Margery Kempe

Have you ever read a memoir by a woman written in the Middle Ages (or one a man or child wrote in the Middle Ages)? That is what this is, and it is amazing. Late in her life, Margery Kempe, who was English, "wrote" by dictating this book to a priest because she was illiterate. Life in the Middle Ages in Britain, the Middle East & Europe in the 15th Century is expressed throughout.

Her particular story is that she believed herself to be, and was believed by many to be, in direct contact with God, for many years. Many people, including many priests and 2 bishops, sought her out for her goodness & insight/guidance She was abused, threatened, beaten, abandoned, ridiculed and despised by a great many other people, who believed that the Devil or a demon had taken over her body. She expressed the closeness she felt to God by constantly talking about what God & Jesus told her & others to do, and she exploded in wild outcries and weeping that often went on for hours.

So, this is, in effect, an artifact of part of Christian Europe/Britain/Middle East. She once spent months in Germany and had one months-long pilgrimage to Jerusalem with many stops along the way, given the transportation choices available at that time. She had occasion to visit churches in France, Italy, Turkey, Syria and Palestine, among other countries. She talked with citizens of many places and had to wait for weeks, or change her routes, occasionally because of various war as well as one Crusade.

This book opened up a whole new world for me.… (mere)

I felt obliged to try reading this first autobiographical work in the English language, and fortunately it was not as bad as I'd feared. Margery reveals almost nothing about her times (14th century England) but there's entertainment to be had in others' reactions to her incessant weeping, which I can well understand, and yet - since I didn't have to listen to her? - I found her sympathetic. She takes too many daring chances, subjects herself to too much humiliation for me to suspect her of being insincere in her faith.

If her story struck me as funny in places (especially when I forgot how roughshod a society she lived in that could easily make good on its death threats), it isn't out of disrespect for her devotion. I'm made skeptical by the voice of God that sounds almost nothing like him in the Bible, something she doesn't try to do in the brief second part written years later. Her insisting that she bore every trial like a meek saint is a stark contrast with the book itself, which amounts to a written defense and is sometimes even threatening to her persecutors.

Perhaps Margery suffered under a mental illness and this rationalized it for her, maybe it was at least partly an act, or perhaps she really was more blessed than most. It's an intriguing artifact, whichever your view.… (mere)

> Bergamasco Lucia. Margery Kempe, Le Livre, Une mystique anglaise au temps de l'hérésie Lollarde, 1436, précédé de Margery Kempe ou la dévoration du temps par Daniel Vidal, Editions Jérôme Millon, 1987 ;
Le Livre de Margery Kempe, Une aventurière de la foi au Moyen AgeTraduit de l'anglais par Louise Magdinier.
In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 6, 1991. pp. 1306-1308. … ; (en ligne)
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1991_num_46_6_279011_t1_1306_0000_002

> Maître Jacques. Kempe (Margery) Le Livre. Une mystique anglaise au temps de l'hérésie lollarde (1436).
In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°70, 1990. pp. 280-281. … ; (en ligne)
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/assr_0335-5985_1990_num_70_1_1328_t1_0280_0000_2… (mere)