In the Middle Ages, the suggestions of the English Church were expressed by God's own voice. The Church encouraged pilgrimages to various holy places, or shrines, to seek spiritual enlightenment and penance from sin. This ideology says that if one prayed at a shrine, their sins could be forgiven, thereby increasing the chances of going to heaven after an earthly death. Those suffering from a multitude of foods and other illnesses may also make a pilgrimage in the hope of being cured. Whatever their reason, pilgrims went to the different shrines; they were influenced, in part, by the development of their faith through religious relics. Pilgrims searched for relics and considered these pieces of cloth to be more than mere trifles; rather, these objects were a means of obtaining salvation. Pilgrims ventured to shrines, often paying money or other forms of patronage, in the hopes of being allowed to look at or perhaps even kiss the religious relics on display in the shrine. Much like a modern-day traveler to the United States who collects stickers from different states to put on a suitcase, pilgrims received a metal badge after their visit to a shrine; they wore these badges on their hats, signifying that they had visited a particular shrine: pilgrims had their own form of postcards from their travels. Pilgrims usually traveled in larger groups during their journey, as making a pilgrimage was a dangerous affair. In contrast, some people wanted to make pilgrimages without actually undertaking the journey itself. A wealthy person could pay another to travel for them to a particular shrine. A notable shrine in England is the tomb of Thomas Becket. Becket was an hour away... middle of paper ... nothing more than trinkets, many considered them rare keepsakes of their faith, adding great and divine comfort to their search. Whether it was the shrine of Thomas Becket or a place containing a baby tooth of the Savior in the Christian faith, pilgrims flocked to these places on their pilgrimages in the same way that someone would flock to a heavenly acceptance. Over time, figures like King Henry VIII and others have attempted to stop the progress of religious shrines and the relics found within them, but stopping a pillar of faith is not a task that fits to a mortal. Certain relics, people of the time believed, had the power to cure illnesses that even earthly medicine could not cure. Thanks, in part, to the relics and the journeys it took to find them, the Christian faith and belief of the people transcended all earthly authority and bordered on something divine..