Margery Kempe, Her Life and The Early History of Her Book

MARGERY KEMPE: HER LIFE AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF HER BOOK Author(s): CHARITY SCOTT STOKES Reviewed
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Vol 25, #1/2, March/June
1999
MARGERY KEMPE: HER LIFE AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF HER BOOK
CHARITY SCOTT STOKES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BMK
AND SHORT TITLES
S.B. Meech (ed.) & H.E. Allen, The Book of Margery Kempe, Vol. I, EETS os 212 (1940). The second volume projected by H.E. Allen
was not completed.1
BRUC BRUO EETS os KL Liber I Liber II NRO
A.B. Emden, Biographical Register of the University ofCambridge to
1500(1963)
A.B. Emden, BiographicalRegister of the A. D. University of Oxford to 1500, 3 vols. (1957-59) Early English Text Society,Original Series King's Lynn Borough Archives First book of The Book of Margery Kempe Second book of The Book of Margery Kempe Norfolk Record Office RR The Red Register ofLynn, ed. H. Ingleby,Vol. 1,1919; Vol II, 1921
Mystics
Quarterly
INTRODUCTION
The present study attempts toplace the figureofMargery Kempe, as presented in the book that bears her name, in the context of latemedieval local history, geography, society and religion, and to consider the early history of her book. Taking as its starting-point the commentary and notes assembled by S.B.Meech and H.E. Allen for theEarly English Text Society edition of 1940, the studymakes use of scholarship of the last sixtyyears as well as recent original documentary
research to draw together various threads of information about her life, and about the writing and transmission of her book.
Norfolk, Margery Kempe passed her early lifeand much ofher later lifeinLynn in where she grew up and married and bore fourteen children. From young adulthood she experienced revelations. She became profoundly religious,wished to lead a religious life while remaining in the world, and persuaded her husband
after some twenty years ofmarriage to agree to vows of chastity. She travelled as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, Rome, and Compostella. She was given to religious
and, for ten years following her visit to Jerusalem, to shrieks and cries,
weeping
prompted above all by contemplation of Christ's Passion and the sinful ingratitude ofmankind. As an old woman, after thedeaths of her husband and
one of her sons,
the latter's home-town of Danzig, and made her way back to England via was before and after Stralsund and the holy places ofWilsnack and Aachen. It these late travels that the story of her lifewas recorded, with the help of amanuenses. The Book of Margery Kempe treats of the "wonderful werkys" of was moved to the love ofGod (1/ Christ and tells how Jesus Margery, a sinner,
10-19).2
she accompanied
her widowed
daughter-in-law
on a voyage
to
At a timewhen anxiety about Lollard heresy and treason had led to injunctions against reading of theBible in thevernacular by laypeople, and against preaching and teaching by women, she took itupon herself to expound scripture, to tell moral tales, and to reprimand clerics and others for theirungodly way of life, in particular for swearing oaths. Resolutely denying charges of Lollardy, she was found orthodox with regard to the articles of the faithwhenever she was
examined by ecclesiastical authorities. Deferential inmost respects to the authority of the church, and conscious of the need to negotiate her husband's consent toher chosen way of life,shewas revered and supported by some people, but she nevertheless became widely known as a disorderly woman. Outward in expression of religious ecstasy and penitential lamentations often resulted
10
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the case of Margery Kempe in charges of hypocrisy and impropriety, or imputations of sickness, although in other instances such behaviour might be interpreted as a sign of grace and sanctity. There is in some respects an abundance ofmaterial available for an account of her life, in other respects very little. Her own book provides much information, and no compelling reason has been found to doubt its veracity on points of factualdetail, notwithstanding serious scholarly claims that itshould be regarded as a work of fiction.3Historical evidence of external events alluded to in the book, such as theGuildhall
H.E. Allen's note on "drede
fireof 1421 inLynn, supports theview expressed in

for illusyons":
I shall say.... that I think that Margery's "dread for illusions" was a motive which trained her to an accuracy of expression (as to external events) quite exceptional in the Middle Ages, (note on
3/8,p. 257)
Some of the events described took place up to forty years earlier than the time of are some not in recorded strict writing; chronological sequence (5/12-16).
Other than in her own book there is no certain
Yet, however veracious it may be, the book was intended to tell of conversion and religious life rather than to give precise details of dates, places, or people.
Margery Kempe's life,but it is generally assumed that two entries in the Lynn Holy Trinity Guild ofMerchants' account rolls for 1437-38 and 1438-39, of Assheden for the entry of a Margery Kempe into payments made by one John theTrinityGuild, refer toher, and that shewas received into membership of the prosperous merchants' guild at that time (App.III.I.l, pp. 358-359). Her book recounts that she was examined by bishops, archbishops or their in representatives Norwich, Lincoln, London, Bristol, Leicester, York, Cawood and Beverley. Bishops' registers reveal no trace of her. Records of examinations and inquisitions were sometimes included among the memoranda in bishops' registers,but, as the editor of the registerof Philip Repingdon of Lincoln points out, the clerks responsible for making such entriesmade theirown selection of itemsworthy of record.4
contemporary
record
of events
in
male members
Lynn and Norwich archives contain frequent referencesduring the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries to male members of theprominent Brunham family, into which Margery Kempe was born around 1373, and several references to the of the Kempe family, intowhich 11 she married around 1393.
Mystics Quarterly
References to femaleKempes and Brunhams are rare.The calendar of the freemen of Lynn has no mention of a Brunham after the end of the fourteenth century, and no mention of a Kemp(e) between the late fourteenth and mid sixteenth centuries. There are no Brunhams or Kempes on the calendar's list of 259 is burgesses for20 July 1440, about the time ofMargery Kempe's death.5 There no record of commemorative brasses or othermemorials to a Brunham orKempe in the town.
LATE MEDIEVAL LYNN

Medieval a Lynn was anjmportant port and market town, led by vigorous In of of the Norwich. Bishop community ofmerchants, under the overlordship was a of about the last quarter of the fourteenth century there 5,500. population The mayor and the aldermen of theHoly TrinityGuild ofMerchants were the most powerful laymen in the town. The Prior of the Benedictine Priory was
influential competitive in civic spirit as well as in ecclesiastical religion and affairs. social There is evidence sometimes of a keen in trade, class, leading to
men of Lynn forthright disagreement among the townspeople, and between the and representatives of theBishop ofNorwich, theKing's Council, and competing traders, particularly those from the Baltic.
The population of Lynn was divided into three classes, the potentiores, the mediocres and theminores.A royal charter granted by King John in 1205 decreed was from the group of potentiores that juratswere to be selected, who in that it turn elected mayor and communitas, two members of parliament, and other officials. The electoral procedures, which denied a voice to themajority of
townsmen, were contested on several occasions. An
account of these troubles is given in thememorandum book and formulary of William Asshebourne, common clerk of Lynn.6 Robert Brunham, probably a cousin ofMargery Kempe, was mayor when the attempts towiden electoral choice and increase thenumber of burgesses reached theirpeak in 1415. But in 1416 the old ways were restored following the interventionofKing Henry V, the of Dorset, Bishop ofNorwich, and the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Beaufort, Earl who had property near Lynn.7 The men of Lynn acted with self-assurance in civic and trade negotiations, and indealings with Church and Crown. England was atwar with Scotland or France, or both, for most ofMargery Kempe's lifetime.The fundamental loyalty of the town did not fall farbehind Lynn burgesses to theCrown, and the fact that the 12
early
fifteenth-century
1999
war expenses, are demonstrated by Henry Norwich in itsability to contribute to V's success in raising 400 marks (?133 6s 8d) fromLynn, as compared with 500 marks fromNorwich, towards his expedition to France in 1415. In the early fifteenthcentury Lynn merchants sometimes had unofficial representation on were in a position tonegotiate independently diplomatic missions toPrussia, and with King Eric of theNordic Union and with the corporations of Stralsund,
and Rostock.8
Wismar
There were royal properties not far from Lynn. Edward Prince ofWales, the Black Prince, inheritedCastle Rising, four-and-a-halfmiles north-east of Lynn, fromhis grandmother,widow of Edward II. The Prince and his parents, Edward III and Queen Philippa, are commemorated in misericords in theparish church of StMargaret, Lynn. Henry IV's daughter Philippa embarked at Lynn on her journey as child bride to the futureKing Eric of theNordic Union was the occasion of a royal visit to Lynn by Henry IV. this in 1406, and
The medieval memorials in the church confirm the impression of a thriving merchant community, independent in spirit and yet loyal toCrown and Church. While many of themisericords, and other faces and figures carved in stone or wood, portray royalty and church dignitaries, others depict men and women in the everyday lifeof the town and themarket. There is a well-known woman's head with scold's bridle, beneath the abacus of a column close to the altar. There are some strongly individual pagan motifs in the church memorials and
ornamentation. Lynn was a major port for inland, coastal and overseas trade and travel, providing
merchants' houses and the parish church of StMargaret, always under threat fromhigh tides and flooding. There were numerous waterways, or fleets, within
Lynn, Inland by water. giving merchants' were was premises undertaken some direct on access to the water. in cart or of Norwich carriage, and and forty foot, on horseback, west-north-west
founded by Henry V in 1415,9 itwas at Lynn that the Brigittine religious mother appointed to thenew foundation came ashore, on their journey from the house in Sweden. The riverGreat Ouse brought ships to quays stretching the whole western lengthof the medieval town, in close proximity to civic buildings,
links especially with the City of London, with Scandinavia, the Baltic and Flanders, and with Norwich and the pilgrim shrine atWalsingham. When Brigittinemonks were sent to Cambridgeshire in 1408 in preparation for the founding of a Brigittine abbey inEngland, and when Syon Abbey was eventually
journeys Lynn
forty miles
13
Mystics
Quarterly
main south-north axis fromLondon toYork. A fast rider could miles east of the cover the 192miles between London and York in less than five days.10 The use
mentioned in of the inlandwaterway fromLynn towards Cambridge is Margery a means was travel. On her late travels slower of and book (203/1-2), Kempe's to and from the Baltic, when travelling had become a trial to her, shementions
or wains.
thevarious hardships of travelling by water, on foot,on horseback, and in carts
Lynn's prosperity was built on trade by land and water, including exports of cloth,wool, grain, and salt, and imports ofwine, herring, timber, pitch, tar,and was threatened fur.By the late fourteenth century this prosperity being by taxation and by competition, in particular from Hanseatic merchants. Competition could lead to serious damage being inflictedby each side on the other. In 1385 Lynnmen submitted claims fora total of ?1,913 3s 4d fordamages inflicted by theirHanseatic rivals.11Neither side was deterred from trade by theiron-going rivalry.The men of Lynn were able to hold theirown and often succeeded in gaining theupper hand, and in making the largerprofit.12
The Hanseatic merchants had their own premises in Lynn, close to the waterfront.13The men of Lynn also had theirown premises inDanzig, and there was an English church inDanzig. Periodically it is recorded that, in the course of reprisals fordamage inflicted,theEnglishmen in Danzig were ordered to live own in their with host families rather than together expatriate community, and on occasion it is also noted thatEnglish traderswere ordered to leave Danzig
unless married to local women. These measures were of immediate
toLynn families such as theKempes, who had a son living in the Baltic,married
to a local woman.
importance
1388 in order to submit proposals to theGrand Master of theTeutonic Order in an Anglo Marienburg for a peaceful settlement of differences.14 There was was the cause of furtherdisputes. When Prussian treaty in 1409, but the treaty
was a national issue, Competition between English and Hanseatic merchants at the and highest level. Itwas necessitating frequent protracted negotiations a from Lynn that king's clerk, accompanied by London merchants, set sail in
negotiations took place in 1435 between envoys of theKing's Council and the Hanse in theCarmelite church at Bruges, the English were represented by the was not until 1437 that a Lynn merchant, Thomas Borowe, and two lawyers. It
was achieved between England and Prussia which settled the differences treaty most ofMargery Kempe's lifetime, that had been a source of antagonism for
14
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and even then the Lynn authorities held back Prussian ships so that Lynn with their cargo of cloth, and profit from the lull in merchants could sail first trade.15This phase of bad relations began shortly after Margery Kempe's visit
to Danzig.
