Camino travelers (middle ages)

[Gary Hammond]

Gene,
I don't dispute your reference to the historical estimates of  country areas
and there respective estimated populations. However, as references, I
havent' heard their  addressal of  the actions of the inhabitants. The
religious zeal, the lower life expectances and thus younger average
population, the more rigorous demands of life and better fitness for travel
by foot are factors that could yield a pilgrimmage by higher portions of the
population.
I don't feel we can make an assumption about a culture that we don't fully
understand. Are there any references that show different numbers from that
time period?  There may be reasons that produced such amazing numbers.
GRHammond

----- Original Message -----
From: "Gene Silva" <ejsilvaaSWBELL.NET>
To: <GOCAMINOaPETE.URI.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2001 2:46 PM
Subject: Re: Camino travelers (middle ages)


> Gary Hammond wrote:
>
> > I have a tendency to believe that the higher estimate of travelers
> reported
> > by Michener, wasn't far off. I have no other evidence to doubt his
> research
> > and I acknowledge that the religious climate at the time far exceeds
that
> > which we see in todays Western World.
> > Does anyone have better evidence?
>
> Gary:
>
> What do you mean "the higher estimate...", one million or 500,000? I think
> it is unlikely the Iberian peninsula in the first decades of the 13th
> century was host to a million pilgrims on a yearly basis. Had that
occurred
> even one year it would have been a remarkable event, worthy of numerous
and
> repeated historical comment. The local population along the camino would
> have been overwhelmed by such numbers. For example, in 1150 the Kingdom of
> Navarre, consisting of perhaps 10,000 square kilometers, had maybe 75,000
> inhabitants. Best estimates are that the Kingdom of Aragon had a
population
> of 750,000 Christians in the year 1300, one of the high points in the
middle
> age and prior the black death. All of these figures are estimates, of
> course. My "evidence" is found in several books, including: "The Medieval
> Spains", by Professor Bernard F. Reilly (Cambridge Medieval Textbooks),
> "Moorish Spain", by Richard Fletcher (University of California Press),
"The
> Episcopate in the Kingdom of Leon in the Twelfth Century", by the same
> author, "Daily Life in Portugal in the Late Middle Ages", by Professor A.
H.
> Oliveira Marques (University of Wisconsin Press).
>
> Michener may have been a fine writer, but I question his accuracy on this
> point.
>