I 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.