In spite of fluctuations in trade, a programme of building continued in Lynn through the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The Holy Trinity Guildhall was rebuilt after the fireof 1421 described in Margery Kempe's book
guildhall still (pp. 162-164). St George's Guildhall, the largest fifteenth-century was now 1410. The in is built around Britain what (in King Street) standing was in the re-built during Lynn period 1371-1419, and Chapel of St Nicholas was town in the there recurring strife regarding attempts to secure privileges for the administration of the sacraments of baptism and purification on behalf
would of thischapel-of-ease. Such privileges, temporarilygained in the late 1370s, have diminished the privileges of the parish church and the priory and were on a later opposed by members of the Brunham and Kempe families, and, not seem does herself The occasion, byMargery Kempe controversy (pp. 58-60). to have caused serious discontinuity in the close links between priory, parish church and chapel. The prior continued to appoint and pay chaplains forchurch and chapel, and each seems to have flourished.A petition forprivileges sent to
Martin V in 1426 records that at Easter communion there were 1600 persons
Pope
in attendance at StMargaret's Church, 1400 at theChapel of StNicholas at theChapel of St James.
and 900
Priory and church were dedicated to StMary Magdalen, StMargaret and all virgin saints. The priorywas a cell of theBenedictine priory atNorwich. Founded was richlyendowed, and was granted by Bishop Herbert Losinga around 1100, it theprivileges of Saturday market and StMargaret's Fair, one of the town's two
Hevyngham. He held office circa 1408-1422 (App.III.V, pp. 369-371). His activites extended to a conciliatory role in the civic troubles of 1416 caused by the wish of to extend the franchise.16 themediocres and inferiores
Gaywood, very close to Lynn. The prior was appointed by the bishop. A well disposed prior referred to by name inMargery Kempe's book is Thomas
great annual fairs, each ofwhich lasted twoweeks. StMargaret's Fair ran for one week before and one week after the saint's day, 20 July. StNicholas' Fair ran for twoweeks from the feast of StNicholas, 6 December. The priory remained subject to the diocesan priory of Norwich and therewas a bishop's palace at
15
Mystics
Quarterly
The prior appointed the parish priest, who for several decades in the early fifteenth centurywas the stalwart, though not uncritical, supporter of Margery Robert Kempe: Spryngolde. Himself at times a controversial figure,hewas given
assistance
in troublewith thediocesan authorities (App.III.IV, pp. 368-369).17 He was Margery Kempe's parish priest at the timewhen she was firstdrawn to the He was her "sharp" confessor religious life,and probably for the restof her life. during the absence of theDominican anchorite towhom her early revelations had directed her as confessor (44/20), and her principal confessor after thedeath of the Dominican anchorite. The anchorite strengthenedMargery Kempe's belief in thedivine origin ofher revelations.18 He himselfwas reported tohave mystical and prophetic powers (43/35^44/18 and notes).
was
by
the Lynn
mayor
and
communitas
on
several
occasions
when
he
The well-known Carmelite doctor of divinity, Alan of Lynn, another ofMargery some in for twentyyears up to the time of his death, Kempe's supporters Lynn circa 1428,was
a prolificwriter. Among theworks ascribed to him are indexes for theRevelationes Brigittae and Prophetiae Brigittae (22/11-12 and note, p. 268) and for the Stimulus Amoris (39/24 and note, p. 277). Margery Kempe's book
familiarity no nunneries nuns with these writings. in but there were Lynn, at Crabhouse, and Cistercian and south-east Benedictine nuns nuns at all are no were
demonstrates There
Austin Blackborough, a six-mile within radius
at Marham, There
to the south
of the town.
visit them, and that she complied with their wish (pp. 202-203). This connection some the of her book. There were have transmission may significance regarding twohospitals inLynn, the in of St JohnBaptist Damgate and the Hospital Hospital of StMary Magdalen on the causeway leading toGaywood. Itwas laid down
references to these houses in thebook. It is recorded that the Franciscan nuns of miles to the south, asked Margery Kempe to Waterbeach, forty Denny Abbey at
were to be twelve brethren and sisters at the that in addition to the prior there were tobe lepers.19There were four of of whom three Mary Magdalen, Hospital further lazar houses close to Lynn, at Cowgate, West Lynn, Setchey, and Gaywood. When Margery Kempe was given permission toembrace female lepers (pp. 176-177), shemay have gone to any of these houses.
miles north-east The nearest place of pilgrimage was Walsingham, twenty-two of Lynn,which was said tohave a relic ofmilk from theVirgin's breast. The flow of pilgrims through Lynn to the shrine and relics of the Blessed Virgin at Walsingham was such that in the late fifteenthcentury theRed Mount Chapel with two staircases to was built on the outskirts of Lynn to accommodate them, 16
Vol 25,M/2, March/June
1999
an upper storey and peepholes down to the altar. It is recorded inher book that Margery Kempe visited the shrine at Walsingham on herway to Ipswich, at the startof her journey to the Baltic in 1433 (227/18-29). There are records of religious drama in Lynn from the fourteenth century. In 1385,when Margery Kempe was about twelve years old, theLynn chamberlains paid 3s 4d toplayers foran interlude played on Corpus Christi day. On thisday theBlessed Sacrament was also carried in solemn procession through the town,
as through other major towns.20 The Lynn Corpus Christi Guild founded in response to the plague outbreak of 1349 included both Brunhams and Kempes in its membership (App.I.III.5, pp. 365-366). The Lynn Candlemas Guild probably presented an annual re-enactment of the Presentation and Purification of the Blessed Virgin, in addition to a para-liturgical Candlemas procession.21 At least
century.22
twelve plays were regularly performed in Norwich by the end of the fourteenth
There isno evidence ofwidespread religious dissent inLynn, although William Lollard tobe burnt forheresy, in 1401,had been a priest inLynn Sawtry, the first when he first aroused the wrath of theecclesiastical authorities.After examination by Bishop Spenser ofNorwich he publicly recanted in thegraveyard of theChapel of St James in Lynn on 25May 1399, and on the following day in the chapel of the After thishe moved toLondon, only tobe charged again Hospital of St John. and brought before Archbishop Arundel for renewed heretical preaching (note on 149/1-2, pp. 321-322).23 By this time Margery Kempe was inher late twenties; her visionary and penitential lifehad already started. The possibility that a long unconfessed sin of her youth was associated with Lollard heresy cannot be
discounted.
merchant's
Little is known of education in Lynn outside the religious houses. There are no records regarding the education of girls and women. An affluent London
an image of the child StWilliam in a tabernacle in StMargaret's Church, and it may have included girls,25but there is no evidence to confirm this. In London there are records of female apprentices tomistresses in the clothing trades, in
silk,
daughter would have been likely to receive at least elementary education in the late fourteenth century, and there is evidence of schooling in There was a guild of literacy forgirls in thehome as well as practical training.24 scholars inLynn, theGuild of StWilliam, founded in 1388 to maintain and keep
apprenticeships in latemedieval Lynn.
embroidery
and
haberdashery.26
There
is no
evidence
of
such
17
Mystics Quarterly
Records of theNorwich Lollard heresy trials of 1428-1431 suggest that literacy levels among the Norfolk laity,at least among the suspected Lollards, were low. Of the sixty defendants in theNorwich trialsonly one, thepriest Robert Cavell, read his own abjuration: "...the other abjurations are preceded by statements to the effectthat thedefendant, unable to read because he was a layman or because was poor, appointed a cleric to read itforhim.While Cavell's abjuration his sight appears inLatin, theothers are inEnglish..."27While it may have been expedient for the defendants to plead inability to read, since one of the charges brought
socially normal, scribes being available in the towns towrite when necessary. Even the letter-writing Paston women, with their largeNorfolk estates, employed
amanuenses for the most part, and "were not, or not completely, literate".28
against themwas that of reading scriptural texts in English, the fact that the court accepted their statements suggests that a plea of illiteracywas entirely credible. In themercantile class it seems that the absence ofwriting skillswas
MARGERY YEARS,
KEMPE'S i373-*393
FAMILY
BACKGROUND
AND
EARLY
Margery Kempe's early years seem to have followed the norm for a wealthy merchant's daughter in late fourteenth-century Lynn, living at the hub of
commercial religious, and social, trade and travel, activity, religious and commercial competitiveness. in an atmosphere of keen
The approximate date of her birth can be inferred from an incidental remark towards the end of thebook. It is mentioned that shewas about sixtyyears old when she travelled to the Baltic: was gretmerueyl & myracle {3ata woman dys-ewsyd of goyng It & also abowtyn iii scor 3er of age xuld enduryn cotidianly to kepyn hir jurney & hir pase wyth a man fryke& lusty to gon (234/17-21) Ithas been argued that this journey took place in 1433 (note on 237/34-37, pp. 346-348). If this is correct, and ifher estimate of her age is accurate, she was born around 1373. Her paternal grandfatherwas Ralph de Brunham, and it is known thathe was a was admitted to theHoly TrinityGuild in 1353 by Margery Kempe's father, virtue of birth without payment (App.III.II.l, p. 359).29 In fourteenth-century 18
burgess, a member of the class of potentiores, since his son, John Brunham,
1999
records the family name is usually spelt (de) Brunham, less frequently (de) was common practice until the late fourteenth century for Burnham. In Lynn it
'de' to precede the place-name in such family names.30
Margery Kempe's father is often referred to as John Brunham senior, and his son,Margery Kempe's brother, as JohnBrunham junior. John Brunham senior held office at different times as mayor (elected on Michaelmas Day 1370,1377, 1378,1385,1391), alderman of theHoly TrinityGuild ofMerchants, member of parliament (elected on six occasions between 1364 and 1384), chamberlain, coroner and justice of thepeace (App. III.II.2-8, pp. 359-361). Three of his terms of office as mayor and four terms asmember of parliament fellduring Margery merchants in the town, JohnBrunham Kempe's childhood. Like other affluent senior probably traded in exports ofwares such as cloth and wool, and imports
in rawmaterials, such as timber, particularly from theBaltic and Scandinavia. A John Brunham was fined for obstructing the Tuesday market with timber, presumably unloaded at thenearby quay, in 1375.31Since JohnBrunham senior is known to have died between 19 December 1412 and 16 October 1413 as hosier in records of the Brunham listed John p. 361), (App.III.II.il, chamberlains'
imports
accounts in 1412-141332 was probably his son, John Brunham A junior. family association with hosiery, and with exports of cloth and wool,
of fur,may have encouraged the competitive love of fine attire
and
for
which Margery Kempe reproaches herself as a young married woman (9/9-18). JohnBrunham juniorwas admitted to theHoly TrinityGuild by virtue of birth in 1394, shortly afterhis sister's marriage to JohnKempe.
John Brunham senior's name occurs in late fourteenthand
centurydocuments in connection with property inBridgegate (now High Street) which runs north from St Margaret's Church and Saturday Market, towards with property in Stonegate, which runs south from thevicinity of St Margaret's towardsMillfleet.34 The Bridgegate property belonged afterhis death tohis son
Tuesday Market.33 His name is also mentioned, less frequently, in connection
very
early
fifteenth
bustle of traders and travellers and pilgrims fromhome and abroad.
