THE VITAE OF BODLEIAN LIBRARY MS DOUCE 114 Brian C. Vander Veen Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2007 Abstract Bodleian Library MS Douce 114 contains the unique copy of four Middle English texts, translations of Latin vitae, all describing Continental women saints whose unusual forms of devotion set them apart from the often more sober atmosphere of late-medieval English spirituality in which the texts appeared. The texts first attracted scholarly notice following the publication of The Book of Margery Kempe and the subsequent interest in the lives of the Continental women mystics whom Kempe resembled far more than her own English contemporaries; however, the texts have yet to be examined in any detail. This study investigates both the physical production of the translation and the context of book production in which the manuscript appeared, as well as the ideological context and controversies which would have informed the reading and reception of the texts. Acknowledgments This thesis could not have been completed without the patience and dedicated help of my supervisor, Prof Thorlac Turville-Petre. I would also like to thank Prof Janette Dillon for her valuable advice during the formative stages of this project; my examiners Prof Vincent Gillespie and Dr. Nicola Royan for providing helpful suggestions for the elaboration and refinement of my future research on late-medieval devotional texts; the staff of the Hallward Library at the University of Nottingham, the staff of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and the staff of the Pollak Library at California State University Fullerton; and finally, my family and friends without whose support the completion of this thesis would not have been possible. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Literary Production at Beauvale Priory ..................................................... 34 Chapter 3: The Beguine Movement ................................................................................. 70 Chapter 4: Douce 114 and the Defence of Orthodoxy ....................................... 123 Chapter 5: Idiosyncratic Devotion and Its Critics ..................................................... 191 1 Introduction When, early in the fifteenth century, a visiting friar of considerable reputation arrived in King's Lynn, Norfolk, he was forewarned by the priest of St James' parish about the unusual behaviour of one of the local residents. The individual, Margery Kempe, daughter of Lynn's former mayor, had earned some local notoriety for her unusual devotion, and specifically, for her fits of loud weeping in response to any mention of Christ's passion. These outbursts had so far been patiently tolerated by the parish priest as well as the parishioners, and he instructed the visiting friar to do likewise. During his first sermon in Lynn, the friar voiced no objection when Margery began to sob loudly, but he afterwards excluded her from attending any church in which he was preaching, despite attempts by local clergy and lay supporters of Kempe to persuade him otherwise. The resulting tension between the friar, on the one hand, and Kempe's friends and supporters, on the other, reached an impasse on St James' Day, 1420, when the friar preached a pulpit-pounding sermon against Kempe, making thinly-veiled threats against those who persisted in supporting her: 'Yyf I here any mor thes matyrs rehersyd,' the 1 friar warned, 'I schal so smytyn the nayl on the hed . that it schal schamyn alle hyr mayntenowyrs'. At that, many of Kempe's friends withdrew their support and friendship, capitulating instead to the friar's reputation. Even the priest who would later serve as Margery's amanuensis and help produce the book of her life and revelations was momentarily dissuaded from endorsing her unusual form of devotion. He did, of course, later regret his decision and returned to Margery's support, but only after discovering ample precedent for Margery's ecstatic weeping. The account of his change of mind, preserved in The Book of Margery Kempe, lists several books of contemporary devotion mentioning the gift of tears, the first of which is the vita of Marie of Oignies (d.1213). The anecdote that Margery's priest relates from the vita is in many ways strikingly parallel to Kempe's own experiences, and it is this similarity, as well as the ecclesiastical sanction already given to Marie's form of devotion, that seems to have persuaded Margery's priest to put his own reputation at stake rather than withdraw his support. Like Margery, Marie of Oignies was excluded by a clergyman because of her loud weeping. In Marie's case, however, the priest was himself later so overwhelmed during the gospel reading that he soaked his vestments with tears, and thus was forced to admit the authenticity of Marie's special grace. It is this miraculous precedent that for Margery's amanuensis serves as his primary justification for accepting Margery's experiences as equally valid. 