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Margery Kempe's Mysticism Explored
ELIZABETH BRENNEMAN Communicated By: Dr. James Blodgett Department of English
ABSTRACT
My goal was to investigate Margery Kempe and other female mystics, or contemplatives, of the Middle Ages and discover what the practices and beliefs of these women were. And further, based on these findings, to determine if Kempe, author of The Book of Margery Kempe, can be considered a genuine mystic, a madwoman, or a fraud. I found that mysticism is not religion in itself, but an aspect of many different religions. During mystical contemplation an individual attempts to become as close to God as possible. Most mystics live a life of seclusion, celibacy, and self denial in order to spend the maximum amount of time contemplating Christ's sacrificial death. I found that although Margery Kempe had many experiences in common with other female mystics of her time, she was unique in at least one aspect, that of her uncontrollable weeping episodes upon thinking of Christ's death. It was found that all of Kempe's visions, actions, and experiences fall into the category of mystical experiences. I determined that Kempe was an authentic mystic based on her devotion to a mystical lifestyle even in the face of ridicule and hardship, and because of her determination to live her life devoted to Christ.
Margery Kempe's Book of Margery Kempe gives one changes, was also linked to her faith in Christ and her view of what life was like for a woman in England during fear of eternal damnation. Like the vast majority of the Middle Ages. Contrary to my previous ideas about people in England during the Middle Ages, Kempe was this time in England, I found that Margery Kempe did a fervently religious Catholic. In her Book of Margery not fit into any of my preconceived categories of noble Kempe, she feared that she would not live after having lady of leisure, downtrodden servant, or nun. Kempe given birth and called for a confessor "fully wishing to was apparently what we today call middle class. She be shriven for her whole life, as near as she could" (502). was not a lady of leisure but worked for a living. How She wanted to confess her sins, to be freed from guilt ever, she was not a scullery maid or some such ser before she died, in order to be able to get to heaven. vant; she owned her own business. I was surprised that The confessor, in his haste, did not get to all Kempe's Kempe had a say in what she did with her life and sins, in particular an undisclosed sin she was most wor in what happened to her, although not as much as we ried about, " .... and soon after, because of the dread women believe we have today. Much like Chaucer's she had of eternal damnation on the one hand, and his Wife of Bath, Kempe wanted to live her life as she felt [the confessor's] sharp reproving of her on the other this was best and was willing to do the things necessary to creature [Kempe] went out of her mind .... " (503). I be reach her objectives. In contrast to the Wife of Bath, gan to see this early episode as a precursor to her later who opposed the church's viewpoint on many subjects, religious experiences as a mystic. Her devout faith in Kempe felt called by God to a mystical, or contempla Christ played a large part in both cases. In fact, her tive, lifestyle and worked within the church to reach her first ecstatic mystical experience was what brought her goals. out of her madness. Jesus Christ appeared to her and As I read Kempe's autobiographical book, I became spoke to her, "and presently the creature [Kempe] grew increasingly interested in the contemplative lifestyle as calm in her wits as she ever was before .... " (503). that she adopted at age twenty. Her practice of mys What was this mystical experience that Margery had? ticism as part of her religion was different from any I wanted to learn about the mystical aspect of religion religious practice I had previously heard of. My first and how Kempe's experiences then, and later in her reaction to her highly demonstrative style of Christian life, could be considered mystical experiences. ity was to think that she was a bit "wood", or crazy, as In his book, The Catholic Heritage, author was said during the Middle Ages in England. In fact, Lawrence Cunningham states that contemplation, or in the excerpt from her Book in Longman's Anthology, mysticism, as it is referred to today, is "a phenomenon Margery Kempe admitted to an early bout of madness which is part of all major religions" (85). Mysticism is after the birth of her first child. My thought was; if not a distinct or independent form of religion but rather she was crazy once, maybe all her reported visions af an element in established religious communities and ter this episode were just more craziness. It all seemed traditions throughout the world. Christian mystics, like a little farfetched to me. However, during class discus Margery Kempe, focus