(App. III. II, 11, pp. 361-362). It seems likely that during Margery Kempe's childhood the familyhome was theBridgegate rather than theStonegate property. The locations are close to one another, close to parish church and priory, and Saturday Market, a hundred yards or so from thewaterfront, with its constant
An earlier JohnBrunham numbered among the friars in theCarmelite Friary at Lynn in 1377 and 1378was probably a relative.35There is a furtherrecord of a John Brunham who was parson ofWood Dalling and had property in Lynn 19
Mystics Quarterly
A Reginald de Brunham, chaplain, isnamed as legatee conveyed tohim in 1341.36 A Laurence and executor in thewill of Robert de Gousele, enrolled in 1341.37 Brunham was admitted to the freedom of the town in 1383-84.38 The Robert Brunham, perhaps cousin ofMargery Kempe, who was mayor and alderman on several occasions in the early fifteenthcentury, was more prominent in the town thanwas JohnBrunham junior.He was a vintner,39and also an exporter
A certificateaddressed to the Master General of theTeutonic Order and importer. in 1408 claims that anchors, ropes, and chains securing vessels of four Lynn Malstrom merchants, including Robert Brunham,were cut away and stolen at the in Norway by the Prussian Nicholas Wapull.40 There was another Robert Brunham, Prior of Holy TrinityNorwich, who let property in Lynn on a 100
who
Another burgess likely to have been amember of the same year lease in 1407.41 is Thomas Brunham, apprentice of JohnBrunham senior and perhaps a family younger brother,who became a freeman in 1358-59. This is probably the same Thomas Brunham who was involved in controversy in 1414 over an apprentice
fled to London after making accusations against him. Thomas Brunham an court and filed a suit offidei lesioagainst the in himself ecclesiastical purged
apprentice Kent.42
JohnKempe senior paid 40 shillings foradmission to theHoly TrinityGuild of Merchants in 1351, as did JohnKempe junior and his elder brother Simon in 1393, the probable year of JohnKempe junior and Margery Kempe's marriage a skinner by trade, and (App.111.111,1-2,pp. 362-363). JohnKempe senior was an importerand exporter.Grievances of English merchants against thePrussians in 1388 include two claims by John Kempe forcompensation forgoods detained in Prussia.43 Simon Kempe, brother of JohnKempe junior, had property in
John Brunham senior and JohnKempe senior both opposed the granting of privileges to theChapel of StNicholas in 1378 (App. III.VII, pp. 372-373). John Kempe seniorwas elected as one of four chamberlains inLynn in 1372 and again in 1381, and he was elected as one of four sub-collectors of a tithe for the king in 1374 (App. III.III.2, p. 363). Neither he nor his sons became freemen by birth.
Bridgegate, close to the JohnBrunham tenement (App.III.IIL6, pp. 366-368). John Kempe junior was elected to theMagna Jurata in Lynn inOctober 1395, but fined in 1403-1404 and 1404-1405 for forestalling the assize of beer and forfilling the common fleetwith dung, was presumably JohnKempe junior,Margery Kempe's husband (App. III.III.4, p. 364).
replaced before the electoral year was out.44 A John Kempe, brewer, who was
20
1999
mother could have been, so it ispossible that this Isabelle was Margery Kempe's mother.45 Some of the Brunham and Kempe women may have been involved in their own or theirmenfolk's commercial enterprises.46An Alice Kempe was she was fined for forestalling the assize of fish in 1333.47The date makes
Documentary evidence of Brunham and Kempe women is sparse. Margery Kempe's mother ismentioned only once in the book, and thenmerely in the listing of those whom she forsook during the course of her post-natal derangement (7/32). An Isabelle de Brunham ismentioned in the codicil of a was still alive and her Lynn will of 1410, atwhich time Margery Kempe's father
itpossible that themother of John Kempe senior. The Lynn merchant's property customarily provided both home and workplace, with dwelling-house, quay and warehouse, oftenwith shop and separate kitchen.48The largerhouseholds had their own brewery and bakery. It is likely that Margery Kempe had had experience of brewing and baking in thehome when she set up her unsuccessful adult ventures as brewer and miller in the early years of hermarriage (pp. 9-11).
The revelations that Margery Kempe experienced fromyoung adulthood suggest that she received in childhood a thorough and orthodox education in the tenets of the church. She was brought up tovenerate and celebrate theTrinity and the Blessed Virgin, and also StMary Magdalen,
saints, St Margaret, St Katharine of Alexandria
St John the Baptist, and the virgin

and St Barbara, all dedicatees of
churches, priory, hospitals and nunneries in Lynn and the surrounding areas. means She was instructed in the importance of penitence and confession, and the of obtaining absolution, including indulgences; shewatched thedramatic ritual of themass and the feasts of the church; she became familiar with visual
what she heard. Her familiarity as a young adult with liturgical and biblical texts,with the rhythms and seasons of the church, and with the growing
representations, such as pictures and sculptures of the Passion, the Joys and Sorrows of the Virgin, the lives of saints, the Seven Deadly Sins;49 she heard sermons delivered by priests and friars, and committed tomemory much of
devotional literature inEnglish, including English renderings of the revelations of St Bridget of Sweden, would hardly have been possible without extensive with devotional and mystical texts from an religious guidance and familiarity early age. Mystical texts and narratives of lives of holy women were spread throughout Europe by the friars, particularly by the Franciscans.50
When Margery Kempe's visionary lifebegan, thepattern of her experiences fell into the penitential tradition associated with the holy women of the Low Countries, Germany and Sweden, a tradition rooted in visualisation and 21
Mystics Quarterly
meditative re-enactment of the lifeand death of Christ, the sorrows and joys of the Blessed Virgin, dialogue with God and the saints, and declarations of love and forgiveness.51 That her visionary life developed in amanner frequentlyfound in the lives of continentalwomen in the late fourteenthand early fifteenth century
can be explained, in part at least, by the strong links between Lynn and the continent, and by the learning and interestsof visionary and scholarly friars in Dominican anchorite confessor and theCarmelite Master Alan. Lynn, such as the However, a closely related tradition of penitential contemplation and "devout imagination" can also be traced in England, from theAncreneWisse through to popular late-medieval texts such as the Chastising ofGod's Children,Nicholas Love's Mirror of theBlessed Life of JesusChrist,which was a translation of the
pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes Vitae Christi licensed byArchbishop Thomas Arundel around 1410, and the mystery plays.52Although there isno mention of the play cycles inMargery Kempe's book, early familiaritywith plays and processions may well have contributed to the importance attached to events that happened on or close to the feast of Corpus Christi, and may well have of thenative English penitential tradition, what remains exceptional in the case ofMargery Kempe is that a laywoman of her class and background should
have become so forceful an exponent of it. encouraged her habitual visualisation of biblical and apocryphal scenes. In terms
Given Margery Kempe's

conversation, for sermons,
- for repartee, for edifying predilection forwords

for the written word, and above all for verbal
revelations of thedivine - itseems surprising that the tutelage of learnedmen in As in other cases Lynn over many years did not lead to her becoming literate.
where there was
may have found it expedient to emphasise her orthodox dependence

priesthood for transmission of the written word, and to minimise
a risk of charges
of
heresy,
she, or her confessors
or amanuenses,
on the
whatever
reading ability shemay have had. Ithas been said that Margery Kempe "virtually had to prove herself a non-reader when her knowledge of gospel made the authorities inYork suspect her as a Lollard".53 In preparing to redraft the early version of her book, the second amanuensis had written and shewas sometimes able tohelp read aloud toherwhat the first but it isnot clearwhether she helped by reading the when itcame to a difficulty, as she listened tohim reading manuscript, or by rememberingwhat she had said as evidence that she in been adduced Two the book have (5/10-12). passages could not read. Firstly, it ismentioned that a priest read edifying texts to her
22
1999 Vol 25, n/2,March/June
over a period of seven or eight years (pp. 142-144). However, this does not rule out the possibility that she was able to read herself. The priest may have been providing commentary as well as reading, rather than simply reading. He may also have been rendering Latin versions of the texts into the vernacular. His
the priest, and not Margery Kempe, who was the reader. Secondly, in a dream an angel childwas required to show her thather name was written in the Book of Life at the footof theTrinity (206/33-207/3). However, a dream sequence with a Book of Life in which innumerable names may have been inscribed cannot was
reading included "pe Bybyl with doctowrys ?er-up-on" (143/26-27). Since reading theBible in thevernacular was forbidden to the laityby theConstitutions was good reason to emphasise that it ofArchbishop Arundel, 1407-1409, there
be regarded as strong evidence foror against the dreamer's ability to read. It is certain that she could not have understood Latin texts, since she knew no language other than English (82/17-18).
Two passages in thebook have been adduced as evidence that she could in fact read. Firstly, it is recorded that shewas kneeling at her prayers and holding her book inher hand when a stone fellon her back in StMargaret's Church (21/22 25). The mention of thebook suggests that she could read, at least a little.Even may have been an illustrated book of the type favoured by the laity at though it the time that could convey its message chiefly through pictures, it is likely that a pious and frequent church-goer's familiarity with such books encouraged some
basic skills in reading.54 More significantly,inone of Margery Kempe's revelations she hears theLord say thathe isnot displeased with her,whether she ispraying with hermouth or thinking with her heart, reading or being read to (218/4-8). The contrastmade between reading and being read to suggests that she was able to read as well as listen.
With regard toher lack ofwriting skills, theevidence of thebook isunambiguous. Most importantly, she was entirely dependent on amanuenses for the actual writing of both versions of her book. Earlier evidence of her reliance on others is
was was revealed toher that a letter found in accounts of letter-writing. When it to be sent to a doubting widow, the instructionwas that she was to have the letter written, and she goes on to recount how amaster of divinity wrote it: Than owyr Lord bad pis creatur don wryten a lettyr & send ithir. A maystyr of dyuynite wrot a lettyrat pe request of pis creatur& sent tope wedow wyth pese clawsys pat folwyn .... (45/16-19)
23
Mystics Quarterly
When,
on reaching Leicester on the return journey from her pilgrimage to Compostella, shewished to send amessage toher husband inLynn, requesting thathe fetchher home, she asked a companion towrite the letter forher (111/ 20-22). When she sent letters toher son, wrot in "|>an wrot sehe letterystohym" is intended presumably in a causative sense (224/29-31).
However
skilful in speaking and listening, but also highly textualised. Evidence of this ranges from her quick-witted skill in calling on textual authority in dialogue and debate to the memorising and recounting of biblical and other stories, and to the ultimately genesis of her own book, with its reliance on the authority of
the
uneducated she may have been with regard to reading and writing, there is no doubt that the Margery Kempe presented in thebook was not only
accounts
tobelieve in the authenticity ofMargery Kempe's visions (153/1,154/13).55 But biblical material in particular is an integral part of her own daily life and her
visions.
of revelations, homilies and lives of saints. Some aspects of may be attributed to the second amanuensis, such as references intertextuality to the lives ofMarie d'Oignies and St Elizabeth ofHungary which helped him
scriptures,
scriptural
commentary,
liturgical
texts,
devotional
treatises,
MARRIAGE
AND
CONVERSION
TO RELIGIOUS
LIFE,
1393-1413
the perceived differences in social standing, was always good toher (32/26), and records that her husband Margery Kempe as an old woman she recalls her inordinate love forhis person in youth (181/ brief termof office only.Whatever 10-12). A tenement of John Kempe inLynn,mentioned in several deeds, was inFincham Street alias Burghard's Lane (now New Conduit Street),which ran from the end of Bridgegate, half-way between Saturday Market and Tuesday Market, along Purfleet in an easterly direction (App.III.IIL6, pp. 366-367). It is very likely that thisproperty inFincham Streetwas
was not inferior to that of her brother as hosier, but her father-in-lawwas not mayor, alderman, member of parliament, justice of thepeace, or coroner, as her was. John father Magna Jurata resulted in a Kempe junior's own election to the
The marriage of JohnandMargery Kempe tookplace when shewas about twenty years old (6/25-27). As a young wife she taunts her husband with his inferior standing (9/18-25). Their social background was similar, and his trade as brewer
theKempes' home for the firsttwenty-five
24
1999
which time they lived apart until his infirmityin married life,after years of their old age (pp. 179-181). of Margery Kempe was severely illpreceding and following thebirth of the first her fourteen children (pp. 6-8). The symptoms described in thebook have been
more probable. Sins of sexual temptation fit into the common confessional and penitential framework and are freelyadmitted to,a little later in thebook. There is no obvious reason for an earlier opportunity for confession, penitence and
associated with post-partum psychosis. At the time of her firstchild's birth she believed thatshewas close todeath, and wished to receive absolution and confess a previously unconfessed sin of youth, but was deterred by the haste of the priest. Commentators have surmised that thisunconfessed sin is likely tohave whole the latter seems been associated with sexuality or Lollard heresy.On the
forgiveness tobe concealed. Association with Lollard heresy on the other hand, so vigorously denied whenever Margery Kempe was under ecclesiastical examination, would have become increasingly damaging as theyears passed. A and, if it lapse during the 1380s,when she was inher teens, could have been was But it could have to admit been fatal occurred, ultimately forgiven. literally to any association with Lollardy once the stringentmeasures had been taken which led to such events as the burning ofWilliam Sawtry at the beginning of
the fifteenth
1417 inwhich Margery Kempe was herself most frequently examined by ecclesiastical authorities, and theNorwich heresy trials which took place from draft of her book was being written. the late 1420s,when the first After half-a-year, eight weeks and odd days of post-natal sickness and derangement, Christ appeared toher inpurple silk, sitting at the end of her bed,
century,
the execution
of Sir John Oldcastle
at the end
of the year
and asked why she had deserted him (p. 8). Her wits returned, and her husband aided her recovery. She endeavoured tobe God's servant, but was drawn again to the world, to fineryand to competition with neighbours (p. 9). In ways of the her attachment to worldly goods she set up inbusiness, unsuccessfully, as brewer and miller (pp. 9-11). She had good servants and knew about brewing, and attributed her failure tobad luck.The context makes itclear thatvre (9/33)means or rather than Tuck', 'experience practice' (the gloss given p. 436, col.l, and followed by subsequent commentators and translators): And than, for pure coveytyse & for tomaynten hir pride, sehe to gan brewyn & was on of pe grettestbrewers in the townN. a iij or 3er iiij tyl sehe lostmech good, for sehe had neuyr vre ?>erto.
