volume one

22 HISTOET or THE CSrSAJDES.
preservation cf a fotlier or of a son, went to return his
thanks to heaven far from his domestic hearth, in places
rendered holy by religious traditions. A father often
devoted his child iii the cradle to a pilgrimage, and the
first duty of an aflectionate and obedient son, when past the
age of childhood, was to accomplish the vow of his parents.
More than once a dream, a -vision in tbe midst of sleep,
imposed upon a Christian the obligation of performing a
pilo:rimage. Thus, the idea of these pious journeys miied
itself up witli all the affections of the heart, and wiih. all
the prejudices of the human mind.
Pilgrims were welcomed everywhere, and in return for
the hospitality they received, they were only asked for their
prayers ; often, indeed, the only treasure they carried with
them. One of them, desirous to embark at Alexandria for
Palestine, presented himself with his scrip and staff on
board a ship, and offered a book of the holy Evangelists m
pa^Tiient for his passage. Pilgrims, on their route, had no
other defence against the attacks of the wicked but the
cross of Christ, and no other guides but those angels whom
God lias told " to watch over his children, and to direct them
in all their waysy
The jrreatest merit in the eves of the faithful, next to
that of pilgrimage, was to devote themselves to the service
of the pilgrims. Hospitals were built upon the banks of
rivers, upon the heights of mountains, in the midst of cities,
and in desert places, for the reception of these travellers. In
the ninth centuiy, the pilgrims who left Burgundy to repair
to Italy, were received in a monastery built upon Mount
Cenis. In the following century, two monasteries, in
which were received travellers who had strayed from
their way, occupied the places of the temples of idolatry
on Montes Jovis,* and thence lost the name they had
received from Paganism, and took that of their pious
founder, St. Bernard de Meiiton. Christians who travelled
to Judea, found on the frontiers of Hungary, and in the
* These mountains, called Monts de Joux (Montes Jovis), now bear
the names of the Greit and Little St. Bernard. "When St. Bernard
founded these two hospitals, the inhabitants of the Alps were still idolaters,
and the Saracens had penetrated into Le Valais, where they con-
stantly annoyed the march of the pilgrims.