heathens in England. When his time came to be consecrated archbishop, and get his pallium, he didn’t have to go to Rome – the Pope told him to go to Gaul and see his fellow bishops there and simply sent him the pallium. It would be easier thought Sigeric.

Pilgrimage more or less started in 315 when Christianity was finally tolerated across the Roman world, in other words Christians could call themselves Christians and worship the one God through the teachings of Jesus. One of the first pilgrims was Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, who with his Edict of Milan in 313 had declared Christians free from persecution. Helena travelled around the Holy Land looking for the places where Jesus had lived and to walk in his footsteps. However, for most people Jerusalem was remote, not only physically but also psychologically, and the journey was long, usually dangerous and it was often simply impossible to even reach Jerusalem with the various warring peoples in the way. On top of that, the city had fallen to the new religion of Islam in 638. Nearer and easier was the city of St Peter: the home of the Holy Father, the Pope, God’s representative on Earth; the location of the tombs of the most holy fathers of the Church Peter and Paul and for many, the beating heart and soul of all that was sacred (after remote Jerusalem).

Sometimes Sigeric would ponder, kneeling before the relics of a saint how powerful it was to be near holy bones. He knew in his heart that relics held a special power. After all, as Jesus and his Apostles had healed the sick so the bones of his saints would heal those faithful who prayed before them. Sigeric had heard it said that these holy bones were a little bit of heaven – as though the veil between heaven and earth had been gently parted allowing blessings to rain down to those below. Now, though, his aim was just to collect the pallium and then come home, as quickly as possible, maybe not before seeing some sights of course.

The evening was getting darker as he stood there. Sigeric turned around to look at his writing table and the latest communications from the king as well as tomorrow’s sermon. Rather than going to sit down and work, he stood musing further. His mind was still on pilgrims of the past. There was the Bordeaux pilgrim, only God knows his name, who’d gone in about 333. Then there were King Alfred’s two pilgrimages: the first when he was a tiny boy. The Pope, Leo IV, surprisingly consecrated him king despite being the youngest of five sons and therefore not expected to succeed to the throne and be crowned king.

Enough now! Work! Daydreaming isn’t going to get things done so he sat down, reached out for the scattered scrolls on the desk in front of him, readjusting them to get the best light, and began to read. One of the young oblates, Wulsige, came in to light a couple of candles. Sigeric smiled his thanks – there was just time enough to do some work before joining the rest of the community at Compline.

***

The monk’s life is ordered by the Rule of St Benedict. It begins with the ringing of bells that herald a day of prayer and readings interspersed with spells of manual labour. The first bell rings at about two in the morning for Vigils, before Lauds at dawn. After that came the reading of the sacred scriptures, the lectio divina. More prayers or offices of the church as they were called, continue with Prime and Terce during the morning. Sext is the fourth service of the day at midday (being the sixth hour of the day) and finally the monks get their one meal. The meals are always in silence, Benedict was a stickler for silence except for one monk who read to the others from a holy book as they ate. The food was mostly vegetables and grains, dairy and sometimes fish and rarely, meat. Again, Benedict was strict with diets. He believed that a simple and small meal was best – a full monk is a sleepy monk. After lunch were more offices with Nones in the middle of the afternoon and then Vespers. The rest of the afternoon was for manual labour although that was also the job of the lay brothers who live in the monastery with the monks. The last office of the day is Compline, the night prayers and after that everyone can fall exhausted into their beds and sleep soundly until the next day’s offices.

