64 pages • 2 hours read
The Book of Margery Kempe
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Themes
The Cult of the Virgin Mary
The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, occupied a special place within Christianity since its earliest days. However, by the High or Central Middle Ages (ca. 1100s) her cult increased in popularity, especially in Western Europe, partially because of the monk, Bernard of Clairvaux’s influential writings on the Virgin. More churches were dedicated to her during this period, while new hymns, poems, and visual depictions of the Virgin evidence the rising importance of her cult.
The Book of Margery Kempe provides further evidence of her cult’s significance, particularly for a married woman and mother, like Margery. The Virgin appears as a protective, supportive, benevolent maternal figure who provides guidance to Christians and assistance to her son, Jesus Christ. While she is not divine, Mary is worthy of veneration, and as the holiest of saints, she acts as an influential intercessor between believers and God. Medieval sources, including Margery’s book, often refer to her as “Our Lady.”
The Virgin appears to Margery in visions and speaks to her while she is in contemplation. Margery even acts as her “handmaid” in mystical experiences that place Margery in Biblical scenes. These scenes include the Nativity and the Passion of Christ. Margery identifies with the Virgin’s suffering over her son’s crucifixion throughout the text, both seeking comfort from her and providing comfort to the Virgin. For example, Margery envisions herself assisting during Christ’s birth: “[W]hen Jesus was born she arranged bedding for our Lady to lie on with her blessed son. Later she begged food for our Lady and her blessed child” (23). Margery sees Mary “swooning” (189) in grief while envisioning the events leading to the crucifixion.
The Virgin’s grief mirrors the weeping and crying that Margery exhibits whenever she contemplates the Passion. In one instance, Margery and the Virgin weep collectively: “And then our Lady and she, her unworthy handmaid for the time, wept and sighed keenly” (191). Christ comforts the Virgin, just as he does Margery, throughout her book when he tells his mother, “I shall comfort you in your soul myself” (190). Christ even frequently calls Margery “mother” because her sorrow parallels the Virgin’s. He likewise promises Mary salvation and reunification with him upon her death, just as he does Margery.
These connections between the Virgin and Margery serve as a defense of Margery’s behavior, in response to the ire she inspires in her fellow pilgrims, neighbors in Lynn, and various clerics. Her weeping and crying is justified, according to the text, because it is the same as the Virgin’s sorrow at the death of her son, thus emphasizing Margery’s sanctity.
The Importance of the Christian Pilgrimage
The theme of pilgrimage appears throughout The Book of Margery Kempe, in both a literal and figurative sense. Margery physically makes pilgrimages to holy sites within England and beyond, going as far as Jerusalem; yet she also makes pilgrimages through her mystical experiences in which she is transported to, and takes part in, biblical scenes, including the birth of Christ and the crucifixion. The latter she experiences on multiple occasions, which causes her significant weeping and crying. Margery’s physical and spiritual journeys reflect the importance of the Christian pilgrimage in her religious development.
Christians made pilgrimages to sacred sites for centuries, as acts of religious devotion and contrition and often to request divine aid. Jerusalem was the ultimate destination for medieval pilgrims because of its association with the life and death of Christ. Travel to holy sites there, however, was contentious in the later Middle Ages because of tension between Muslim rulers in the Levant and Europe: Margery and her fellow pilgrims are required to travel to various locations with Muslim escorts. People of all classes undertook pilgrimages, though they could be costly and treacherous, as Margery reminds her readers on numerous occasions. She repeatedly mentions her fears when her fellow pilgrims abuse and abandon her on the way to Jerusalem. She likewise describes her concerns about affording the travel costs and paying for food and lodging during her journey to and from Jerusalem and Rome. Christ, however, promises to provide for her. Margery survives off the loans, donations, and goodwill of others, which the text presents as marks of divine favor.
Other sites connected to the lives of saintly figures were important destinations for medieval pilgrims, like Canterbury in England and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Margery visits the latter after Christ commands that she do so. This destination was popular with medieval pilgrims because of its legendary association with the relics of St. James. Christians often visited sites they believed held saintly relics—objects or body parts of deceased saints. Pilgrims to Jerusalem often claimed to bring relics back to their homes, just as Margery does when she claims that the friars at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre gave her relics. Rome, another site of pilgrimage for Margary, was an important destination for medieval Christians because they believed the early Christian apostles, Peter and Paul, had been martyred there. Margery’s determination to visit these famous pilgrimage sites reflects her devotion to God while also giving her opportunities to suffer in various ways, which she regards as a holy purification.
Margery’s inner pilgrimages occur throughout the text. She has these mystical experiences while at home in England and while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. For example, while visiting Mount Calvary, the site of the crucifixion, Margery experiences Christ’s violent death as if it were happening before her eyes. She also explains that each year, during Easter, she experiences the Passion within her soul. She interacts with the Virgin during her distress and takes part in biblical scenes leading up to the resurrection. This mystical pilgrimage of the soul assures Margery of her salvation, embodying the spiritual journey of the soul toward God.
Femininity and Mysticism
Mysticism is a practice in which one seeks closeness to the divine through devotional practices like contemplation. It involves an alternative state of consciousness in which one may experience religious ecstasy and union with the divine. Though not unique to Christianity or the Middle Ages, mysticism proliferated in the late medieval period. Many of these late medieval mystics were women, like Margery Kempe and others who appear in her book, including Julian of Norwich and St. Bridget. Margery details numerous mystical experiences in which Christ, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin, and various other saints speak to and interact with her. Margery’s experiences reflect the unique links between femininity and mysticism common at this time.
Many of these women’s mystical experiences focused on Christ’s suffering during the Passion. This theme appears throughout The Book of Margery Kempe. Julian of Norwich, an anchorite whom Margery visits for several days, was another such mystic. Julian authored a text called the Shewings (or Revelations of Divine Love) that detail the mystical revelations concerning the Passion that she experienced in her cell in 1373. Like Margery, she envisions Christ’s bloody suffering and death, experiences bliss and sorrow, and the promise of salvation and divine union upon death. The Swedish St. Bridget, whom Margery knows and looks to as a model, also had mystical experiences related to the Passion that began when she was a child.
Mystical marriage to God is also common among female mystics of the Late Middle Ages. St. Catherine of Siena, for example, claimed to have become Christ’s bride through a mystical experience in which he gave her a wedding band that only she could see. This experience mirrors the ritual marriage that nuns performed when they took their vows, dedicating their lives to virginity and becoming “brides of Christ.” Margery also experiences a mystical marriage, not to Jesus, but to the Godhead, which she describes in noticeably intimate terms, likely modeled on the intimacy of the biblical Song of Songs. Medieval Christians interpreted this erotic, poetic literature as a metaphor for the love between Christ and the Church.
The eroticism contained in Margery’s book thus derives from this biblical precedent and medieval interpretation. God, for example, tells Margery they will be “intimate” and that he will lie with her. He commands that she embrace him “as you do your wedded husband” (92). He asks her to kiss his mouth and hold him in her soul’s arms. Margery has thus replaced her worldly marriage with a spiritual one through this visionary experience, making her a true “bride of Christ” and solidifying her spiritual vocation.
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