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Margery Kempe The main peculiarity of Margery Kempe's character was in combination of two essences, which were generally supposed to remain distant, those of holy woman and wife. Therefore, during her life Margery Kempe had been posing a challenge to medieval patriarchal society and the religious surrounding. Being born and educated in a wealthy family, she called this period a life of pride and worldliness. At the age of twenty Margery Kempe married to John Kempe, with whom she had fourteen children. The life of Margery Kempe was a development of intense and connected personal relationship with Christ. Thus, she explains in her book that her first vision was experienced after the birth of her first child.
According to Kempe child bearing is not only a process of becoming a mother or giving a new life. She refers in her autobiographical book to the physical bearing as to the begetting of virtue - the fruit of the spirit. We can do this by hearing Gods word, by setting a good example, by meekness, patience, charity and chastity and so forth As for patience, it is worth far more than the working of miracles (109). At the age of 35, Margery received Gods message to leave aside the vanities of this world and thus, avoiding any sexual intercourse with her husband she started pilgrimages to the holy places.
The major dispute among literary critics regarding the life and book of Margery Kempe was about how to find any relevant category for the author, which for a long time was considered insane and schizophrenic. Thus, David Wallace explains that the main confusion arises not from the writings of Margery Kempe, but rather from the concepts that are brought to bear on them. According to Wallace Kempe's book refuses to adapt itself to the critical categories that have been prepared for it (Wallace 169). Maureen Fries suggests that physical and the spiritual areas of Margery's life are structured by the predominant medieval metaphor of both secular and spiritual literature (Fries 219). For a long time the critics considered Kempe to be either an anchoress or a member of a religious order. However, although Margery Kempe records in her Book the fact of visiting the anchoress Julian of Norwich and communing in holy dalliance she has never been an anchoress.
Nevertheless, Kempe did develop intense relationship with Christ and similarly to the anchoress she did experience ecstatic religious cryings, spiritual and physical sensations, which made her weak but filled with passing great sweetness of devotion (91). European period of thirteen century was marked by the competition of various theories and practices regarding sanctification. The Council of Lambeth produced a significant effort to train clergy and laity in the orthodoxy of the Catholicism. Moreover, the Council required annual confession and communion called Easter Duty.
Therefore, some of the contemporary researchers indicate that the story of Margery Kempe as well as its proper documentation was an attempt to capture sanctity in a historical moment when various theories and practices of sanctification had begun to compete openly. Under those social conditions spiritual direction appeared only in internal forum of confession, penitents were allowed only one confessor, however claims to sanctity required many witnesses for their authentication. Therefore, Margery Kempe's life is viewed through the prism of handling of sin as well as her handling of the confessors. In Book I Kempe encounters with confessors during her postpartum crisis as by a lyell to haste confessor who would not grant her the time to unburden herself of a sin. Only after several months later when Christ appeared to her she was able to recover from a suicidal depression. Thus, in the third chapter readers got acquainted with her heavenly melodies, repentance and gift of tears.
Therefore, from an incomplete confession Margery Kempe step beyond the confession. The status and position of spiritual women in 14 th century England was not as liberal as in other parts of Europe. Women who chose to live a life of chastity and prayer were supposed to refuse from public life to live as anchorites, and to follow fixed set of rules. Due to her very extrovert behavior Margery was tested several times for heresy and blasphemy, even though some highly ranked clerics respected and accepted her and even regarded as a holy woman who had received the gift of tears by God. Bibliography The Book of Margery Kempe: The Autobiography of the Madwoman of God Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England: Burns and Oates, 1995 Fries, M.
Margery Kempe. An Introduction to the Medieval Mystics of Europe. Paul Szarmach, ed. Albany: State University of New York, 1984 Wallace, D. The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England. Marion Glass coe, Darlington Hall 1984
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Research essay sample on Relationship With Christ Book Of Margery Kempe Life