1 The similarities between Kempe's spirituality and that of Marie of Oignies, and indeed that of a number of continental women mystics, are numerous, and comparisons with continental saints have been a staple of Kempe studies ever since Hope Emily Allen's preface and notes for the EETS edition of The Book of Margery Kempe first called attention 1 The story of Margery’s conflict with the friar, and her priest’s crisis of loyalties, is related in Ch. 61- 62 of The Book of Margery Kempe. Quotations are from the edition by Sanford Brown Meech and Hope Emily Allen, The Book of Margery Kempe (OS 212, London: EETS, 1940). 2 to the 'accumulation of coincidental commonplaces' shared by Kempe and a number of continental holy women.2 As a result, Douce 114, the manuscript preserving the unique copy of the Middle English translation of Marie of Oignies's life, together with the vitae of Elizabeth of Spalbeek (d.1274) and Christina Mirabilis (d.1224) and a letter concerning Catherine of Siena (d.1380), has since been often cited in discussions of Kempe. Even works produced for non-specialists, such as the introduction to B.A.Windeatt's translation of The Book of Margery Kempe, have since included allusions to Douce 114, in this case citing the volume as 'a collection which in itself suggests the kind of reading that some of Margery's advisors would draw upon'.3 Yet, despite the frequent allusions made to Douce 114 in the context of Kempe studies, few have yet examined the manuscript itself in any depth. Jocelyn Wogan-Browne and Marie-Élisabeth Henneau lament this oversight in their introduction to a recent collection of essays discussing the influence of women mystics of the Low Countries: 'Yet for what are arguably the most important texts concerning the women of Liége and English vernacular culture, there currently exists no edition later than that to be found in 2 Meech and Allen, The Book of Margery Kempe, p.lv. Summaries of the parallels between Marie of Oignies and Margery Kempe can also be found in Barry Windeatt’s useful introduction to his translation of The Book of Margery Kempe (London: Penguin, 1994), p.19-20; in Ellen M. Ross, The Grief of God: Images of the Suffering Jesus in Late Medieval England (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p.120-21; and in Clarissa W. Atkinson, Mystic and Pilgrim: The Book and the World of Margery Kempe, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), p.31-34. One particular similarity, Marie of Oignies’ Candlemas vision, is discussed more extensively by Carolyne Larrington in 'Representing the Presentation: The Candlemas Vision and Marie d'Oignies' Role in its Dissemination' in Juliette Dor et al., eds., New Trends in Feminine Spirituality (Hull: Brepols, 1999), p. 195-214. Other comparisons of Margery Kempe to continental women mystics can be found in Julia Bolton Holloway, 'Bride, Margery, Julian, and Alice: Bridget of Sweden’s Textual Community in Medieval England' in Sarah J. McEntire, ed., Margery Kempe: A Book of Essays (New York: Garland, 1992), p.203-21; Alexandra Barratt, 'Margery Kempe and the King’s Daughter of Hungary' in McEntire, Margery Kempe, p.189-201; Susan Dickman, 'Margery Kempe and the Continental Tradition of the Pious Woman' in Marion Glasscoe, ed., The Medieval Mystical Tradition in England (Woodbridge: D.S.Brewer, 1984), p.150-68; Janette Dillon, 'Holy Women and their Confessors or Confessors and their Holy Women? Margery Kempe and Continental Tradition' in Rosalynn Voaden, ed., Prophets Abroad: The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late Medieval England, (Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 1996), p.115-40. 3 Windeatt, The Book of Margery Kempe, p.20 3 a scholarly journal of 1886 [sic] and very few studies'.4 The collection of essays on the women of Liége, edited by Wogan-Browne and Henneau, goes some way toward correcting the imbalance, containing valuable articles on Christina Mirabilis and Marie of Oignies.5 None of the articles, however, deals specifically with the Middle-English translations of the vitae found in Douce 114, nor with the reception of these texts within the context of late-medieval English spirituality. Moreover, Wogan-Browne and Henneau's description of the manuscript as 'the fifteenth- century Middle English versions of the vitae of Marie of Oignies, Christina Mirabilis, and Elizabeth of Spalbeek, grouped together with a translation of the German mystic Henry Suso's Horologium and prepared for an unidentified English woman by her chaplain' is perhaps unfortunate. First, by omitting the letter concerning the life of Catherine of Siena from its list of contents, it gives the impression that the manuscript is concerned solely with the vitae of saints associated with the Liége Beguines. Instead, the inclusion in Douce 114 of a letter describing the life of Catherine of Siena indicates a different principle of organisation, one that I suggest is based principally on thematic similarities rather than geographic or historical associations.