I felt obliged to try reading this first autobiographical work in the English language, and fortunately it was not as bad as I'd feared. Margery reveals almost nothing about her times (14th century England) but there's entertainment to be had in others' reactions to her incessant weeping, which I can well understand, and yet - since I didn't have to listen to her? - I found her sympathetic. She takes too many daring chances, subjects herself to too much humiliation for me to suspect her of being insincere in her faith.

If her story struck me as funny in places (especially when I forgot how roughshod a society she lived in that could easily make good on its death threats), it isn't out of disrespect for her devotion. I'm made skeptical by the voice of God that sounds almost nothing like him in the Bible, something she doesn't try to do in the brief second part written years later. Her insisting that she bore every trial like a meek saint is a stark contrast with the book itself, which amounts to a written defense and is sometimes even threatening to her persecutors.

Perhaps Margery suffered under a mental illness and this rationalized it for her, maybe it was at least partly an act, or perhaps she really was more blessed than most. It's an intriguing artifact, whichever your view. ( )

LE LIVRE : UNE MYSTIQUE ANGLAISE AU TEMPS
DE L'HÉRÉSIE LOLLARDE, 1436

> Bergamasco Lucia. Margery Kempe, Le Livre, Une mystique anglaise au temps de l'hérésie Lollarde, 1436, précédé de Margery Kempe ou la dévoration du temps par Daniel Vidal, Editions Jérôme Millon, 1987 ;
Le Livre de Margery Kempe, Une aventurière de la foi au Moyen AgeTraduit de l'anglais par Louise Magdinier.
In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 6, 1991. pp. 1306-1308. … ; (en ligne)
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1991_num_46_6_279011_t1_1306_0000_002

> Maître Jacques. Kempe (Margery) Le Livre. Une mystique anglaise au temps de l'hérésie lollarde (1436).
In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°70, 1990. pp. 280-281. … ; (en ligne)
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/assr_0335-5985_1990_num_70_1_1328_t1_0280_0000_2

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Kempe-Une-aventuriere-de-la-foi-au-Moyen-Age/1102...

> Redon Odile. Le livre de Margery Kempe, Une aventure de la foi au Moyen Age, tr. par L. Magdinier.
In: Médiévales, n°19, 1990. Liens de famille. Vivre et choisir sa parenté, sous la direction de Christiane Klapisch-Zuber . pp. 139-140. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/medi_0751-2708_1990_num_9_19_1197

> Redon Odile. Le livre de Margery Kempe. Une aventurière de la foi au Moyen Age, préface d'André Vauchez.
In: Revue de l'histoire des religions, tome 207, n°4, 1990. p. 445. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/rhr_0035-1423_1990_num_207_4_1716

> Roland Minnerath. Le livre de Margery Kempe. Une aventurière de la foi au Moyen Age (coll. « Textes ». Traduction de L. Magdinier), 1989.
In: Revue des Sciences Religieuses, tome 65, fascicule 1-2, 1991. p. 146. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/rscir_0035-2217_1991_num_65_1_3167_t1_0146_0000_1

> Séguy Jean. Kempe (Margerie) Le Livre de Margerie Kempe. Une aven turière de la foi au Moyen Âge.
In: Archives de sciences sociales des religions, n°70, 1990. pp. 281-282. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/assr_0335-5985_1990_num_70_1_1328_t1_0281_0000_2

> Bergamasco Lucia. Le Livre de Margery Kempe, Une aventurière de la foi au Moyen Age, Traduit de l'anglais par Louise Magdinier.
In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 46ᵉ année, N. 6, 1991. pp. 1306-1308. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://www.persee.fr/doc/ahess_0395-2649_1991_num_46_6_279011_t1_1306_0000_002

From the medieval history reading program. This is called “the first English autobiography”, which is somewhat stretching the term. Margery Kempe was a 14th century middle class Englishwoman from Lynn who had an extreme bout of postpartum depression after her first child and suddenly began having fits of uncontrollable sobbing every time she went to church, and then every time she had religious thoughts – which was often. She had conversations with Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene, St. Bridget, St. Katherine, St. John the Evangelist, and pretty much the entire calendar of saints. This went on her entire life, from around 1390 or so to sometime in the 1400s (she’s known to have been born in 1373 and lived at least until she was 65).


She must have been insufferable. Her book relates the trials and tribulations she underwent because her contemporaries didn’t like her crying. She went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome, Compostella, and Aachen – crying the whole way. Groups of pilgrims would pick her up out of sympathy, tolerate her for a while, and then abandon her in the middle of nowhere after they couldn’t take the sobbing any more. (She was always reassured by whatever saint she was in touch with at the time that her companions were merely hypocritically abashed by her holiness). She’s certainly annoying to the reader, as she makes practically no mention of politics, or description of her travels, or even the names of her family (she took a vow of chastity, but had 14 children; her husband was importunate).


An interesting question to me is how she survived. From what little she reveals, she was middle class (itself sort of a rarity in medieval England); she always managed to find enough money to go on pilgrimages (I don’t know how much it would cost to get from England to Jerusalem in the 14th century, but I imagine it wasn’t within the reach of the lower class). In many cases she depended on the charity of others, who must have been happy to feed her just because she couldn’t cry and eat at the same time. Another interesting observation is no one ever suggested she was mad – although madness was certainly known at the time. Instead she was repeatedly accused of being a heretic – a Lollard. (For those of you who have mislaid your copy of Peterson’s Guide to Medieval Heresy, Lollards were followers of John Wycliffe, who held that humans could understand God by reading the Bible, and didn’t need the intervention of priests. Wycliffe produced the first English translation of the Bible). Kempe was questioned several times by various authorities, including the Archbishop of Canterbury; her views were always pronounced orthodox, although it was often suggested that she go home and act like a normal woman (i.e., weaving or spinning or cooking) rather than crying all the time. She certainly makes no favorable reference to Lollardry in her book, although her direct conversations with Jesus and the saints may have been taken as bypassing priestly intervention.


Very frustrating, much as Margery must have been. ( )