on contemplating and thinking sion, and while doing my research, I began to change of Christ's life, death, and resurrection as a means of my opinion. Kempe's eight month period of madness, experiencing God as fully as humanly possible. In ad while probably caused in part by postpartum hormonal dition, they perform many acts of self-denial including 10 Elizabeth Brenneman fasting and living a life of poverty and solitude as fur at Sext, None and Evensong, stretching herself in a cru ther means to unite with Christ. For these practition ciform posture" (Games of Faith, 40). Glasscoe tells of ers, mysticism represents a way back to the source of another woman, Christina from St. Truden, and how, being, a way of experiencing Christ and heaven before among other things, "she cast herself into heated ovens death. For me, learning of the existence of other Middle or boiling cauldrons". She states that these accounts of Ages mystics made Kempe's reported experiences more Christina's actions "convey a feeling of a disturbed per believable. I began to think that perhaps Kempe was sonality" (40), much like my initial reaction to Margery not crazy but in fact had experienced an aspect of reli Kempe. gion that many people, of many religions, experienced Margery Kempe was not the most highly demon before her, and that many after her have experienced. strative female mystic of the Middle Ages, nor was she Marion Glasscoe, author of English Medieval Mystics, the first female mystic. In his book, The Growth of asserts that Kempe's visions and other actions become Mysticism, Bernard McGinn relates that mysticism has more acceptable and believable when looked at through been a part of Christianity for many centuries and "so "the context of piety in England and Europe [during lidif[ied] in the fourth century" (26). The early mys the Middle Ages] which no doubt Margery took for tics, of the fourth through ninth century, were men and granted and against which she seems less unusual.. .. " primarily monastic. However, by the 12th century, fe {281). Upon first consideration, many modern read male mystics had been established; "in these days God ers may assume that Margery Kempe was either crazy make manifest His power through the frail sex, in these or deceptive in reporting her experiences. However, if handmaidens whom He filled with the prophetic spirit" her experiences are filtered through the Middle Ages (Zurn Brunn, English Medieval Mystics, xiiv). For ex point of view of devout faith, Kempe becomes more ample, over two hundred years before Margery Kempe acceptable. In my research, I explored Kempe's differ was born, Hildegard of Bingen, a German nun, was a ent mystical experiences in the context of her time and well known and popular mystic. She corresponded with place in history, and in the context of mysticism. My many prominent people, among them popes, emperors, desire was to better understand both her life and what bishops, and abbots. Among other activities, she re a mystical life entails, and to determine if she was a ceived visions and performed exorcisms. Her fame as fool, a fraud, or a genuine mystic. Were her visions of a mystic spread throughout the Christian world. Most God, her episodes of hearing heavenly music, her bouts female mystics were nuns or anchoresses, often shutting of uncontrolled weeping as she contemplated Christ's themselves off from human contact in order to contem sacrificial death, and her later marriage to the God plate Christ, never entering into marriage or mother head madness or genuine? Was her wish for celibacy ing children, as Kempe did. However, Kempe was not within her marriage frigidity or religiosity? Was her unique in being a wife, mother, and mystic. Mary of desire to receive the Eucharist weekly an example of an Orgnies (13th century) was married but, with her hus extremely pushy person or an extremely devout one? band's cooperation, dedicated her life to God. Bridget Perhaps Kempe was not mad, frigid, or pushy; per of Sweden (15th century), in spite of an early marriage haps she was a genuine mystic and all her actions and and eight children, lived an increasingly ascetic and re experiences were authentic religious experiences. In re ligious life which she devoted herself to completely after searching mysticism I found ample basis for the validity her husband's death. So, Kempe's ecstatic visions and of Kempe's experiences. her celibacy within her marriage were not unusual ex periences for a female mystic of the Middle Ages. What I will not attempt to explain all of the beliefs and of her marriage to the Godhead in an ecstatic vision; practices of mystics as they strive to experience God was that an experience unique to Kempe? more fully, I hope to illustrate how Margery Kempe's experiences should be considered mystical experiences, In my initial reading of the excerpt from Kempe's based on how they fit into the framework of the female Book in The Longman