Pilgrim badge
Encyclopedia
A pilgrim badge is a badge typically made of base metal such as lead alloy
Alloy
An alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...

 or pewter
Pewter
Pewter is a malleable metal alloy, traditionally 85–99% tin, with the remainder consisting of copper, antimony, bismuth and lead. Copper and antimony act as hardeners while lead is common in the lower grades of pewter, which have a bluish tint. It has a low melting point, around 170–230 °C ,...

 from the medieval period worn by Roman Catholic pilgrims who had travelled to sites of Christian pilgrimage
Christian pilgrimage
Christian pilgrimage was first made to sites connected with the ministry of Jesus. Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Jerusalem date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like Saint Jerome and established by Helena, the mother of...

, such as in England Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....

, the site of the martyr
Martyr
A martyr is somebody who suffers persecution and death for refusing to renounce, or accept, a belief or cause, usually religious.-Meaning:...

dom of St. Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

. Their use flourished in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 in Europe, particularly in the 14th and 15th centuries, but declined after the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

 of the mid-16th century. Other sorts of badges were also worn by pilgrims, most famously the scallop shell associated with pilgrimages along the Way of St James to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...

 in modern Spain.

Pilgrim badges were cheaply mass-produced by die
Die (manufacturing)
A die is a specialized tool used in manufacturing industries to cut or shape material using a press. Like molds, dies are generally customized to the item they are used to create...

-stamping or in moulds so that everyone could afford them; typically the design was only on one side of the metal. Pilgrims wore them on their outer clothing and hats or around the neck to show where they had been on pilgrimage. Today, most pilgrim badges are recovered in or near rivers because Medieval pilgrims believed that the badges would bring good luck if they were thrown into water. Many were displayed in the pilgim's parish church after their return, but these have rarely survived.

The same style and technique was used in the Middle Ages for a variety of purposes; livery badges were presented to employees and allies by great figures, and became highly controversial in the decades leading to the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...

. Some funerary badges have survived, including a fine one for the Black Prince. Other badges, with motifs such as hearts, were evidently just a form of cheap jewellery. It is often difficult to decipher and classify corroded medieval badges between these types.

The quality of pilgrim badges varied considerably, with some being naive and crudely made, while others, such as some of those made in the late 14th century at Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

 for the popular shrine of St Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

, displayed great craftsmanship and skill. Much rarer examples were made in precious metals for the wealthy; these have mostly been recycled for their valuable materials over the centuries. The most popular shrines sold over 100,000 badges a year, making pilgrim badges the first mass produced tourist souvenir. In 1466, for example, 130,000 badges were sold in a fortnight at Einsiedeln Abbey
Einsiedeln Abbey
Einsiedeln Abbey is a Benedictine monastery in the town of Einsiedeln in the Canton of Schwyz, Switzerland. The abbey is dedicated to Our Lady of the Hermits, the title being derived from the circumstances of its foundation, from which the name Einsiedeln is also said to have originated...

 in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, yet only a handful of medieval badges from that shrine now survive. Similar statistics can be demonstrated with early prints
Old master print
An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are...

, another popular form of mass-produced pilgrimage souvenir from the 15th century onwards. These were at first often tiny by modern standards, no bigger than a large postage stamp, and thus affordable even by peasants.

In England the tradition of making and wearing pilgrim badges died out in the early 16th century as pilgrimage initially declined in popularity and was then banned completely as the country became Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 during the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

, when pilgrimage became regarded as a superstition
Superstition
Superstition is a belief in supernatural causality: that one event leads to the cause of another without any process in the physical world linking the two events....

 and idolatrous
Idolatry
Idolatry is a pejorative term for the worship of an idol, a physical object such as a cult image, as a god, or practices believed to verge on worship, such as giving undue honour and regard to created forms other than God. In all the Abrahamic religions idolatry is strongly forbidden, although...

. The tradition continued in Catholic Europe, however, for some time.

Pilgrim badges usually show an image appropriate to the pilgrimage destination, often including the shrine itself, or a famous image there, or a saint, their attribute
Emblem
An emblem is a pictorial image, abstract or representational, that epitomizes a concept — e.g., a moral truth, or an allegory — or that represents a person, such as a king or saint.-Distinction: emblem and symbol:...

, or a scene from their life. These usually enable scholars to identify the shrine from which a badge came.

See also

  • Pilgrim's staff
    Pilgrim's staff
    The pilgrim's staff is a walking stick used by pilgrims on the Way of St. James to the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Generally, the stick has a hook on it so that something may be hung from it. The walking stick sometimes has a cross piece on it...

  • Pilgrim's hat
    Pilgrim's hat
    A pilgrim's hat, cockel hat or traveller's hat is a wide brim hat used to keep off the sun. It is highly associated with pilgrims on the Way of St. James. The upturned brim of the hat is adorned with a scallop shell to denote the traveller's pilgrim status....

  • Lourdes water
    Lourdes water
    Lourdes water is water which flows from a spring in the Grotto of Massabielle in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, France. The location of the spring was described to Bernadette Soubirous by an apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes on 25 February 1858...


Further reading

  • B. Spencer, Pilgrim souvenirs and secular Badges, Medieval Finds from Excavations in London,(London, Stationery Office, 1998)

External links

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