25
Mystics
Quarterly
For, thow sehe had neuyr so good seruawntys & cunnyng in wold neuyr preuyn wyth hem. (9/30-35) brewyng, yet it Several years after the vision of Christ in purple silk she heard a sound of heavenly melody one night as she lay in bed with her husband. After this she sobbed with longing for thebliss of heaven when she heard anymirth ormelody,
Miss of heaven, and aroused thehostility of neighbours spoke frequently of the who said she had no more knowledge of heaven than theyhad (p. 11). The gift of holy tears formed a strong and continuing link with a distinctive tradition of affectivepiety (31 /3n, 194/5n). Her kindred and thosewho had been her friends became her worst enemies (2/14-16). Conjugal relations became abhorrent to her, shewent to confession two or three times a day, and undertook penance (p. 12). She continued tobear children.
were followed by threeyears of temptation, during Two years of penitential life which time she followed the instructionsof her confessor and was granted daily two hours of compunction and tears,but at other times shewas tempted by sins
of
by her tempter,and blamed herself (pp. 12-16).
lechery
and
despair.
She was
tempted
to commit
adultery,
but was
rejected
before thegreat festivals,often in chapels or churches. In thepre-Christmas vision of 1410 she heard that her sins were forgiven, she would never enter hell or purgatory, she should call Christ her love, she should not eat meat, she should receive theBlessed Sacrament every Sunday, shewould never be forsaken even
The period of penitence alternatingwith temptation ended with the first ofmany extended visionary colloquies with Christ. It took place in theChapel of St John in StMargaret's Church on a Friday before Christmas (pp. 16-18), probably in 1410, since it seems to pre-date by threeyears her departure for theHoly Land in 1413.Many of her extended revelations occurred on Fridays, days of fasting,
though shewould be reviled by thepeople, shewould be given grace to answer every clerk, she should spend more time inmeditation and less time in vocal prayer, and she should go to theDominican anchorite, her confessor, and tell him of these revelations (pp. 17-18). The Dominican anchorite confirmed the divine origin of her visions. Revelations followed inwhich Margery Kempe participated in the re-enactment of biblical and apocryphal birthing, nurturing,
caring, Passion and Compassion. Assured of forgiveness, she nevertheless took
every opportunity to obtain renewed assurances of the certainty of forgiveness and bliss inheaven. She purchased indulgences on behalf of herself and others in the various places of pilgrimage that she visited.
26
1999
friars,or townspeople, especially women, but sometimes also by the highly placed or highly born.Accusations ofhypocrisy, immorality,leading others astray, which women and Lollard heresy - inparticular of teaching and preaching, from - were uttered were explicitly debarred from theearly fifteenth century by clerics in the misogynist tradition, and taken up by the people. Comparison between her statementsmade under examination, for instance before the Archbishop of York (pp. 123-128), and the statements of her contemporary Margery Baxter, who was convicted of Lollardy in the Norwich heresy trialsof 1428-1431,56 shows rather thanLollard views on the sacraments that held orthodox Margery Kempe of baptism, confession, eucharist, confirmation and matrimony, on idols and pilgrimages and indulgences, although she shared with the Lollards a critical stance towards priests perceived tobe falling short of theirprofessed ideals and
duties, and towards swearers of oaths.57
The cycle of revelation, reassurance given by confessors and spiritual advisers, penitence, prayer,mockery, and revilement,was tobe repeated many times, to the end of her life. Hostility was expressed most frequentlyby lesser clergy or
On an occasion
later than the extended colloquy with Christ, but before the was revealed toher by theBlessed Virgin that shewould of years pilgrimage, it sitwith Christ inheaven. Asked whom shewould choose tohave with her, she
her
named
assured thather wish would be granted, and thather father and husband and children would also be with her inheaven. No mention is made of her mother. She named Christ as her true executor (pp. 20-21). was revealed that she should Towards the end of her years of child-bearing, it Norwich, toRichard ofCaister, Vicar of St Stephen's, and make confession go to
parish
priest,
Robert
Spryngolde,
rather
than
her
family.
She was
tohim and tellhim of her revelations. Then she should go to theCarmelite friar, William Sowthfeld, and toDame JulianofNorwich, with whom she spent several days. Richard ofCaister,William Sowthfeld and JulianofNorwich strengthened Margery Kempe's belief in thedivine origin of her visions (pp. 40-44), and gave her encouragement, but other people maligned her. The Dominican anchorite in Lynn foretold troubles that she would have on pilgrimage to theHoly Land, and prophesied that a broken-backed man would help her when everyone else turned against her (pp. 43-44). Whenever shewas in Norwich after thisRichard was of Caister her confessor, until his death in 1420.He accompanied herwhen shewas summoned to appear before the Bishop ofNorwich (40/20-28).
27
Mystics Quarterly
On one occasion atMass
Margery Kempe's Bridget and herwritings. St Bridget died in theprobable year of birth, 1373, and was canonised in 1391, shortlybeforeMargery Kempe's marriage. Margery Kempe sought out the saint's old maidservant inRome, who had been miraculously cured some sixty years previously, and she visited a chapel of St
she saw the sacrament shake and flicker like a dove was revealed to her that the truth of St Bridget's it its and wings, beating Revelationswould be made known through her, and that St Bridget never saw of several references in thebook to St Christ in this way (p. 47). This is the first
routes taken by St Bridget.58 Yet however much she may have emulated the Swedish saint, whose order enjoyed royal backing and exceptional status in England (while being severely criticised at several Councils in the early fifteenth was fraught with century), the situation of the English merchant's wife difficulties. On the Friday beforeWhitsun in theyear when she set out on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 1413, she was kneeling atMass in StMargaret's Church, with her book in her hand, when a stone weighing three pounds and a piece ofwood
which the saint died (95/11-29). On her return Bridget inRome, the chamber in from the Baltic she visited theBrigittine Syon Abbey, to obtain indulgences (pp. 245-246). Ithas even been suggested thather pilgrimage routes reproduced the
weighing six pounds fellonto her back and her head from the highest point of the church vaulting. After a shortwhile she feltno pain. The burgess John of Wyreham and theCarmelite Alan of Lynn regarded thisas amiracle; some others was a token ofwrath (pp. 21-22). said it
Earlier in the same year she had learnt in answer toprayers forchastity that she must faston Fridays. From the Wednesday in Easter week her husband had no power to touch her (p. 21). On the Friday beforeMidsummer's Eve 1413, on the way fromYork to Bridlington, John and Margery Kempe struck a bargain. He as previously on agreed tovows of chastity condition thatshewould share his bed (which is not referred to again), would give up fasting on Fridays and eat with him, and pay his debts before going to the Holy Land. Turning aside and praying toGod in a field, she learnt that the instruction to faston Fridays had been given
for thisvery purpose, namely to enable her to procure the chastity she desired by letting itgo (pp. 23-25). Her father JohnBrunham's death, which occurred by October 1413 (App.III.II.il, pp. 361-362), may have furnished her with the
financial means to settle debts and to travel.
28
+ 1999 Vol 25,#1/2, March/June
John Kempe was a faithfulcompanion tohiswife on her early travels inEngland. No indication is given of their mode of travel, or, for much of the time, of the routes taken.They went fromLynn northwards toYorkshire, and south toLondon and Kent. They probably travelled northwards throughLincolnshire and across
Archbishop ofYork in 1417 (pp. 121-136). They probably travelled southwards via Ely and Cambridge, the route taken laterby both Kempes towards the end went toLondon forher to obtain letterand seal from of theyear 1417when they the Kempes' journey Archbishop ofCanterbury (pp. 136-137). The account of the fromYork to Bridlington suggests a leisurely pace of travel, on foot or on
theHumber by ferrytoHessle, a route used byMargery Kempe in a southerly direction on a later occasion, following her arrests and appearances before the
horseback.
On one occasion during these early travels an old monk inCanterbury wished that Margery Kempe were enclosed in a house of stone; but it isnot clearwhether
he had a prison or an anchorage inmind. She was threatened by monks, and thenby townspeople, with burning as a Lollard (pp. 27-29,33-37). John Kempe
disappeared temporarily. She learntby revelation that she should wear white (p. 32), but she did not do so until she reached Rome, on the return journey from Jerusalem, after several repetitions of the instruction.
After the agreement struck on the road between York and Bridlington, the Kempes went together to take oaths of chastity before Bishop Repingdon of Lincoln, the see ofNorwich being vacant. Margery Kempe wished tobe given
Repingdon's faint-heartedness, and said that she would go to the archbishop, but not with these requests. Repingdon gave her 26s 8d to buy clothing and to pray forhim (pp. 33-36). She was received by the archbishop at Lambeth. He gave her leave to choose her confessor, and to receive communion every Sunday, and he gave her the reassurance that she sought regarding the divine source of her visions and her tears (pp. 36-37). There is no evidence that she ever made
formal
he may have associated with the continental sect of the Free Spirit, viewed as heretical60 - and he said that as shewas not of his diocese she should make her request to Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury. She was critical of
themantle and the ring, that is to say, to become a vowess, professing a lifeof world,59 and shewished tobe chastity,prayer and piety while remaining in the clothed inwhite. After questioning her and consulting with his advisers, the white clothing - which bishop expressed unease, particularly with regard to the
did succeed in adopting a secular lifeof penitence and prayer, interspersedwith

works of mercy whenever opportunities 29 arose.
profession
as a vowess.
However,
the vow
of chastity
was
made
and
she
Mystics
Quarterly
the Stimulus Amoris, and the IncendiumAmoris (pp. 142-144). Not long after the death of Richard ofCaister, Vicar of St Stephen's Norwich, which is dated 1420, Margery Kempe visited his tomb inNorwich in order to give thanks for the recovery of the priest who had read to her for seven or eight years hence the probability that the reading began by 1413.
