Margery Kempe: Alewife, miller, mystic
[This chapter provides an intimate look at the life of Margery Kempe, a 15th-century English mystic, through her own words.]
Summary
Margery Kempe (1373–after 1438) dictated her spiritual autobiography – now considered the first in English – after a life of intense, public emotional displays and failed commercial ventures. The chapter traces her story from a privileged, fashion-conscious burgess’s wife in King’s Lynn, through a severe postnatal collapse described in terms that modern readers recognize as postnatal depression. Following her recovery, she felt called to God but could not abandon her lavish dress. Two attempts at financial independence failed dramatically: her brewing business collapsed as ale spoiled mysteriously, and a horse‑mill venture ended when the animals refused to work. These setbacks convinced her to negotiate a celibate marriage with her husband, after bearing fourteen children. Around 1413 she embarked on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, visiting Jerusalem’s Holy Sepulchre, where she experienced uncontrollable weeping and sobbing. On returning home her crying fits – sometimes many in a single day – became a mark of her devotion and a source of public contempt. Margery was tried for heresy, accused of Lollardy, and often ostracised, yet she maintained friendships with clerics and even visited Julian of Norwich. Her Book, recorded by one of her sons, survives as a rare, honest window into a medieval laywoman’s inner life.
Key Events
- Postnatal mental crisis: visions of devils and self‑harm over half a year, followed by spiritual awakening.
- Persistent attachment to flamboyant clothing despite new piety.
- Failed brewing enterprise: ale that appeared ready would suddenly lose its froth, ruining batch after batch.
- Aborted milling business: a horse and servant abruptly stopped working on Corpus Christi Eve.
- Prolonged negotiation with her husband to adopt a celibate life (they had fourteen children).
- Pilgrimage to Venice, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem, with an intensely emotional experience at Christ’s tomb.
- Escalation of public weeping: from occasional fits to daily episodes, sometimes fourteen in a day.
- Accusations of heresy and Lollardy; arrests and trials before church authorities.
- Composition of her Book in Middle English by an émigré son.
Character Development
Margery transforms from a vain, status‑driven townswoman into an uncompromising mystic. Early on, she is defined by her “pompous array” and pride, enduring slander for her slashed, multi‑coloured cloaks and gold head‑pipes. The failure of her breweries and mill humbles her, redirecting her ambition from worldly profit toward a direct, bodily relationship with God. Even as she embraces white robes and celibacy, she remains a divisive figure: her fellow pilgrims find her unbearable, crowds mock her weeping, and ecclesiastical judges suspect her. Yet the chapter also reveals her resilience, negotiating a celibate marriage on her own terms and persisting in public devotional expression despite repeated rejection. Her voice, as transmitted through the Book, is emotionally raw and self‑aware, unflinching in recording both her mystical gifts and her social friction.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Public piety versus social conformity: Margery’s weeping, white clothing, and bold speech violate norms for women and elicit accusations of possession, drunkenness, or insanity. The chapter probes the cost of living one’s faith openly.
Women’s economic agency: The rare, first‑person accounts of brewing and milling show a medieval woman seeking financial independence. The supernatural failure of both ventures suggests a providential push away from worldly success.
Postnatal trauma as spiritual catalyst: The harrowing description of her post‑childbirth breakdown – devil visions, self‑laceration – introduces bodily suffering as the crucible of her conversion, reframing her later kinaesthetic mysticism.
The uncontrollable body: Unbidden tears, the body writhing in churches, and even recalcitrant horses become symbols of the Spirit acting beyond human control, challenging tidy distinctions between illness and divine intervention.
Why This Chapter Matters
Margery Kempe’s story is a precious first‑person testimony from a laywoman of the so‑called “unquiet” centuries. It upends assumptions about medieval female silence by showing a wife, mother, and businesswoman who rejects secular expectations and chronicles her inner life in her own vernacular. The chapter connects domestic struggle, commercial failure, and public performance of piety, insisting that the spiritual life is entangled with the mundane. Moreover, the survival of her Book – despite centuries of obscurity – owes much to her insistence on being heard, making this chapter a meditation on voice, memory, and the historical archive itself.
Study Questions and Answers
-
How do Margery’s commercial failures contribute to her spiritual turning point?
The collapse of both brewing and milling ventures appears to her as divine intervention because neither skill nor effort could save them. When even her reliable horse and servant stopped working on a holy day, she interpreted the pattern as a sign to abandon worldly pursuits. These losses pushed her to negotiate a celibate life and devote herself entirely to pilgrimage and prayer. -
What does the chapter reveal about contemporary reactions to female religious expression?
Onlookers explain her weeping with a spectrum of sceptical to hostile labels: a wicked spirit, illness, drunkenness, or Lollard heresy. Passers‑by ban her, wish her elsewhere, and even clerical authorities interrogate her. The responses show a society deeply uncomfortable with a woman claiming direct, emotional access to the divine outside the cloister. -
In what ways does Margery’s pilgrimage echo and differ from that of the fourth‑century nun Egeria?
Both women travelled to the Holy Land and recorded their experiences, but Egeria’s account is observational and liturgical, while Margery’s is visceral and emotional. At the Holy Sepulchre, Egeria describes the rituals and setting; Margery collapses in sobs as if witnessing the burial itself, then carries that physical grief back to England as a daily, disruptive gift.