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How well it is for the Christian soul to behold the city which is like a heaven on earth, full of the sacred bones and relics of the martyrs, and bedewed with the precious blood of these witnesses for truth; to look upon the image of our Saviour, venerable to all the world; … to roam from tomb to tomb rich with memories of the saints, to wander at will through the Basilicas of the Apostles with no other company than good thoughts."

With these words the Italian poet Francesco Petrarch described the value of making a pilgrimage to Rome, which he did in 1350. Dante Alighieri had made the same journey in 1300. Pilgrimages captured the energy and imagination of millions of medieval Christians—a captivation reflected in the numerous pilgrim references in the Divine Comedy.

At first, pilgrimages focused on Jerusalem. Such journeys served to unify God's people as early as King David's reign. After the establishment of the church, Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem continued until the latter 1200s.

Pilgrimages changed during the Crusades, when many travelers had to arm themselves for protection. Then in 1291 Acre, the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land, fell to the Muslims, making travel to Jerusalem perilous.

Loss of contact with Christianity's motherland was traumatic. Pope Boniface VIII responded in 1300 by establishing the first Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome. "Jubilee" refers to the Old Testament tradition of holding a Jubilee every fiftieth year during which slaves were freed, debts were canceled, and land reverted to its original owners.

Boniface had prepared his capital well for visitors. He was one of a series of popes who recreated Rome as a flourishing city that attracted numerous artists to work on its churches and palaces. So when the fall of Acre made it difficult for Christians to visit the Via Dolorosa and walk in Christ's footsteps, edifices like St. John Lateran and St. Peter's Basilica stood as ready alternatives.

The Jubilee Pilgrimage greatly increased Rome's prestige as a destination. As an anonymous fourteenth- century English poem, The Stacions of Rome, promised:

Hit were no neod to man in cristiante
To passe in to the holy lond over the see
To Jerusalem ne to kateryne
[St. Catherine's monastery]
To bringe mannes soule out of syne
For pardoun there is with-outen ende
Wel is him that thider may wende.

To make a Roman trek even more attractive, Boniface offered pilgrims previously unheard-of indulgences. The author of the Stacions reckoned that truly devout pilgrims could rack up 32,000 years of pardon for sin—including seven years for each step up or down the stairs at St. Peter's.

Pilgrims flooded into Rome in such numbers that a new gate was opened in the city walls. Travelers in search of insights, blessings, and indulgences came from all across Europe, the British Isles, and parts of Asia. They arrived by ship, animal, and on foot. Some historical records indicate nearly two million visitors, which would have been almost 50 times the city's normal population.

Innkeepers were not the only ones profiting from the traffic. One merchant told of two clerics "standing day and night by the altar of St. Paul's literally raking in the pilgrims' offerings." Such stories led to accusations that the pope was using the pilgrims, selling indulgences to get rich and to finance wars. Technically, however, the offerings were voluntary and had no bearing on whether a pilgrim was granted an indulgence.

Medieval pilgrims set off for a variety of reasons. Some sought indulgences or the cure for an illness. For others the pilgrimage was an act of penance or the fulfillment of a vow. Still others journeyed to give thanks for a blessing or to reap benefits for someone else—a sort of pilgrimage by proxy.

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