The Book of Margery Kempe

Many turn against Margery due to the friar’s sermons against her. Even the priestly scribe who records her book doubts her. However, after he reads about the life of Mary of Oignies, who experienced weeping episodes like Margery, he stops doubting. He likewise finds justification for such weeping in the writing of St. Bonaventure and experiences his own episode of uncontrolled sobbing during Mass. Other doubters also repent for having turned against Margery due to the friar’s sermons. Others maintain that she is possessed.

Some friends suggest Margery leave King’s Lynn. She refuses on the grounds that it is where she has sinned and therefore where she must suffer punishment. God tells Margery that he is displeased with the accursed friar and that he will cease her crying if she returns to the church. However, her critics believe that her lack of crying means she can control it and was acting. Their slander, nevertheless, offers her “spiritual comfort” (158). God promises that she will be restored, and the friar proven wrong.

Christ tells Margery that his love is immeasurable and only fully comprehensible in the afterlife. He says that no churchman can instruct her better than he and that her weeping is a “token” (160) of his love. Moreover, God does not take retribution on the world’s evildoers because of Margery’s love. Her detractors will learn the truth when they die, and she asks God to have mercy on them. She says that God has instructed her to love all and begs him not to punish her fellow Christians but save them.

Christ lists the many reasons he loves Margery, including bearing her critics’ harsh and slanderous words. He acknowledges that her chaste marriage permits Margery’s love for the divine to increase. God has shown her the reasons she loves him both in England and beyond.

God orders Margery to eat meat again, but she worries about what her detractors will say. God tells her to ignore their derision. She tells her confessors about this revelation, which they command her to obey. The Virgin also appears to Margery telling her to request that her confessor release her from her weekly fast in the Virgin’s honor. The confessor approves and instructs her to “by virtue of obedience to eat moderately” (164). The Virgin explains that eating meat will give Margery more strength to endure weeping.

A fire in Lynn destroys the Guildhall and threatens the Church of St. Margaret. Though the fire spreads to part of the church, because of Margery’s prayers a miraculous snowstorm arrives to put it out. Some neighbors, however, continue to criticize her for her sobbing and crying.

Margery seeks sanctuary in the Prior’s chapel, where she envisions the Passion and recalls how her detractors once told her the Virgin had not wept as much as she. Margery begs Christ for relief. A new parson arrives who tells her critics to cease their complaints. The critical friar, however, still contends that she is possessed.

A Doctor of Divinity friendly to Margery, Master Custawns, validates Margery’s weeping as a divine gift and asks other clerics in Lynn to tolerate her during Mass. For example, an Augustinian friar chastises her critics because they “know very little what she is feeling” (169).

Margery weeps during Mass on multiple occasions, which the priests tolerate, fulfilling God’s promise to her. Margery befriends and becomes close to a cleric called Master Aleyn, but the two are forbidden from speaking to one another after critics complain to the Carmelite Provincial. Christ promises to comfort Margery and that she will be able to speak to Master Aleyn again one day. He also sends another priest to St. Margaret’s who is willing to hear her confession while she is estranged from Master Robert, her primary confessor.

Master Aleyn becomes ill, and Margery prays to be reunited with him before he dies. God responds that he will not die, and the two friends will be able to talk once more. Master Aleyn soon recovers and receives permission to speak to Margery while her confessor grants her permission to speak to the cleric. He invites Margery to dine with him and a nun. She weeps with joy that they can speak again and celebrate their reunion with a meal.

An unnamed priest tests Margery by asking her if the Prior of Lynn should be removed. She prays about the matter and answers that the prior will be recalled to Norwich while a new prior is sent to Lynn. This revelation soon comes to pass, but the second prior soon returns to Norwich. God sends a “sweet and heavenly savour” as a token and tells Margery that this prior will be back in Lynn. This prediction also comes true. This “worthy” prior, however, “was appointed to go over the sea to the King in France” (173). Margery asks God in prayer if the prior should undertake this journey: “she was answered that he would not go” (174). Indeed, the King soon dies and the trip is canceled.

God is constantly on Margery’s mind, and she sees God in everything. Her spiritual experience is especially intense during the Eucharist because it causes her to meditate on the Passion. She weeps and screams. Many request that she sit by their deathbeds, “for, although they had no love for her weeping or her crying during their lifetimes, they desired that she should both weep and cry when they were dying, and she did” (175). Their deaths cause her to see Christ’s death, leading to more sobbing.

