Category: Margery Kempe (Page 5 of 6)

During her stay in Jerusalem, Margery Kempe decided to travel to religious sites in the surrounding areas. First, she wished to travel to the River Jordan, although her companions forbade her from accompanying them there. She prayed to God, and claimed that he gave her permission to travel without the permission of her companions. In describing this experience, Kempe gives some of the only details about her surroundings and local people that occur in the entire narrative. Even so, she mentions them only in relation to how they affect her own experience. Kempe describes the extreme heat of the day as an aspect of her suffering. When she decides to climb Mt. Quarentyne, she writes that the heat and the steep terrain prevent her from making the climb. Her companions also refuse to help her. Because of this, we get one of her few descriptions of people who live near Jerusalem and are not Christian. A “good-looking” “Saracen” helps Kempe to climb the mountain when her companions will not, and she generally states that the “Saracens” were kind and helpful to her.

All of these descriptions serve to heighten Kempe’s depiction of her own suffering and to cast her companions in an unflattering light. She states that she “found all people good and gentle to her, except her own countrymen.” The kindness of the Muslim people in Jerusalem serves to highlight the failings of her companions, not to make any argument for religious or racial acceptance.

There is also another effect of Kempe’s depiction of herself as an outcast among English pilgrims but a welcomed, pious figure among others. She distances herself from “normal” English people, representing herself as better and holier than them. She allies herself instead with strangers in many places. These strangers tend to be members of the clergy, nuns, monks, or other figures with religious authority or random, often destitute, people that she meets along the way and that she claims are sent by God to guide her. By associating herself with religious authorities, she depicts herself as religiously orthodox and correct, and her companions as degenerate for rejecting her. By claiming those who help her as servants of God, she increases the appearance of her own religious importance (God rearranges the world to help her) while remaining humble as she meets these guides in times of suffering. Her acceptance among “Saracens” functions slightly differently, as they are not Christian and not situated as servants of God. However, it seems like Kempe is using them to rebuke unkind Christians, by saying that even non-Christians accept and help her, and even recognize her piety.

Another interesting trend in this section is the boldness and permission Kempe receives from God. For various reasons, including the fact that she is a woman and the fact that she continuously weeps, Kempe’s companions and other people attempt to limit, contain, and constrain her. When she encounters obstacles such as this, she turns to God for permission, fortification, and vindication. Whether or not Kempe actually experienced the voice of God telling her to go to the River Jordan despite being forbade from doing so, claiming this experience gives her the confidence to do so, and provides a retort to anyone who contradicts her. It justifies her actions to her readers and to the people she was traveling with in the moment. It also seems to be a source of internal fortitude. Kempe writes that because of God’s warnings, pronouncements, and reassurances, she dared to “act the more boldly in consequence.”

P.S. I looked up the etymology of the word “quarantine” and it is actually partially derived from the name of the place where Jesus fasted for 40 days, which is Mt. Quarentyne!

Margery Kempe was born in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, England and began her pilgrimage from there. Although this is not one of the places she encountered on her pilgrimage, as it is her home, her experiences there reveal much about the pilgrimage process and how she experienced it as a woman. Before leaving town, Kempe asks the parish priest to ask the people if they have any debts against her or her husband so that she can settle them before leaving. This shows the expectation that pilgrimages would last a long time, and that the pilgrim might not return, so they shouldn’t leave anything undone at home before departing. The anchorite tells Kempe of the hardship she will face on her journey. Kempe frames this as a foretelling of the future, but it could also be read as a form of dissuasion. It is possible the anchorite would not want a woman to leave her husband and family on a long and difficult journey, and he might have sought to convince her otherwise for the sake of family cohesion. If this was his aim, he failed, because Kempe feels compelled by God to take her pilgrimage and won’t be convinced to abandon it.

After leaving King’s Lynn, Kempe sailed to Zierikzee, a city in the Netherlands. She describes much crying there, but says little of the city itself other than that she took communion and wept. According to her, the people there were amazed at her religious devotion, although it is quite possible they were staring at her because she was making a scene. Apparently in Zierikzee, Kempe’s confessor (it is unclear if this is someone who came with her from England or who she met in the Netherlands) tries to end her four-year-long fast in which she avoided meat and wine. Kempe temporarily desists, but then asks permission to resume. It is interesting that the confessor, as well as the English anchorite, do not seem overly invested in encouraging Kempe’s devotion to God. They appear to encourage her to behave more normally, as do her companions, perhaps showing something about the clergy’s societal role. They certainly enforced compliance with religious doctrine, but did they continue to do so when such compliance would hinder social cohesion? Was their role primarily religious or civic and governmental?

Because Kempe’s companions were so fed up with her, they abandoned her. Even her maidservant left her, and one of her companions took the majority of her money, which he had been charged with keeping. This reveals a few things. One, Kempe was traveling with companions, which appears to be the norm for safety’s sake. Two, her abandonment shows that remaining safe relied on an ability to form bonds with one’s traveling companions, something that might have been hindered not only by Kempe’s annoying qualities but also by nature of being the only woman on the voyage, which could have made her a target for sexual violence or led her to be alienated from the general social atmosphere. Three, this shows that Kempe was not trusted to be in charge of her own funds, and therefore, as a woman, had to rely even more heavily on the men around her. This could and does put her under the power of someone not to be trusted, giving Kempe the choice of compromising her values or keeping her money (unless, of course, the man was going to swindle her anyway).

