Margery arrives in Jerusalem after taking a sea voyage from Venice. She actually never specifies exactly how long this journey took her. Sailboats travel at approximately 5 miles per hour, and the distance between Venice and Jerusalem is roughly 2000 miles. With this data and assuming good weather, it would take at least 17 days on a boat to get from Venice, Italy to Jerusalem. Margery does state that her and her companions stay in and around the city of Jerusalem for three weeks. During her stay in Jerusalem, Margery and her companions travel to Mount Calvary, the location where Christ was crucified. Today there is actually no consensus on this location, other than it is somewhere directly outside the walls of Jerusalem before its destruction in AD 70, and that it would have been well-visible to passersby. On the Mount of Calvary specifically, Margery details the great fits and convulsions of tears that she had at the location where Christ was supposedly crucified. She details visions she received on site of Christ’s body hanging on the cross in great detail, with Christ’s body “more full of wounds than a dove-cote ever was of holes, hanging upon the cross with the crown of thorns upon his head, his blessed hands, his tender feet nailed to the hard wood, rivers of blood flowing out plenteously from every limb” (106). Margery goes on to detail for a page and  a half why her constant bouts of tears and wails are perfectly nonsensical. She makes an analogy of her crying over the Passion of Christ like a sinner who offends God crying uncontrollably over the loss of a friend or lover. Kempe spends time justifying her tears and portrays her relationship with Christ as something very personal, crying over him the way that sinners would cry over the loss of a mere mortal. Margery also comments that she receives communion on the Mount of Calvary, and claims that she was “so full of holy thoughts and meditations, and holy contemplations… that she could never express them later, so high and so holy they were” (107). Once more at the Mount of Calvary she focuses deeply on her personal fits of crying, but this time there is an enhanced focus on the state of Jesus Christ in his Passion, and explaining why her fits are logical and worthy of applause through a comparison to individuals who grieve without restraint over the loss of someone worth less than the Son of God.

I believe in her analogy of her tears for the loss of Christ to other people’s tears for the loss of friends and loved ones, Margery is making a cultural commentary. She is calling people out by stating that if a person can cry immeasurably over a “creature” who has sinned against his Maker, and does so knowing it is shameful to God, it is extremely hypocritical that those same individuals should judge Kempe’s tears for Jesus Christ, who was without sin and was wrongfully condemned to death to ensure the salvation of all sin.  I think Margery’s analogy is particularly powerful because the loss of something well-loved, both material and human, is something nearly everyone can relate to. In that way, it is particularly powerful in prompting introspection into why Margery’s companions and others that judge her wails cry about losing wealth, friends, or lovers, more than they do over the pain Jesus Christ suffered. This calls into question the true belief of her companions and individuals in the 15th century, considering religion plays a more potent role in 15th century England and Europe than it necessarily does in the 21st century (at least on a political level, churches arguably have much less power and influence on individuals today, and profession of atheism is rising). Margery’s purpose through her analogy upon her arrival at the Mount of Calvary seems to not only reassert her own authority and justify her tears, but to beg the question– just how loyal to Christ are fellow pilgrims or Christian members of society? She consistently remarks through her text how often she is resented, scorned, and left behind, painting a picture (once again through her analogy) that many individuals are not earnest believers that truly care or have empathy for Jesus, who is supposed to be their Lord and Savior.