included theBible and biblical commentaries, St Bridget's Revelations, and other didactic and mystical works frequently used in the early fifteenthcentury to stimulate the contemplative piety of the individual: Hilton's Ladder ofPerfection,
It is likely that a span of years referred to later in the book began before the travels to Jerusalem and Rome, namely theyears during which thepriest newly arrived inLynn read biblical and devotional texts to Margery Kempe. The texts
It is possible that an account of the youth of theKempes' sonwho later lived in - the only one of the fourteen children about whom any information is Danzig in the book given belongs chronologically to the period before his mother's was notwritten until 1438 (pp. 221-222). If to Jerusalem, although it pilgrimage he was her firstchild he would have been nearly twentyyears old in 1413. When he was a youth in Lynn his mother disapproved of his unchaste living. She castigated him, he became sick, and she was blamed forhis sickness both by him and by the citizens of Lynn. His subsequent reformbelongs to a laterperiod. OF PILGRIMAGE ?ND ECCLESIASTICAL
YEARS
INVESTIGATION,
1413-1418
charitable giving. At times thegiftofmoney was accompanied by a request that she should pray for the donor, as in the case of Bishop Philip Repingdon. She was very unusual in the may have financed her travels inpart by suchmeans. It women to travel to Jerusalem. Those who did make the lateMiddle Ages for travellingwith their husbands. Nuns on pilgrimages, as well as laywomen, were subject to satirical and misogynist attack throughout the Middle Ages. A list of German pilgrims to theHoly Land, 1346-1588, names no women.61 On
pilgrimage were usually nuns, in the company of other nuns, or married women
In the autumn of 1413Margery Kempe settled her own and her husband's debts, perhaps with an inheritance fromher recently deceased father,and set off for theHoly Land (p. 60). Frequently short ofmoney on her travels,but inclined to give to thepoor whatever she received, shewas at once the subject and object of
the spring voyage of 1458, as documented by Roberto da Sanseverino, Gabriele Capodilista, Giovanni Butigella, Anton Pelchinger, an anonymous Dutch pilgrim, 30
1999
were no women.62 The Jerusalem pilgrimages ofMargery andWilliam Wey, there Wife of Bath are so well Kempe, St Bridget of Sweden and Chaucer's fictitious known that it is easy to overlook the exceptional fortitude and determination
required ofwomen travelling across theAlps, voyaging inpilgrim galleys, and Holy Land, where thepilgrimswere overseen facing thehardships of travel in the were Saracens. by Pilgrims captured in theHoly Land on numerous occasions, was legislation inVenice for the for instance in the year 1404.63From 1408 there compulsory defence of pilgrim galleys after attacks inwhich people had been killed, wounded, or sold into slavery. In 1417 steps were taken to prevent extortion,malnutrition and maltreatment of pilgrims by the captains of the vessels. A galley carrying 170 pilgrims required 140 persons for management and defence, including twenty crossbow men.64
Margery Kempe travelled in a small company of pilgrims byway ofNorwich to Yarmouth, and from there toZierikzee inZealand (p. 60), in the autumn of 1413. The book describes in some detail thehostility of her fellow pilgrims, including thepriest appointed as her confessor, during thepilgrimage: theircutting of her skirt- sometimes interpretedas indicative of alleged immorality- the alienation of hermaidservant, and thepilgrims' refusal to keep her in theircompany after reaching Constance. InConstance she received assistance from an English friar
who was
fromDevon who
Constance
papal
legate, was
and made
accompanied
about
her to Bologna
to consider several
the acquaintance
of William
Weaver, must
a man
(pp. 61-63). The Council

issues which have
of
1414-1418
been
of keen interest to Margery Kempe, such as the controversy over St Bridget and theBrigittineOrder: should the canonisation of St Bridget be confirmed? should the Brigittine penitentesof Danzig, formerprostitutes, be debarred from office in themonastery, or even ordered to return to street life?65In 1415 theCouncil ruled that only virgins and widows should be allowed to hold office in the monastery. That the book scarcely touches on issues of religious and political controversy, except in its accounts of investigations ofMargery Kempe's own orthodoxy, may indicate that she took little interest in such matters, or,more probably, that she or her confessors or amanuenses felt it expedient that she
should refrain from comment.
with Margery Kempe
One of the English delegates to theCouncil of Constance in 1415was a fierce opponent of Lollardy, Thomas Netter, who had been present at the trials for heresy of John Badby and Sir JohnOldcastle. Ten years later, as Carmelite was probably he who instructed Alan of Lynn not to communicate Provincial, it (pp. 168-170). On her later journey to the Baltic she was 31
Mystics
Quarterly
the Hanse. Again, the fact that this importantand well-known opponent isnever mentioned by name inMargery Kempe's book suggests caution rather than
ignorance.
also travelling in a sense inNetter's footsteps: he had been sent as envoy to the King of Poland and to theGrand Master of the Teutonic Order in 1419,66 and may well have been informed there of troubles between themen of Lynn and
Margery Kempe
were practical arrangements tobe the time of embarkation was uncertain; there in to made Venice, since thepilgrims had purchase bedding and other equipment for the voyage. After embarkation therewere squabbles over ownership of
arrived in Bologna before the other members of her earlier weeks inVenice pilgrim fellowship, probably early in 1414, and spent thirteen to in embarkation often arrived Venice with plenty of prior (pp. 63-66). Pilgrims time to spare: time needed to be allowed for crossing theAlps and for further was often only one possible delays; there pilgrim galley a year sailing to Jaffa;
bedding. A temporary reconciliation inVenice between Margery Kempe and her fellow pilgrims was followed by sixweeks of isolation because of her failure to adhere to an agreement not to speak of holy matters at table. Taking literally on her return to Norwich - regardingwhat she had done with the child begotten and born while shewas "out" (103/1-27) - ithas been surmised thatduring the
was more probably intended as a sarcastic response to clerical questioning
what
weeks of isolation inVenice she bore a child.67
Information about the routes, distances, modes of travel and lodgings along the way toVenice, and Jerusalem, can be gained not from Margery Kempe's book but from other contemporary, or slightly later, sources, such as the pilgrim Itinerariesof William Wey.68 The distance from theports ofNorthern France and theLow Countries toVenice was just over 1000miles. Favoured pilgrim routes from the ports led via Diest toAachen, both in the diocese of Liege, renowned for itsholy women and beguinages in the late Middle Ages. Travellers stopped forfood and lodging in inns and hostelries in the towns, or in friaries. The average miles per day.69 William Wey's distance covered on horseback was about thirty route from Aachen
from
in 1462 led via Metz, Basel, and Schaffhausen toConstance,

Arlberg, across Landeck, Nauders, Meran, Kaltern, to and
and
there via
Bludenz, routes
Tramino toTrient.Margery Kempe may well have followed this route, although
there were several other the
and Venice was via Roveredo, Chiusa, Verona and Mirandola.70 The last part of the journey to the lagoon of Venice was necessarily by water. From Venice the pilgrim galleys sailed along theDalmatian coast, and then via the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus to Jaffa. 32
Alps.
From
Trient,
the route
Bologna
1999
Several pilgrim narratives dwell on the hardships of delays in disembarkation while arrangements were and the obligatory night spent in the caverns of Jaffa, made for the final stages of the journey to Jerusalem (note on 67/9-10, pp. 288 weeks spent in theHoly 289), whereas Margery Kempe's account of the three on thevisits made toholy places, inparticular theHoly Sepulchre Land centres in Jerusalem.Her ecstasy as she approached Jerusalem almost caused her to fall off her donkey (67/23-26). On Mount Calvary she was overcome by the which penitential shrieks, cries, convulsions, and leaden colouring of the face, for she was notorious during the ten years following, in addition to penitential weeping. A comparable instance of pious women visitors to theHoly Land shrieking as in childbirth is attested by Felix Fabri in the late fifteenthcentury:
Super quasi omnes autem mulieres clamabant, peregrinae ullulabant sociae nostrae et sorores et flebant ....71
parturientes
When her fellow pilgrims dissociated themselves fromher in the Holy Land she was helped by the Franciscan friarsofficiating there, and even by the Saracens (pp. 67-75). On returning toVenice she was lefton her own, but found Richard, a broken backed beggar from Irelandwho helped her along the Assisi and Rome, way to the anchorite inLynn. She was had been Dominican what foretold fulfilling by in Assisi for the feast of Lammas tide, 1August 1414 (p. 79), and there she also made the acquaintance of a great lady, Margaret Florentine, who helped her to
when she complete the journey toRome, and helped her also some months later was reduced tobegging (pp. 79,93). InRome she finally followed the instruction to put on white clothing. She visited the former servant of St Bridget and the chapel dedicated to the saint. She was initially received at theHospital of St Thomas of Canterbury inRome, but the slander of her earlier pilgrim company winter months 1414-1415. resulted inher being evicted over the
although neither spoke theother's language and neither could understand other speakers of the other language. Margery Kempe and some clerks regarded this with suspicion. mutual understanding as miraculous, while others viewed it
From the account
Her confessor inRome was a German priest,Wenslawe, who instructed her to was revert towearing black rather thanwhite, and she obeyed him. Later it revealed toher once more that she should wear white, and he acceded. After an were able tounderstand one another initialperiod requiring an interpreter,they
tested by others, it seems that the pious dialogue was highly predictable on 33
given
of an occasion
when
the mutual
understanding
was
Mystics Quarterly
of theGerman spoken along the Frisian and Baltic coast not shared by speakers fromother places and backgrounds. The fact that the first amanuensis of Margery an was in who had Baltic book, lands, many years spent Kempe's Englishman
both sides. However, it is possible that the trade links between Lynn and the Baltic enabled the trading families of Lynn to achieve an understanding at least
said towrite neither good German nor good English (4/14-16) suggests that a fair degree of contamination, and presumably also ofmutual understanding, could come about between theGermanic dialects of Norfolk and the Baltic.
Margery Kempe mentions difficulties of communication during her time in Italy, but not during her travels toDanzig, Wilsnack and Aachen. The name of the German priest inRome, Wenslawe, suggests thathe came from theBaltic lands. The focal point ofMargery Kempe's time inRome was the elaborate revelation ofmystical marriage toGod the Father, on St JohnLateran's Day, 9 November 1414, in theChurch of the Apostles (pp. 86-87). From this time, forsixteen years, a flame of love burnt in her heart (88/28). After months of hardship, poverty,
Richard thebroken begging, serving thepoor, and afterborrowing money from backed man which she immediately gave away and undertook to repay two years later, she was invited back to theHospital of St Thomas. Eventually a
months later in thebattle ofAgincourt.
priest from England furnished her with themeans to return home, and after Easter 1415 they set out on the return journey.The priestwas fearfulof brigands on the way, butMargery Kempe reassured him (pp. 99-100), and they returned safely toNorwich via Middelburg inZealand. There is no mention in thebook of the hostilities between England and France which were to culminate a few
On her return to Norwich, Margery Kempe was welcomed by some and criticised or ostracised by others. She once more dressed in white clothing,wearing it for the firsttime on Trinity Sunday (104/3-26). Her husband came toNorwich to meet her, and they returned to Lynn together, where she became dangerously ill. She recovered, but was abused by the people of Lynn: some spat at her in horror of her cries and shrieks, convulsions and change of colour (105/18-24), all ofwhich phenomena were familiar to theCarthusian monks ofMount Grace who annotated The Book of Margery Kempe and recognised them as signs of grace
and holiness.72
She wished to go on pilgrimage to St James,Compostella, but did not have means until money was given to her (pp. 105-106). She set out for sufficient in Whitsun week, probably of 1417, and theremet Bristol on the Wednesday
34
and repaid her debt of two years earlier toRichard thebroken-backed man (106/ 21-25). Waiting sixweeks inBristol fora ship toSpain, shewas again abused for her cries and swooning, but was assisted by a Thomas Marshall who gave her money and accompanied her on thepilgrimage toCompostella, and toLeicester after their return from thepilgrimage. Before embarking she was summoned before the Bishop ofWorcester, to his seat atHenbury, Gloucestershire, three miles north of Bristol. The bishop at this was Thomas Peverel, possibly theCarmelite friarof thatname listed forty time The bishop treated her kindly, years earlier in a corrody of the Lynn friary.73 saying thathe knew well enough that shewas thedaughter of JohnBrunham of Lynn. He invited her to eat with him, asked her to pray forhim, gave her gold and his blessing, and asked her to visit him again.
