I learned several things. I didn't realize that Christopher Marlowe was from Canterbury, or that Charles Dickens went there all the time when he was writing David Copperfield.
I also learned an interesting thing about pilgrimages. Apparently, the church used to grant indulgences to people who made journeys to holy sites. Anyone who went to Jerusalem, for instance, could basically do what they wanted on earth and still go to heaven. This is probably why so many people signed up for the Crusades, and why they behaved so badly during them.
Canterbury was reckoned to be the third-holiest place in Christendom, and making two pilgrimages there supposedly gave you the same amount of god-credit as visiting Jerusalem. I think this is why:
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