Kempe’s journey from King’s Lynn to Zierikzee shows how her sex complicated her pilgrimage, and also how her personality went in direct opposition to all of the precautions she could have been expected to take to mitigate the effects of being a woman.

Margery travels to Mount Quarentyne or the Mount of Temptation where Christ fasted for forty days from the River Jordan. How long this would have taken them depends upon which spot on the Jordan River they had been visiting. Mount Quarentyne is said to be a hill in the Judean desert that supposedly towers over the town of Jericho in the West Bank. It’s exact location is unbeknownst to us today. Assuming Margery and her company walked to Jericho from the piece of the Jordan River closest to it, this journey is only about 6 miles and thus probably took about an hour to an hour and a half by foot. Margery does remark as she departs from the River Jordan that the weather was so hot she thought “her feet would be burn because of the heat” (110). This is one of the only descriptions of weather Margery ever gives. Kempe describes Mount Quarentyne as being very steep and difficult to climb. Her companions refused to help Margery up the mountain because they could “scarcely help themselves” (110). Eventually, she pays a handsome Muslim man a small sum of money and he assists her up the Mount. Kempe then describes that she became very thirsty and that by the grace of God, the Grey Friars (Franciscan Friars) took pity on her and comforted her even though her own countrymen did not acknowledge her.

Once again, Margery continues to make a cultural commentary on her fellow pilgrims in that they do not assist her or sympathize with her in her times of need (when she has trouble climbing and is extremely thirsty).  By detailing that a Muslim man assists her and that Grey Friars comforted her, Margery is throwing serious shade on her fellow pilgrims and countrymen, portraying them as ungodly. Even a man who does not see Jesus Christ as the Savior bothers to help Margery (if for a small payment) but her “religiously motivated” companions will not. While the Crusades ended over 100 years prior to Margery’s text that was dictated in the 1430s, it is notable that Kempe describes the Saracen man as handsome and portrays him as strong and helpful, considering he practically carries her up a large mountain younger people in good health are struggling to climb. Margery seems to have no animosity for this man of another faith, and because he treats her well, it is almost as though she sees God within his actions even though she cannot see this in her companions who constantly berate and ignore her. I think this is not only an insult to her fellow English pilgrims, but a compliment to the Muslims of Jerusalem, in that Margery trusts them to assist her up to a holy site. The animosity of the Crusades is not felt in Kempe’s particular description of a Muslim man on page 110 of her text. Considering we still see animosity between Christians and Muslims of the world today, I think it would be far-fetched to see this as a scenario in which racism towards Muslim communities or animosity between the two religions didn’t exist. However, I think it does say something about Margery’s faith in that she is able to see her Christian God working in (and believes the Christian God can work through) a man not of Christian faith.

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.

In the course of her pilgrimage, Margery Kempe mentions that she passes through Constance, Bologna, and Venice. The former two appear to be short stays, but she and her companions stay in Venice for thirteen weeks. After her estrangement from her companions, Kempe rejoined the group in Bologna after she arrived at the city before them, amazing them with her traveling ability. However, they made her promise not to talk too much about the Gospel, and to more or less act like a normal person. She agreed, and accompanied them onward to Venice.

In Venice, Kempe does not mention where she slept. However, she does say that she took communion every Sunday “in a great house of nuns,” presumably a convent. She praises the nuns for their welcoming nature in inviting her to take communion with them. She also mentions that the nuns were “amazed” at the visions of Jesus Christ that Kempe had while she was among them. These details have the potential to provide some information about Venetian convents at the time of Kempe’s visit. It is possible they were generally welcoming places that would invite any person (or perhaps any woman) to receive communion with them. It is also possible that they were used to the presence of pilgrims or that they held specific services for pilgrims. However, Kempe does not specify, so it is hard to tell if she took communion with them alone or with other pilgrims.

After their stay of thirteen weeks, Kempe and the rest of her company begin making preparations for the continuation of their journey. Unfortunately, Kempe has already fallen out of their favor again, so they all make preparations on their own and exclude her. The other pilgrims arranged a ship, bought containers for wine, and arranged bedding. This list of tasks reveals what was necessary for ocean travelers at the time, as well as the priorities of the pilgrims. It shows that they had to book passage on a ship, and also that the ship, presumably, provided food (because they do not prepare food) but did not provide bedding or wine. The need for bedding implies that the travelers would be sleeping in beds on the ship, and not ruder accomodations like hammocks or the floor. The emphasis on wine seems puzzling, because it does not immediately occur to be a necessity. However, it is possible that the travelers would have limited access to fresh water during their journey, and that, during the time period, wine was healthier and more accessible.

Kempe also reports an interesting incident on the ship. A priest steals one of her sheets and claims it is his own, and she stands up to him, at which point he swore on the Bible and left her scorned and without a sheet. This incident reveals something about Kempe’s status, which is also made clear by the contemptuous treatment at the hands of her companions (although this is also due to her somewhat trying personality). For some reason, many of the people Kempe encounters attempt to command her or take advantage of her in some way. This could be because travel during this time was inherently difficult and hostile. But it seems that people take it for granted that no one will believe Kempe’s word or take her side, which could be because she is a woman. A priest, especially, would be well-suited to defraud her because his word would bear much greater weight than hers. Kempe positions herself as nearly a martyr, using these incidents as further fodder for her religious zeal.