The travellers reached Spain on the seventh day after leaving Bristol, stayed there fourteen days, and returned in fivedays. All that is told in thebook of the fourteen days spent in Spain is that Margery Kempe experienced many great cries there, in contemplation of thePassion, and plenteous tears of compassion (110/29-32). Once more it is from the records of other pilgrim travellers such as
William Wey that informationmay be gleaned about pilgrim itineraries, and about thepomp and ceremony of theprocessions and celebrations witnessed in ministers atMass observed Compostella. On the Feast of theTrinity in 1456 the seven the included cardinals, the dean, the cantor, five by Wey archbishop,
archdeacons magnificence and made canons.74 There eighty an on impression Margery is no Kempe. evidence that any such
After her return to Bristol she visited theHoly Blood ofHailes, and went from there toLeicester. In Leicester the sight of a crucifix roused her to tears and cries. While Thomas Marshall was writing a letter forher to her husband in Lynn, asking him to come and fetchher home, she was summoned before themayor of Leicester. In answer to his questions she asserted that she was daughter of a
respected burgess of Lynn who had years, and also wife of a respected mayor of Leicester of being a false people, and was detained in the questioned was
companion
her and spoke

put in
strumpet, a Lollard, and a deceiver of the jailor's house. The steward of Leicester lewdly to her. Thomas Marshall and another
on her account, but released after a terrible storm
been mayor five times and alderman five burgess of Lynn. She was accused by the
were
interpreted as a token of divine wrath at their imprisonment. They feared thatshewould be burnt as a heretic. She was brought before theabbot of Leicester and thedean of Leicester, in thepresence ofmany canons, friarsand priests, the 35
prison
Mystics Quarterly
mayor, and townspeople. Examined by the abbot and his assessors, she answered all questions to their satisfaction, and the abbot and dean of Leicester
subsequently supported her. However, themayor, mistrustful in particular of her white clothing and suspecting that she intended to take away the citizens' wives, insisted that she should obtain a letter from the Bishop of Lincoln discharging him of responsibility forher,which she did. In all shewas delayed at Leicester for three weeks (pp. 111-119). From Leicester she proceeded toYork, with no further mention of the letter to her husband in Lynn asking him to come and fetchher. Once more she was scorned by some people, including an anchoress who had previously been well disposed towards her,while shewas revered and supported by others. She was examined on her faithby a priest inYork, and thenby Henry Bowet, Archbishop ofYork, at his seat atCawood, where his retainers called her a Lollard and heretic her sharply about her white
subsequently he was satisfied
and said she should be burnt (pp. 123-124). Initially the archbishop questioned clothing and pronounced her a heretic, but
with her answers regarding the articles of the
faith.She defended herself against a charge of preaching, saying that she came in no pulpit. In a latervision St Paul apologised to her for the trouble he had caused her by forbiddingwomen to preach (160/27-29). The archbishop paid one of his men five shillings to accompany her to Bridlington so that she could visit a former confessor, and then to conduct her out of his diocese (pp. 119 128). When they reached Hessle, and were about to cross the Humber, Margery Kempe was arrested by twomen of theDuke of Bedford and taken back to Beverley. Women ran out of theirhouses clamouring forher tobe burnt as a heretic. She was brought once more before theArchbishop ofYork, this time in the chapter house in Beverley. A Dominican friarspoke against her. The Duke of Bedford's men maintained thatshewas "Combomis dowtyr", that is, follower of theLollard
lifeof King Henry V. He was re-captured late in 1417, probably not long after Margery Kempe's appearance before theArchbishop of York in Beverley, and was drawn, hanged and burnt on 14December 1417 (note on 132/12-14, p. 316). The Archbishop of York once more found no fault inMargery Kempe, but required that she obtain letterand seal from theArchbishop of Canterbury. 36
knight Sir JohnOldcastle also known as Lord Cobham. Oldcastle had been pronounced a heretic by Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury on 25 September 1413,was handed over to the secular authority,but escaped from theTower on 19 October 1413. His name became associated with treason,with plots on the
1999
When Margery Kempe had crossed theHumber she was again arrested as a Lollard, but released on the testimony of a man who had seen her before the
miles south of Ely, but released on production of the archbishop's 128-137).
West Lynn,where her husband Archbishop ofYork. She travelled via Lincoln to to travelled London. and She obtained Archbishop joined her, together they Chichele's letterand seal. The Kempes remained for some time inLondon, and were arrested three were well received there. On the return journey toLynn they letter (pp.
The fact thatMargery Kempe was several times arrested, and questioned, in Bristol, Leicester, York, Cawood and Beverley in the latterpart of the year 1417, and notwith comparable severity at other times, may be attributed to the intense nervousness of the ecclesiastical and secular authorities during themonths Oldcastle's re-capture and execution.75 The repeated arrests and preceding examinations are evidence of the unease in the country at the time, and of uncertainty in the relationships between ecclesiastical
local and national authorities.
and secular, as also
between
PIETY LIBER
AND
WORKS
OF MERCY
IN LYNN,
FIRST
DRAFT
OF
I OF THE
BOOK
OF MARGERY
KEMPE,
1418-1431
After her return toLynnMargery Kempe was afflicted with various illnesses for a period of eight years. Her weeping and were so intensewhen she saw crying
the Blessed Sacrament or listened to
were timeswhen she was excluded from church or there chapel (see especially pp. 154-156). The loud cries thathad begun when she visited the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in 1414 continued in all fora period of tenyears (pp. 137-140). She was given prophetic knowledge of who would be saved and who would be damned. Because she did not readily accept such revelatory knowledge shewas punished with twelve days of lewd thoughts (pp. 144-146).
readings
or sermons
on
the Passion
that
In 1421 a great fire inLynn destroyed the Guildhall belonging to the Holy Trinity Guild ofMerchants, and threatened the churchwhich, however, was saved by a miraculous snowfall which some attributed toMargery Kempe's prayers (pp. 162-164). She was given foreknowledge of appointments of priors toLynn, and their movements, in the years leading up to 1422 (pp. 170-172). Some priests and friarsregarded her as a holywoman, and even Bishop Wakering ofNorwich, on a visit to Lynn, tolerated her cries during his sermon (pp. 164 37
Mystics Quarterly
sermons (pp.148-152 sq., and notes). Hostile individuals are not identified by name in thebook, which may be another precautionary measure on the part of writer or amanuensis. Even the Franciscan friar would have tolerated her cries and would have urged the people to pray forher ifshe had conceded that the crieswere caused by cardiac or other sickness (151/8-13). This she would not
do.
167). By contrast, a famous Franciscan preacher, identified as William Melton only by a marginal note in themanuscript,76 came to Lynn between 1421 and most severe critics ofMargery Kempe's cries during 1425, and was one of the
turpitude against the order of law and nature" were particularly vehement.77 It was revealed to her that shewould speak with Master Alan again, and thathe would recover from a sudden severe illness, and so it turned out. They met again at thehouse of a vowess inLynn (pp. 168-170; note on 168/5, p. 328). It is reported that on this occasion he gave her a gift of a pair of knives, betokening that they would fighttogetheronce more inGod's cause, as theyhad done before. Gifts of knives are frequently associated in medieval and later timeswith bad and the of betoken luck, may severing friendship. It is possible thatAlan of was sever to instruction his link with Margery Kempe, and that she under Lynn
There was a period at some time between 1422 and 1425 during which Master Alan was forbidden by theCarmelite Provincial to speak with her. The Provincial Thomas Netter's attacks onwomen during thisperiod because of their"general
did not recognise, or did not choose to recognise, the significance of the gift of the pair of knives. However, there are also instances of positive associations with gifts of knives inmedieval texts, as for instance in the list of items as suitable gifts forholy men in theAncreneWisse.78 recommended
Margery Kempe performed works of spiritual and corporal mercy inLynn. She comforted and prayed for the sick and the dying, and was given leave by her confessor to kiss female lepers. She assisted in the cure of a woman suffering which she herself frompost-natal derangement comparable to the sickness from had sufferedmany years before (pp. 177-179). She cared forher husband for a number of years at the end of his life,afterhaving lived separately so that she could devote herself to religious lifeand in order to put an end to the calumny of fellow citizens, who maintained that the Kempes relations in spite of theirvows (pp. 179-181). still enjoyed conjugal
Liber I of The Book of writing of Margery Kempe ends with an account of the initial the firstdraft. It is said in the proem added by the second amanuensis to his
38
copy of Liber I in 1436 that the firstamanuensis was an Englishman who had lived abroad for a long time and had a German wife and child, that he wrote neither good English nor good German, thathe returned to Lynn, and thathe
within a month. His fatherdied not long after (p. 225). The deaths ofMargery Kempe's son and husband probably occurred in late summer or autumn 1431 (note on 225/13-14, p. 342). Ithas oftenbeen suggested that the sonwas the first draft of Liber Iwhile sick during the last amanuensis, and thathe wrote the first month of his life in 1431 (note on 225/11 sq., p. 342). S.B. Meech was the firstto
died after completion of the first draft (p. 4). It is said in the second chapter of Liber II, started by the second amanuensis in 1438, that theKempes' son who had lived abroad for many years returned toLynnwith his German wife, leaving their child inPrussia, and thathe fell sick on the day afterhis arrival, and died
tohis mother inLynn, during which he had written thebulk of it (p. viii), rather than to assume thathe could have written the whole draft as a dying man inone month. There is no evidence of an earlier visit in the text. The account of thewriting process actually suggests that thewriting extended over a period ofmonths, or even years. Several phrases suggest a slowing-down of the usual bustle ofMargery Kempe's activities: during the time ofwriting, she was frequently sick - but there is no mention of any sickness on the part of the scribe; her perceptions were sharpened; theAdvent season came and went: Whan pis booke was firstin wrytyng, pe sayd creaturwas mor at horn inhir chambre wyth hirwriter & seyd fewer bedys for sped ofwrytyng pan sehe had don 3erys be-forn (216/4-7). And also sehe herd many tymysa voys of a swet brydde syngyn in hir ere, and oftyn-tymys sehe herd swet sowndys & melodijs J>at passyd hirwitte for to teilen hem. And sehe was many tyme was inwrityng, and, as sone as sehe wolde seke whyl pis tretys gon a-bowte pe writyng of pis tretys, sehe was heil & hoole sodynly in a maner. And oftyn sehe was comawndyd tomakyn hir redy in al hast. And on a tyme,as sehe lay inhir preyerys inpe chirche pe tyme ofAduent befor Cristmes, sehe thowt inhir hert sehe wolde pat God of hys goodnes wolde makyn Maistyr Aleyn
to seyin a sermown as wel as he cowde (219/10-21).
point out that if the son was indeed the amanuensis, and ifhe worked on the textduring the last month of his life, it would make sense toposit an earlier visit
39
Mystics Quarterly
whan sehe Sum-tyme sehe was in gret heuynes forhir felyngys, knew not how ]3eischulde ben vndirstondynmany days to-gedyr, wolde fordrede pat sehe had of deceytys & illusyons, pat hir thowt sehe pat hir hed had be smet fro pe body tylGod of hys (220/4-9).
goodnesse declaryd hem tohirmende
The reference to Master Alan's preaching of an Advent sermon during the time when the book was being written (219/17-28) suggests that the writing was in was at the 1420s the Alan late latest. Master born around 1348, and progress by a into at least until he lived old traditional date 1423,79 age, given for although his death is 1428 (note on 22/11-12, p. 268). There is in factno compelling reason to conjecture that theKempes' sonwas the first amanuensis. It is likely that Margery Kempe knew other Lynnmen, beyond her immediate family, who had lived and married inDanzig, and other trading cities, and ultimately returned to Lynn. That itwas not uncommon for
Englishmen living inPrussia tobe married to localwomen is attested by the fact that the restrictions imposed by the Prussian diet in 1402 explicitly catered for
them.80 The second amanuensis records that the first amanuensis wrote as much
as Margery Kempe wished to tellhim during the time they were together,and that afterwards - but not necessarily immediately afterwards - he died (4/2 12). The book was entrusted perhaps after a furthertime lapse to the second amanuensis, a priest, who said he would copy itout ifhe could read it,but it was badly written and difficult to read.At the time Margery Kempe was under severe attack (4/21-24), so that thepriest prevaricated and did not dare speak to her. This would fit mid 1420swhen particularly well with theperiod during the was she under attack from the Franciscan friar and the Carmelite provincial. After a four-year deferral the second amanuensis said he could not read the
book, and advised that itbe taken to another man who had known the first amanuensis and had corresponded with him and might be able to read his man triedunsuccessfully to decipher and copy it (4/27-40) writing. This third There is no indication of the length of time the book remained with the third
Finally the second amanuensis was vexed in his conscience because he man.
A furtherattempt to read it, had promised to copy the book if he could read it. with Margery Kempe's help, was ultimately successful, and the second amanuensis began the second draft in 1436. Because of the wish to identify the firstamanuensis with the sonwho returned draft toLynn and died in 1431, ithas often been assumed not only that the first
40
1999
was written in the space of a month but also that the four-year deferral took place between 1432 and 1436.On balance itseems most likely that the writing of was not the the first that amanuensis the draftbegan by the mid-1420s, Kempes' - as did the son, that the process continued over several years re-drafting of Liber I and thewriting of Liber II - and that the four-yeardeferral ended by 1436 at the latest,but may have ended earlier.
