Abject pilgrimage and healing in Jaume Roig's Spill.

In the Spill o Llibre de les dones, the 15th century writer and physician from Valencia, Jaume Roig, uses the motif of pilgrimage to attack earthly women, particularly women healers. Roig undermines the salutary function of medieval pilgrimage in order to expose worldly women in their effort to harm male pilgrims. Since men cannot rely on earthly women, they must seek a healing encounter with the Virgin, whose salutary ministrations are always constant and efficacious. Roig's assault on women through pilgrimage relates to wider social attempts to marginalize traditional women healers from legitimate salutary practice, since he aims to dissuade male readers from seeking women's healing services in everyday society.