Anything Margery sees of experiences causes her love for the divine to grow. Margery meets a lady with many attendants and begins to weep. A priest reprimands her, and the woman takes Margery aside to ask the cause of her weeping. She then asks Margery to stay with her and chastises the priest, but Margery refuses because of the woman’s worldliness.

Margery envisions Christ with the apostles, Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin during a procession on Holy Thursday and is filled with grief. Her contemplative and vision experiences consume her life: She has forgotten all earthly things and only attends to spiritual things. She also envisions herself attending to the Virgin at death, causing Margery to weep. The apostles in attendance chastise her, and Margery retorts that she cannot control it. She asks the Virgin to act as her intercessor, and the Virgin responds that her grief will become delight in Paradise. She reassures Margery that God has forgiven her sins and all the faithful. Furthermore, the Virgin says those who change their ways will receive remission, just as Margery did when she visited Ramleh on pilgrimage in Jerusalem.

Margery contemplates and longs for her death. Jesus encourages her to think of the Virgin Mary and his disciples, including Mary Magdelene, who lived in the world without him after the crucifixion. Margery responds that she wishes she was as beloved to Christ as the Magdelene. He replies that he loves Margery, too, and grants her the “same peace” (178).

Margery contemplates the Passion and becomes so overwhelmed that she cannot stand to look at anyone wounded or ill, including those suffering from leprosy: “Then she felt great mourning and sorrow because she might not kiss the lepers, for the love of Jesus, when she saw them or met with them in the streets” (178). She feels love for what she despised and wants to “embrace and kiss” (178) those suffering because of Christ’s love. She conveys this feeling to her confessor who warns her to only kiss other women who are ill. She visits a leper colony and, without fear, embraces and kisses some of the suffering women. One woman suffers “so many temptations” (179) that Margery returns to provide spiritual comfort and offers up prayers for the woman.

Margery meets a distressed man while praying in St. Margaret’s Church. The man’s wife is experiencing a post-partum illness. Margery goes to visit her and provides the woman comfort. The woman claims to see angels surrounding Margery. However, the woman’s mental illness persists, and she is “taken to a room at the furthest end of town, so that people should not hear her crying” (180). Margery visits her daily and prays that God return her to good health, which he miraculously does. The woman is purified in the parish church.

John Kempe has a bad fall at home and is seriously injured. Margery’s critics blame her because the two live apart to preserve their chaste marriage. God promises Margery that John will survive, and she nurses him at God’s command. This task is difficult because John is unable to control his bowels and his care is costly. Margery sees these challenges as a form of penance: “And therefore she was glad to be punished by means of the same body [after which she once lusted]” (183).

Margery asks God to permit her to experience her crying alone rather than during Mass. She fears the disruption will cause her to be banned from sermons. God refuses, stressing obedience. He says, “And as suddenly as the lightening comes from heaven, so suddenly I come into your soul, and illuminate it with the light of grace and understanding, and set it all on fire with love” (184). He reassures Margery that the pain her crying engenders means less pain in death and freedom from suffering in the afterlife. Margery laments her inability to repay God and notes her unworthiness. God reminds her that her love is enough.

Margery participates in a Palm Sunday procession for years, which causes her intense sobbing and crying. During the priest’s sermon, he frequently says, “‘Our Lord Jesus languishes for love’” (186). Such a sermon causes the fire of God’s love to burn within Margery and flame outward in the form of loud crying and weeping. God reminds her that the scorn she receives means she will experience more eternal reward.

God reveals the outcome of future events to Margery, including the deaths of neighbors and an outbreak of plague. These revelations strengthen her faith. God tells her that those who doubt his grace will learn the truth upon death, and that he has made her a “mirror” (187) for others, so that they might learn from her and become saved. He encourages her to pray for others’ salvation.

Returning to the celebration of Palm Sunday, Margery wails and cries when the clergy reveal the crucifix to the congregation, “for she thought that she saw our Lord Christ Jesus as truly in her soul with her spiritual eye, as she had seen the crucifix before with her bodily eye” (189).

Margery envisions the Passion. She sees Christ kneeling before the Virgin for blessing and Mary collapsing with sorrow. She hears the words the two speak, including Mary’s claim that she would rather die in her son’s place. She hears Christ comfort his mother and remind her that he will send comfort to her within her soul. He reassures her that she will join him in Heaven one day.