TRAVELS TO THE BALTIC, WILSNACK AND AACHEN, 1433 H34

After the death ofMargery Kempe's son and husband, her German daughter was agreed in-law stayed inLynn forone-and-a-half years, after which time it that she should return to her family inDanzig. Itwas gradually revealed to
was clear to her that Margery Kempe that she should go with her, although it not want her to, and she did not have leave to do so her daughter-in-law did fromher parish priest and confessor,Robert Spryngolde. It is recorded that she was bound in obedience to him, but the nature of the bond - whether more formal or voluntary - is not specified. He was doubtful about the suitability of
her even going as faras Ipswich, given her age and a recent foot injury (226/18 20). The twowomen embarked at Ipswich on theThursday before Easter, 1433, having travelled fromLynn via the shrine atWalsingham, and Norwich, where Margery Kempe's felynge that she should board ship for Danzig was strengthened.A storm drove the ship offcourse so thatEaster was celebrated on theNorwegian coast (pp. 229-231). As with thepilgrimage to theHoly Land, so also with thevisit to the Baltic and the well-known fact that the journey tookplace may obscure subsequent itinerary, the temerityof theundertaking fora woman travellingwith littlesupport, and
France was not yet ended, Joan ofArc had recentlybeen burnt at the stake, the men of Lynn and theHanse were intense, troubles between the King Eric of the were hostilities Nordic Union was atwar with theHanseatic League, and there between Poland and theTeutonic Order, in whose territory Danzig lay. Whereas the earlier continental journeys to Jerusalem,Rome and Compostella, and the subsequent journey from Danzig toWilsnack and Aachen, were motivated by the wish to visit sacred places as a pilgrim and to obtain 41
sometimes entirely alone. At the timewhen Margery Kempe visited the Baltic and returned via Stralsund, Wilsnack, Aachen and Calais - being unwilling to venture on another voyage across theNorth Sea - theHundred Years' War with
Mystics Quarterly
she was made welcome by many people, ifnot by her daughter-in-law, and would have liked to stay (231 /25-32). It seems very likely thatpeople and places associated with St Bridget and Blessed Dorothea ofMontau, renowned forher visions and holy tears, drew Margery Kempe toDanzig,81 and that,once more,
Margery Kempe's urge tovisit Danzig, indulgences, thebook gives no reason for and says very littleabout the time spent inDanzig. Itwas revealed to her that she should leave the country after fiveor sixweeks, which she regrettedbecause
caution or expediency caused her or her amanuensis to avoid explicitmention of St Bridget at thispoint, and ofDorothea ofMontau throughout thebook, lest theirorthodoxy, and, by association, her own, be indoubt.
St Bridget had been canonised in 1391 and her sanctityhad been confirmed by Pope JohnXXIII at the Council of Constance in 1415, but her order was still written by King Eric of under threat in the 1430s, as is demonstrated by a letter theNordic Union in July 1434, inwhich he requests that theCouncil of Basel should not alter or abolish the order. The Marienbrunn monastery inDanzig
one of the earliest Brigittine foundations outside Sweden. Founded not later
was
than 1396, froman earlier community of reformed prostitutes, ithad with some which were causing unease at the difficulty survived the charges of impropriety time of theCouncil of Constance, 1414-1418. The Council of Basel investigated St Bridget's Revelations and identified 123 errors in it,before finally confirming its orthodoxy in 1436. At the same time the order lost some of the privileges which had helped to finance the early foundations, namely income from indulgences.82 When Margery Kempe visited Danzig, however, itwas still possible to purchase indulgences from the Brigittine nuns, and it is probable that she availed herself of the opportunity to do so, here as elsewhere. Blessed Dorothea ofMontau
lived for some years inDanzig, and died during Margery Kempe's youth.83 Although there is no mention of her inMargery a Kempe's book, ithas long been recognised that she is likely to have been Montau spent hermarried formative influence (App.V, pp. 378-380). Dorothea of which time life inDanzig, 1363-89, and lived there as a widow 1390-91, after Marienwerder. From July shewas enclosed in a cell attached to the cathedral in 1392 to June 1394 her confessor, Johannes Marienwerder, noted down her visions in the them tested authorities, and then composed a Latin record German, against material both to shape several differentversions of her of them.84He used this life,and to compose other texts, including a tracton tears. She was one of the female mystics toweep profusely in contemplation of her own sins and the redemption offered by Christ's Passion, and to experience visionary marriage 42
1999
with theLord, as did Margery Kempe. There isno proof of connections between Dorothea of Montau and theBrigittine monastery inDanzig. However, fivedays which Christ and St Bridget admitted her to before her death she had a vision in their company, which suggests a special veneration for the saint, and makes an interest inher order likely.85 The processus for the canonisation ofDorothea had in and continued until 1521,without full success. 1394, begun
miraculous While still in Danzig Margery Kempe met aman who told her of the Blood ofWilsnack, and the indulgences to be obtained at the shrine there, and Wilsnack to the display of relics at he volunteered to accompany her by way of Aachen, and from there to England. They travelled by sea along the coast to was another Brigittine Stralsund, where there monastery, Marienkron, founded in 1421. From Stralsund they travelled toWilsnack, with Margery Kempe walk or way, and finding itdifficult to suffering sickness and discomfort on the run fast enough to keep up with her companion, who became impatientwith her company.
increasingly
Wilsnack, which lies 110miles south of Stralsund and 70 miles north-west of Berlin, just to the east of the riverElbe, was a village which had become a popular and controversial
later in the century and found to contain only cobwebs and dust. The receptacle was destroyed at the Reformation, but the painted wooden shrine which housed it from themid fifteenthcenturymay still be seen in the great church in Wilsnack, which was built to replace theone thathad been sacked and burnt. The King's Lynn Museum has a pilgrim badge from Wilsnack, dating from the first half of the fifteenthcentury, the only such badge known to have been found in England.86 opened After leavingWilsnack for Aachen the travellers crossed water, presumably the were taking amore northerly routewestwards riverElbe: at Wittenberge ifthey were taking amore southerly route, towards Aachen, or at Tangerm?nde ifthey the one followed by thepilgrim Philip ofKatzenbogen in 1434 (note on 237/34 37, pp. 346-348). They fell inwith travelling companions known toMargery
from the early fifteenthcentury between thenearby Bishop ofHavelberg, who promoted them, and the powerful and sceptical clergy ofMagdeburg, who did not, sixtymiles to the south. The receptacle inwhich the hosts were kept was
place of pilgrimage for the gullible, issuing multiple miraculous appearance of threebloody hosts in 1383, indulgences, following the amidst the ruins of the sacked church (noteon 232/10-11, p. 344). The authenticity of themiracle and themarketing of indulgences were a source of contention
43
Mystics
Quarterly
Kempe's unwilling escort, and passed by a Franciscan friary probably the friary were following thenortherly route, or the one at Stendal if at Salzwedel if they - where the Blessed Sacrament stood were further south open in a crystal, they it octave is for its medieval still within the of famous Christi. Stendal being Corpus on and there is of Bohemian and evidence influence sculpture painting in glass, thearea.87 When the company came to a good town (236/6) - probably Brunswick were travelling further were on the northerly route,Magdeburg if they if they south - Margery Kempe's guide returned toher the money he had had for safe keeping, and abandoned her because of her weeping and sobbing, leaving her in great anxiety and distress. She was taunted and insulted, by priests among others, and their lewd threats led her to fear forher chastity (p. 236).88 She made
the acquaintance of poor folk travelling in a wain toAachen, and travelledwith them ingreat discomfort since she did not feel able to follow their example and take offher clothes to rid herself of the vermin she caught from them (p. 237). InAachen, in July 1433, she saw the fourgreat relics shown only
every seven years (note on 237/34-37, pp. 346-348). From there the pattern
once
monk to be her companion on the last stages of the journey to Calais. Having negotiated the crossing fromCalais, she found herself alone on the road from the coast toCanterbury, knocked on a door tohire a horse and guide to take her toCanterbury, and managed to proceed to London. After spending some time, perhaps the best part of a year, in London, she went to Sheen to procure her monastery of Syon Abbey, as indicated by pardon presumably to theBrigittine the annotation than to theCarthusian monastery. From rather marginal Syon,89 Sheen she returned to Lynn, to encounter initially the sharp words of her confessorwho had given her leave only to travel as faras Ipswich, and then the
of hardship on the road, difficulties inwalking fast enough to keep up with others, difficulties in finding any place of lodging, shunning and abuse by potential travelling companions, was repeated once more, but she found a poor
good love of her confessor and her friends (pp. 237-247).
The book contains no information about Margery Kempe's to Lynn, probably in 1434. It ends with her prayers.
lifeafterher return
44
+ Vol 25,#1/2, 1999 March/June
LAST
YEARS,
RE-DRAFTING
OF LIBER
I,WRITING
OF
LIBER II
The writing of the second amanuensis's proem to Liber I, added after the first writing of Liber II quire had been copied, isdated 1436, and thebeginning of the is dated 1438. The precise nature and extent of the contribution of the second amanuensis to the shaping and substance of The Book of Margery Kempe cannot be ascertained. a was unlike the first amanuensis. He wrote his account of he cleric, Clearly Margery Kempe
in the thirdperson, which may perhaps suggest that he had an ecclesiastical court.90 professional experience recording the proceedings of as narrative it stands records her religious life, The moving in traditionalmanner from frailty during the phase of purgatio through illuminatiotowards perfection It is possible that the second amanuensis exerted a considerable influence, as did themale biographers of holy women mentioned in the book, for instance
Marie d'Oignies (153/1) and St Elizabeth of Hungary (154/13), and of others not mentioned, but possibly known, such as Dorothea ofMontau. Only in the case of Beatrice ofNazareth (tl268), a holy woman not mentioned in thebook, have two lifehistories survived, one written by Beatrice herself and one by her male biographer, which enable the reader to see justwhat modifications and well known that in the other cases shaping thebiographer undertook,92 but it is also the biographers examined and selected material from the experiences recounted to them by their subjects.
In Liber I not only the proem but also chapters 24, and parts of 25 and 62,were written by the second amanuensis inhis own person.93 There is one passage in chapter 62 inwhich he says that he did not write much in justification of the weeping of Marie d'Oignies and Margery Kempe when he wrote the book because at that time he had not read about
the matter "seryowslech & which that thedecision onwhat to write (153/30-31), suggests expressiowslech" was his (aswell as suggesting thathe worked on thispart of thebook at different times). There are further passages which share some featuresof style and content with the ones which were definitely written by the second amanuensis, and may also have been written by him: for instance, chapters 82 and 83 (pp. 198 202). All of these chapters, or parts of chapters, contain passages of commentary on the testing and justification ofMargery Kempe. They also include some
traditional descriptions, for instance of Purification and Candlemas, and topoi such as the abandonment ofMargery Kempe by her kindred who should have 45
Mystics Quarterly
Kempe's
example in these passages of her distinctive vocabulary and phrasing, such as the expression ofmovement, literal and metaphorical, by means of to+ noun/ pronoun/adverb + wards, exemplified for instance in thewords of the Lord to her in time of trouble inRome: "per is gold to-pe-ward" (92/38-39). With regard toLiber II itseems reasonable to accept the claimmade by the second amanuensis thathe "held itexpedient" (221/4-5) to write of some but not all of the years that she lived after the death of the firstamanuensis "aftyrhyr owyn tunge" and to take this tomean that the narrative was based on, and often reproduced verbatim, Margery Kempe's own words, but that the amanuensis
include.
"owyn tunge" (221/11-12), so characteristic ofmany of her revelatory dialogues and other passages of direct speech. Instead of her direct record of sense experiences it isuncharacteristically stressed in chapter 82 that she seemed to hear, rather than that she heard: "hir thowt she herd" (198/12). There is no
loved her best, and the ineffablequality of hermystical experience - for which she demonstrably foundmany words. There is little trace in them ofMargery
what material, to helped at the very least to choose which years, and therefore
The entry of a Margery Kempe intomembership of theHoly TrinityGuild of Lent 1438 - theonly contemporary referenceto aMargery Kempe Merchants from outside her own book - suggests that at the end of her life she achieved some was measure of recognition and standing inLynn. That participation in civic life
not incompatible with the religious life isdemonstrated by the situation of Julian ofNorwich who, though a recluse, lived in close proximity to a busy city street, and had a place in thepublic discourse ofNorwich.94 At thebeginning and end of extracts from thebook printed in 1521 by Henry Pepwell, Margery Kempe is referred to as "ancresse of lynn". There isno other evidence that she became an anchoress in her last years, but it is possible.