***

The later part of the tenth century, as Sigeric is reading in his rooms in 989/990, is a time of increasing turmoil. Sigeric may have avoided fighting the Vikings as a churchman but they still affect his and everyone’s lives. They have been invading, raiding and killing ever since the infamous raid on Lindisfarne in 793. Now some two hundred years later the battles continue. It had been quieter in the early part of the century after Alfred and his children, Edward the Elder and Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians, had succeeded in halting the wars if only temporarily. Alfred’s grandson Aethelstan, consolidated their achievements and united the country. Finally, people could begin to live more normal lives – growing food, reaping harvests and, by sheer good fortune, the weather was perfect for growing crops. Trade grew in foods and the mines started delivering large amounts of silver and lead. England became prosperous as we can see by the massive amounts that were paid out in bribes to the Vikings in the vain attempt to get them to go away. Conversion to Christianity was gaining pace and many of the Vikings were being baptised and were settling down as farmers rather than raiding as raiding warriors. More churches were being built and land put under Church control. In consequence there was further stability as more villages to grew up around the churches. Where there are villages there are farmers growing more food and having larger families and so the country grew richer.

***

The stone hammering is even louder on ground level as Sigeric walks around the vast space of the cathedral. After yesterday’s noisy celebrations of Pentecost, the place would be quiet if it wasn’t for the hammering. It had all gone well and Sigeric was pleased. However, now that the feast of Pentecost is over there are no more excuses to delay the journey. Time to start thinking seriously of a date to leave. Turning his head behind him, Sigeric called:

‘Oswin, are you there?’

‘Yes, Lord, I’m here just by the gate.’

‘Good, let’s go in, there’s a lot to do, let’s make a start on it now, lots to decide on.’

One of the first decisions is when to go; should he leave immediately or wait a few weeks. His predecessor Aethelgar died in February and now it is early June. The sun is shining and the weather has been fair for several weeks so the roads should be firm. The greatest fear is of course crossing over the mighty Alps. The memory of a previous archbishop can only cause a shiver of apprehension. Aelfsige, appointed archbishop in 959, set off immediately, in winter, for his pallium. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side and he froze to death crossing over the slippery, snowy mountains into Italy. Sigeric was not keen to emulate that so better to cross when it is warmest.

His second decision is also his to make rather than discussing it with his secretary Oswin. He could travel with a large party or just a few men. He could go with great ceremony and spend lavishly on those he meets and stays with which would of course add to the prestige of Canterbury and England. However, he could also decide to travel as quietly, almost incognito. The bonus of that would be threefold: he’d spend less money, he’d travel more rapidly and perhaps the greatest would be that he could avoid being wined and dined by every lord, bishop or nobleman whose lands he and his party would cross. His friend Dunstan had travelled lavishly and expensively so much so that his secretary had worriedly spoken to his archbishop who had absently waved his hand and said the Holy Spirit would provide. The secretary was said to be relieved. Sigeric may ask himself whether he’d travel lavishly or not but the truth is, he acknowledges to himself, he would really dislike that.

‘Oswin, I think it best that we travel as a small party. I think maybe five or six of us so we can travel lightly and quickly. We will be of course, visiting our brother houses on the way. We have already heard from our brothers in St Omer I believe.’

‘That’s correct, Lord, they beg for your presence if it is at all possible.’

‘Mmm, write and tell them we will be coming then. Send also messages of our travels to all of our brothers houses. Even though they will be expecting me on my way to the city of St Peter as they will have heard by now of my appointment, they will not know when I travel.’

Oswin made a note for himself. He knew vaguely the route that they will take as he has heard the archbishop talk of it before but he himself has never had the time, nor the money, to make a pilgrimage. So, he is delighted that he will be accompanying the archbishop now and he will see the marvellous city.

‘I’ll need the best ceremonial robes for my meeting with his Holiness and the customary vestments for other occasions but otherwise please make sure that I have my usual simple cassock. Nothing ornate. The investiture robes are held in the treasure room, you do have the key, yes? To write I will need my ink and many quills.’

Oswin smiled to himself, it’s as though the archbishop has forgotten how many times he has done this sort of thing for him already.

‘Yes, Lord, I will see to it, what gifts will we need to carry with us?’

‘Oh yes, gifts. I will need to think what gifts we should take. What does one give a Pope and what indeed a king or queen or even an empress? I’ll think about it and let you know.’

Oswin bowed out of the archbishop’s rooms as Sigeric thought through the treasures of Canterbury that could be suitable for especially the Holy Father, maybe a