Visionary, traveller, mother, wife,writer

See her without her halo (she was no saint) but a 15th century woman who became a model for daring Englishwomen who travelled and wrote, for mothers with large families and for wives taking care of old husbands. Through it all she tried to stay true to her inner spiritual life, and wrote the first autobiography in England.

Margery Kempe

Margery Kempe suffered a debilitating postpartum after the birth of her first child. "She was finally cured when Jesus appeared and sat at the end of her bed, speaking words of comfort" (DNB). Her vision of Christ inspired her to change her life - but not immediately. It took quite awhile to to shed her vanities, jealousies, and insecurities, as she frankly admits.

Margery Kempe lived in Norfolk (1373 - 1438) at the time this house was built.

Children and travel

She was increasingly busy. She bore thirteen more children and ran a brewery and grain mill. Both failed, which led her to reexamine her life. After the birth of their fourteenth child, Margery negotiated a vow of celibacy with her husband.

In 1413, when she was 40, she headed off on a series of pilgrimages around England and Europe. Along the way she interviewed persons of interest. She reached Jerusalem, Spain, and Norway by living off alms. She was a doughty traveller, unafraid of going anywhere.

Arrests

During her travels she had a series of visions that reduced her to tears. On her return to England, her 'noisy tears' scandalized other worshippers and she was arrested and accused of being a Lollard.

The Lollards were English Christians who were inspired by reading the Bible. They opposed the Church’s power and wealth, affirmed that women as well as men could be preachers, and advocated the teachings of the inner Spirit and simplicity of life and prayer. These views were unhappily joined with belief in a theocratic state, and they were crushed by Henry IV and Henry V.

Pity the Church when it brought Margery to trial on charges of heresy. Despite her tears, Margery made short work of the accusations and her accusers. In doing so, she enlarged the public tolerance for varieties of Christian religious expression. In the 1420s she returned to her husband who had become injured, and nursed him through senility until his death in 1431.

Determined to write

Unable to read or write, but possessing a keen memory and a fierce will, toward the end of her life Margery dictated her adventures, thoughts, feelings, social commentary, and spiritual experiences. The first scribe had indicipherable writing, so she started again. Her memoirs included her conversations with Christ. The result in 1438 was The Book of Margery Kempe. She died not long after.

Barry Windeatt, the author of the edition of her work seen below and a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, provides commentary and social context. English Historical Review reports that Margery Kempe "bursts from the pages of this careful and sober critical edition like Molly Bloom."

Almost as unique as her life was the life of her book, which was lost for centuries. In 1934 a manuscript was discovered in the private library of the Butler-Bowdon family in Lancashire. Her book was finally published in 1936.

When you contribute to this website,
you support the Best of the Brits.

Join the Circle of Friends »