Margery falls at Christ’s feet, weeps, and begs for his blessing. He instructs Margery to remain with the Virgin and provide her with comfort. Margery sees other biblical scenes leading to the crucifixion. She joins the Virgin in weeping when they witness his suffering. She experiences these “spiritual sights” (192) every Palm Sunday and Good Friday for years.

Margery sees Christ bound and scourged, witnesses him carrying the cross, and witnesses him hanging from the cross while in contemplation. She cries and weeps during Mass as she envisions these scenes. She sees the Virgin collapse and St. John’s attempts to comfort her. She hears the thieves who were crucified alongside Christ speaking with him. She witnesses biblical scenes that follow the crucifixion, like the women washing Christ’s body as well as his burial.

Margery sees the Virgin “swoon” (196) when her son is buried and witnesses her brought home to bed. Margery tries to comfort her with a warm drink and listens to her lamentations. She hears Peter come to the door and ask the Virgin to forgive him for betraying Christ. She also witnesses the Virgin comfort Peter, telling him that he is not forsaken. Margery envisions Christ’s appearance to his mother and the Magdelene upon his resurrection. Margery sobs over her desire to be united with the divine.

Contemplation brings Margery to the Temple for Mary’s purification and Christ’s presentation. She is so overcome by her contemplation that she can barely stand in the Candlemas procession celebrating this biblical event. Weddings also cause Margery to see the holy marriage of Mary to Joseph and “the spiritual joining of man’s soul to Jesus Christ” (200). She falls into depression when God does not send her weeping.

Two priests question the authenticity of Margery’s weeping. They invite her on a brief pilgrimage to a church near Lynn. Margery begins to weep and scream after praying. The group meets two women carrying children on their return journey. This meeting causes Margery to be so consumed by her desire to see the Christ child that she sobs again: “Then the priests had the more faith that all was indeed well with her, when they heard her cry in out-of-the-way places as well as public places, and in the fields and the town” (202).

A convent invites Margery to join them for matins during which she feels the fire of God’s love so that she cries loudly. Margery’s supporters “profited to the increase of merit and virtue” (202) while her doubters failed to spiritually benefit. Her contemplations increase once she confirms they are divine in origin. Margery, however, frequently forgets the details of what she sees or learns through contemplation shortly after the experience.

The abbess of Denny requests Margery visits her nuns, but Margery is afraid to travel due to an outbreak of plague. God, however, confirms her safety and demands she visit the women. She misses the boat she needs to get to the abbey but is assured within that God will provide. Christ thanks her for having attended to him at his birth and supporting the Virgin. Likewise, when she serves others, she is serving God. He promises her heavenly reward. Christ also thanks her for her charity toward sinners and suggests that she acts “as gracious to them as [he] was to Mary Magdalene” (205). He also praises her prayers for non-Christians and confirms that “every good thought and every good desire that you have in your soul is the speech of God” (206). Here, contemplations are God’s gifts, and he commands that she celebrate this reward.

Margery has several contemplative experiences in which her eyes close like she is sleeping. She views her name in the Book of Life during one such experience and sees Christ’s wounds as if he were in front of her in another.

God praises Margery for multiple reasons including her reverence for the Virgin, Magdalene and other saints. He also praises her for confirming the Trinity’s orthodoxy. He tells her not to fear because of the grace he gives her, despite the slander she endures. Her good thoughts and actions assure Margery’s salvation.

Margery’s conversations with God, that lasted for approximately 25 years before her book was composed, strengthen her faith. Her mystical experiences are so frequent that she is unaware of how much time passes. She tells God that even if she were in hell, she would be pleased to weep for him.

God tells Margery that the recording of her book pleases him, even though it takes time away from her prayers, because the text will help bring others to him. God says that her thoughts are the best form of prayer and that half her weeping and good works will help save her confessor, Master Robert. God approves of the manner with which Master Robert has governed and chastised Margery. Moreover, God offers to obey Margery if she is obedient to him.

Margery often weeps during the writing of her book. God and the saints frequently thank Margery when she attends Mass, sanctioning the text. Sometimes Margery hears a bird’s voice and other melodious tokens of God’s grace. She asks the divine to allow Master Aleyn to preach a good sermon. God ensures that he does. Margery is sometimes discouraged when she does not understand her mystical experiences and fears demonic trickery, yet God always eventually explains them. God’s grace strengthens her and increases her virtue.

The text concludes, noting that the original scribe died, and that God’s assistance allowed the current scribe to produce this new copy with Margery’s assistance.