Anthology, the experience that mystics of the Middle Ages. I discovered that most I found the least believable was her account of being of the visions Kempe had and the things she did were wedded to the Godhead, which consists of the three not unique to her, or to her time in history.. Indeed, great powers of heaven; God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy when compared to other female mystics of her time, Spirit. In the Middle Ages, as is still the case today, Kempe's experiences seem almost tame. For instance, nuns were considered to be brides of Christ. However, Glasscoe relates that Mary of Orgnies, a Medieval mys nuns are not already married to a man at the time of tic, "practiced severe self-mortification", "lived three their marriage to Christ, as Kempe was. They did not years on bread and water", and, "sometimes went bare marry the Godhead in an ecstatic vision, while hear foot to church in winter", and that Elizabeth Spalbeck, ing God's voice and other sounds and melodies, and another Middle Ages mystic, "imitated the passion of smelling sweet smells, as Kempe did. Perhaps nuns do Christ at the canonical hours; at Matins, beating herself not wed the Godhead in such a fashion today, but in as she remembered Christ being taken with swords and my research I found that Kempe was not original in stave; at Prime, walking with arms twisted behind her her actions here either. Elizabeth Petroff writes in her like a bound thief to commemorate Christ being led ... ; book, Body and Soul, of Catherine of Siena's (1347- I
Margery Kempe's Mysticism Explored 11
1380) "vision of a mystical marriage with Christ" (18) pression were much more physically demonstrated than and of Angela of Foligno's (1248-1309) being "woo[ed] most, if not all, of her contemporaries. by the Holy Spirit as she was on a pilgrimage to As Was Margery Kempe a genuine mystic, a lunatic, sisi" (27). Kempe may seem crazy or deluded to the or a clever deceiver, who imitated the experiences of modern reader; however, when she is put into context other women who had come before her? As I previously of the female mystic of the Middle Ages, she does not stated, I was initially reluctant to see Kempe as an au seem that crazy or even unusual after all. thentic mystic because of her early period of madness I next looked at Kempe's fervent desire to receive and because I was looking at her through my point of the Eucharist, the part of the Christian sacrament of view rather than through the point of view of the mysti communion in which consecrated bread and wine are cal experience. After class discussion, in which we con consumed as the body and blood of Christ, every Sun sidered Kempe as a devoutly faithful Christian of the day. In the Catholic churches of the Middle Ages Middle Ages, it appeared likely that she was genuine communion was only given a few times a year. Was in the visual and auditory ecstasies she reports hav Kempe's desire to commune more often the desire of a ing experienced and sincere in her desire for celibacy lunatic or the heartfelt wish of a true mystic? Shortly and weekly communion. In addition, her continued before Christmas one year as she was kneeling in a determination to live her life as a mystic, despite the chapel, weeping and asking mercy and forgiveness for many hostile reactions she encountered seemed genuine. her sins, Kempe heard Christ speaking to her. He told However, after further research into Middle Ages mys her, "Instead of meat you shall eat my flesh and blood ticism, I could find only one experience that was unique that is the true body of Christ. This is my will, daugh to Kempe, that of her frequent, uncontrolled weeping ter, that you receive my body every Sunday.... " (Long upon her contemplation of Christ's passion. I began man 508). In my research I found that Kempe was to question her authenticity again and to wonder if she not alone in her desire to commune so frequently. In was a charlatan. fact, I discovered that the devotion of many of these Although she could not read or write, Kempe had mystical women centered on the Eucharist. Some of some access to the works of the other mystics of her these female mystics are reported as reaching the point time as she refers to at least one by name in her dic where they could eat only the consecrated bread of the tated Book of Margery Kempe. She was no more de Eucharist. Another is reported as having been able to vout, no more a seer, than other female mystics. In detect an unconsecrated host (the bread) because she fact, in comparison with her contemporaries she was a could not digest it. Amy Hollywood, author of The watered down version of a mystic. She was celibate, re Soul As Virgin Bride, relates that it has been found ceived communion weekly, and went on a pilgrimage to in many of these women's writings that "the Eucharist Jerusalem, but she never lived on the Eucharist alone or often serv[ed] as the opening for more extraordinary