After the furore about The Da Vinci Code, no one could be in any doubt about how life in the Middle Ages was dominated by religion. However, it could take a very special form; indeed, it could become the great escape for Europeans who in most cases had never been outside their own fiefdom.

As that boundlessly nomadic traveller John Ure shows, pilgrimage was both an entertainment and a danger for thousands of Christians.

Ure leaves footsteps for others to follow. Although there may be holy shrines, ancient relics or castles ahead of him, he is captivated by the "road" that leads him there and the pilgrims who marched such a highway before him.

"A birthplace is enriched by a cradle, a battlefield by a rusting sword or helmet, a castle by an execution block or a romantic place by a lover's grotto" these were the images sought by those who set off in quest of holy grace or fortune.

Jerusalem beckoned the righteous and the rogues on a journey laid with all sorts of hazards, from Alpine blizzards to desert storms, robbery and slavery.

But there were other destinations Mount Athos in Greece and St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai, Santiago de Compostella in Spain, where the disciple James is reputedly buried, the Krac de Chavaliers in Syria, even the great abbey of Glastonbury in Somerset and the island of Iona in Scotland for followers of Saint Colomba.

This is a magnificent odyssey in the diplomatic hands of Ure, who introduces an array of memorable characters including the formidable Margery Kempe, who, after having 14 children, gloriously sobbed her way to the Holy Land.

Ure strips away the literary myths that surround Sir John Mandeville and, although he admits it was hardly a pilgrimage, he includes the cruelties of the Albegensian crusade and the betrayal of the north of England rebellion.