threw herself into a boiling cauldron. However, it could experiences of God's presence" in the lives of these be considered that God did not call her to these more female mystics of the Middle Ages (51). This could extreme activities. Even in her own time, Kempe was be argued to be the case for Margery Kempe as well. not universally thought to be a genuine mystic. Some She began receiving communion weekly on her pilgrim saw her as an authentic mystic who received commu age to Jerusalem. It was later that she experienced niques from Christ. William Southfield, a White Friar, her first bout of uncontrollable weeping as she contem thanked Jesus after hearing "her meditations and what plated Christ's passion, and later still that she wedded God had wrought in her soul" (Longman 512). Oth the Godhead. ers saw her as a fraud. She was asked by townspeople Kempe was beginning to seem more and more ac who knew her, "why do you talk so much of the joy ceptable, within the context of mystic practices. Ad that is in heaven? You don't know it, and you haven't dressing her bouts, or fits of uncontrolled sobbing, been there any more than we have" (505). Some just Glasscoe relates that "her crying became so convul thought of her as incredibly annoying to be around sive that she was thought to be possessed, epileptic, whether she was genuine or not. She wept too much or possibly a mere charlatan", and so disturbing that and spoke constantly of the love and goodness of Christ. some preachers would not tolerate her in church (272). In fact, she was apparently so annoying that her fel This is one experience that I believe to be unique to low pilgrims abandoned her on the way to Jerusalem. Margery Kempe. I was able to find only one other Glasscoe refers to Kempe as "always liable to express reference to crying in all of the writings of the female physically what was to be understood spiritually" and mystics researched. Mechthild of Magdeburg, a thir that "she [Kempe] lays herself open to denigrating in teenth century mystic, wrote "whenever I saw anything terpretation; but there is the possibility that this may that was beautiful or dear to me, I began to sigh, and reflect more on the interpreter than on herself" (293). after that to cry and after that to think .... " (Hollywood The fact that Kempe was annoying, overly demon 69). This is crying, but it has a more subdued nature strative and that many of her experiences were not orig to it. It does not seem to be the uncontrolled weeping inal does not make them any less valid. I doubt that of Margery Kempe. Kempe's faith and its outward ex- I have experienced anything unique in my lifetime but 12 Elizabeth Brenneman that does not make my experiences any less authentic. - Glasscoe, Marion. English Medieval Mystics. Ultimately, I have come to consider Kempe's experi London and New York: Longman, 1993. ences as genuine based on her devout faith and her con tinued determination to live her life as God instructed - Hollywood, Amy. The Soul as Virgin Wife. Notre her to, no matter the scorn of her husband, the court, Dame and London: University of Notre Dame and her fellow Christians. Kempe never wavered in her Press, 1995. love for and awe of Christ in spite of opposition and - Kempe, Margery. "The Book of Margery Kempe" scorn at almost every turn. She was not a stereotyp (excerpt).· The Longman Anthology of British ical woman of the Middle Ages, but a faithful woman Literature, Volume 1. Ed. David Damrosch, et of God more concerned with her coming heavenly life al. New York: Longman, 1999. than her earthly life. While she annoyed many of her fellow Christians and townspeople and may seem crazy - McGinn, Bernard. The Growth of Mysticism. to the modern reader, Kempe, based on my research, New York: Crossroads, 1994. was a genuine mystic living her life for Christ. - Petroff, Elizabeth Alvilda. Body and Soul. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. REFERENCES - Zurn Brunn, Emilie and Georgette Epiney - Cunningham, Lawrence S. The Catholic Heritage. Burgard. Women Mystics in Medieval Europe. New York: Crossroads, 1995. New York: Paragon House, 1989.
Elizabeth Brenneman is currently a sophomore, with an expected graduation date of 2006, as she is attending part-time. She is a secondary education English major, and plans to minor in Spanish in order to teach English as a second language or Spanish. This paper was originally written for L301, English Literature to 1600, with Professor Blodgett. "I became interested in the subject of mysticism because it was something that was totally new to me, and I wanted to learn more about the topic. I was surprised to learn that Margery Kempe was not a lone practitioner of mysticism but that there was actually a centuries old history of mystical practice behind her. In addition, my initial unfavorable reaction to Kempe, which later changed to acceptance, was a reminder to me to reserve judgment until all the facts are in."