The second amanuensis states in the proem that the book was not to be made known as long as she lived (4/34-36). Ifherwish was followed - and there isno evidence to the contrary - she did not live beyond 1440.
46
TRANSMISSION
OF THE TEXT
The book has survived in a singlemanuscript, BL Additional MS 61823, which Mount Grace Carthusian Priory in North centurybelonged to by the late fifteenth Yorkshire. The text is in thehand of one scribe,who gives his name at the end of
thedecade 1440-1450 (pp. xxxii-xlvi). The language of Salthows and his textual predecessors bears features of theNorfolk dialect (pp. vii-xxxii). There are marginal annotations in at least fourdifferenthands, the last and most prolific ofwhich is commonly attributed to amonk ofMount Grace. From the sixteenth
century the manuscript was in private possession for several centuries.
Liber II as Salthows, presumably from the North Norfolk coastal village of Salthouse. It is not the original manuscript written by the second amanuensis, but an early copy,which palaeographical and watermark evidence assigns to
Norwycensis diocesis (App. I,p. 351), presumably Soham inCambridgeshire, close to Ely, rather than Saham Toney inNorfolk. Soham, south-south-east of Ely, is
closer to Ely than is Saham Toney to the north-east, four miles distant as compared
At the end of themanuscript a folded document is bound in, being a letter granting leave to the addressee to continue to draw income from a benefice for seven years while studying at a university. The letter was sent fromLondon in 1440 by the apostolic notary, Petrus de Monte, to the vicar of Saham iuxta Ely
Vicar of Soham 1427-1442 part of the diocese of Ely in thenineteenth century.95 was William Bogy (p. xliv).96 Soham is four miles east of the confluence of the rivers Cam and Great Ouse, and tenmiles north-east of Denny Abbey at Waterbeach, which lies on theCam and also on the ancient fenland road from to Ely. When visiting the Franciscan nuns at Denny, and when from travelling Lynn to London and back, whether by road or water, Margery a route took thatbrought her to within a few miles of thegreat church at Kempe Soham. The vicar of Soham may well have been in communication with the nuns ofDenny, and have heard through them ofMargery Kempe, and her book, and have acquired it through them.Denny Abbey, like the manor of Soham, had a strong connection with Pembroke The College Cambridge. abbey was granted to de St Countess of Pembroke and of founder the Pol, Mary college, by Edward III. Inherwidowhood she livedwith thenuns atDenny, and was buried there in 1377. Cambridge 47
with twenty-five,and both were in thediocese ofNorwich in the Middle Ages. The dated letterfurtherstrengthens the evidence that the extant copy, as well as the original manuscript of the book, was written in the diocese ofNorwich. It also shows that the extant copy was bound not earlier than 1440. Soham became
Mystics Quarterly
Grace Priory, perhaps by way of the monastic foundations at Syon or Sheen.
If the vicar of Soham acquired the early copy ofMargery Kempe's book, and took it with him when he left Soham to embark on a period of study at one of the universities, it could have found its way fromOxford or Cambridge toMount
were brotherswho came from Yorkshire.97 The monastery at Sheen Abbey there and Syon Abbey were both important centres for the transmission of devotional
The Carthusian monastery at Sheen and theBrigittine Syon Abbey (initially also at Sheen) were founded by Henry V in 1415. Communications between the Carthusian houses in England, relatively few innumber, were strong.At Syon
manuscripts of the English version of St Bridget's Revelations is similar, though not identical, to Salthows's hand.98 Some of the Sheen and Syon Abbey texts are heavily annotated, in amanner very similar to thatof the marginal annotations are mere corrections or in The Book of of the Some annotations Margery Kempe. or apt quotations from the scriptures, or theydraw attention to important words
and emendations, but many are pious repetitions, for instance of the name of Jesus, label
and mystical texts in thevernacular, including theRevelations of St Bridget and of Julian ofNorwich. The mid-fifteenth-century Syon Abbey hand of one of the
manuscripts have been carefully examined, and who moved between Sheen, the Midlands and the north of England, is JamesGrenehalgh.99 It appears that he was moved fromSheen in 1507-8, firsttoCoventry and then toKingston-on Hull. His hand is not the hand of themain annotator of The Book of Margery Kempe, but furtherresearch into thiscircle of textual annotators and scribesmight throw lighton thehistory of the manuscript.
a virtue or a sin, name an individual who may ormay not be identifiedby name in the text,or evaluate a piece of narrative with comments such as perfectioor annotator whose marginal additions to many discretion. A Carthusian
phrases
in the text
amor or vow
or sum
up
the contents
of a passage,
thepriory church.100 He increased the Mount Grace community by the addition of fivemonk-chaplains. It is possible that the contacts he established between or priest a Lynn and Mount Grace continued after his death, and that monk to Mount Grace. it in and took contacts the book Lynn maintaining such acquired to no the case of the addition In this there would be manuscript easy explanation of the letter to theVicar of Soham. 48
Another possible linkbetween Lynn and Mount Grace, more direct and secular, lies in the person of Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset, who had property near Lynn and played a part in the life of the town. Like his nephew Henry V, he supported theCarthusian order. In return forhis support ofMount Grace, the General Chapter of theCarthusian order in 1417 granted him rightof burial in
+ 1999 Vol 25, n/2,March/June
Whatever
the routewhereby the manuscript reached Mount Grace, ithas been was unusual for Norfolk noted that it manuscripts copied by Norfolk scribes in tomove far from the area while theywere still in regular use: the text and transmission of thewritings both of Julian ofNorwich and ofMargery Kempe which furtherinvestigationofNorfolk manuscripts "pose singular problems, into some means of access".101 generally might provide The main annotator of The Book of Margery Kempe, commonly thought to have been a monk ofMount Grace, draws attention to similarities between Margery
Kempe's expressions of piety, including her shrieks, convulsions, leaden colour and tears, and the piety ofMount Grace mystics such as Richard Methley and JohnNorton. There is no indication that these displays of religious fervour aroused anxiety or censure on the part of the Carthusians. On occasion the annotator adds amarginal note indicating thatbodily contact described isgostly (214/7), and very occasionally there are deletions ofwhole sentences inwhich visions ofMargery Kempe's involvement in the re-enactment of Christ's lifeor dreams of Christ's sufferings are described (203/9-11; 208/8-10).
se ofcontemplacyontaughtbyour lor It is as a shorte treaty de Ihesu crystethatextracts were printed as a simple booklet, in the nature of a chap-book, byWynkyn de W?rde.102 This booklet has none of the worldly narrative and no mention of the shrieks and prostrations. It includes passages inwhich Margery Kempe was
told thather silent contemplation was more pleasing toGod thanwas her vocal prayer (89/21-25; 89/38-90/3). Given Wynkyn de Worde's known familiarity with the piety of Syon Abbey and Sheen, attested by his printing of works associated with these houses, it seems likely that these extracts contain the "approved" essence ofMargery Kempe's book as perceived by Brigittine and
Carthusian readers. Yet
intended as a support for lay people's devotions. Pepwell
the chap-book
format
suggests
that
the extracts
were
in 1521 printed the same extracts in an anthology of contemplative was from mystical writings, perhaps with a different readership inmind.103 It was the extracts only, reprinted in 1910, that to post known Margery Kempe medieval
readers, until themanuscript of her book was re-discovered by H.E. a Allen in the 1930s. Pepwell's anthology printed in the first place Middle English version of Richard of St Victor's BenjaminMinor, in second place Catherine of Siena's Divers Doctrines, and in thirdplace the extracts from Margery Kempe's book. There followedWalter Hilton's Treatiseof the"Song of Angels", an Epistle of Discretion inStirringsof theSoul, and a Treatiseof Prayer, an Epistle of Discerning of
49
Mystics
Quarterly
a Spirits, veryNecessary for Gostly Livers. These texts together form manual of with to instruction for those striving become "gostly livers", BenjaminMinor as its starting-point "Thou shalt call together thy thoughts and thydesires, and make thee of them a church, and learn thee therein for to love only this good word Tesuand culminating in thenecessary skill of discriminating between concern to and evil Margery Kempe as to other good spirits, so often amatter of Discretion in visionaries, their spiritual directors, and their critics.The Epistle of for this intended that the the Soul anthology readership suggests Stirrings of included novices in religious houses. Margery Kempe's book could evidently be regarded by Brigittineand Carthusian readers as divinely inspired, and helpful to religious as well as to lay people.
When
was greeted with great themanuscript of the book was re-discovered it interest inasmuch as itdocumented an era of social history in a unique manner, but also with dismay inasmuch as it claimed to be an authoritative account of spiritual
experience protagonist's
life. In mid-twentieth-century
was treated with unconcealed suspicion; egocentricity
Britain self-advertised
sections were no vanity,
revelatory
the recognised
the worldly and
of the narrative, longer
by themajority of readers as necessary stages in the process of purgatio; tears, groans and convulsions were not widely acknowledged as valid manifestations of piety. Since thenmuch progress has been made in the study ofmedieval spirituality, literature and history, and, as both its shared and unique qualities have come to be understood and appreciated, the account ofMargery Kempe's most popular of late Middle English texts. lifehas become one of the
NOTES
Many people have contributed to this study of the lifeofMargery Kempe, in a variety ofways. I particularly wish to thank the following: Michael was begun with a view to Seymour, at whose suggestion the project publication in a series of lives of lateMiddle English authors, currently
suspended; Susan Maddock, senior archivist at theNorfolk Record Office, who gave invaluable help regarding documents held inKing's Lynn and Norwich; Felicity Riddy,who read the typescriptand made useful comments on it; Max Oulton, who prepared the maps; and Alexandra Barratt,whose made it a pleasure to undertake the skills and editorial interest scholarly for modifications Mystics Quarterly. publication in required slight
50
Vo/ 25, #1/2, March/June
1999
Hirsh See J.
Hirsh's
(1984). I am grateful toDr. S. Fanous for firstalerting me

as an excellent source of information regarding several
to
decades of Margery Kempe scholarship, including an account ofH.E. Allen's research and her papers deposited in the archives of BrynMawr College. 2 3 are to BMK. Page, page /line,Appendix, and note references Most importantlyby L. Staley. It may be noted inpassing that in theunlikely event that the book could indeed be shown to be a work of fiction, the putative authorwould more crediblybe sought among highly literateclerics, such as the second amanuensis, than among unlettered women such as Margery Kempe. 4 The Register ofBishop Philip Repingdon 1405-1419, Vol. I, ed.M. Archer (1963),
pp. 1-li.
chapter
A Calendar of theFreemen of Lynn, printed for theNorfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society (1913), including Appendix, pp. 299-303. William Asshebourne's Book, ed. D. Owen Ibid.,pp. 97-99. S. Jenks (1992), p. 418. T. Nyberg (1965), pp. 70 ff.
F. Stenton, T.Lloyd, p. 17.
6 7 8 9
10 11
(1981).
p. 91.
12 13
Jenks (1992), p. 418. Jenks has described in detail the history of theHanseatic warehouse, its Hanseatic presence inLynn and London, ownership, and wider issues of the in "Der Liber Lynne und die Besitzgeschichte des hansischen Stalhofs zu
Lynn", Zeitschriftdes Vereinsfiir L?beckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 68 (1988), 21-81. 14 15 16

17
Lloyd, p. 114. Jenks (1992), p. 2; pp. 277-278. William Asshebourne's Book, p. 99.
Ibid., p. 83.
51
^^^^^^
Mystics Quarterly
18 A Dominican marginal annotation,M ofP, 17/35 fn.5, probably indicates the him. anchorite's initials. Ithas not been possible to identify 19 Victoria CountyHistory: County of Norfolk, Vol II (reprint 1975), pp. 441-442.
20 A. Nelson, p. 190.
21 E. Duffy, p. 21, n. 30. 22 C. Atkinson, p. 95. 23 See also P. McNiven, p. 82. 24 F. Riddy (1996). 25 N. Orme, pp. 583-585. 26 S. Medieval London, 1300-1500 (1948), pp. 71 Thrupp, TheMerchant Class of
72. 27 N. Tanner, p. 7.
28 N. Davis, Paston Letters and Papers of theFifteenth Century, Vol. I (1971), p. xxxviii. The exception to this is Agnes Paston, who probably wrote not only one of her own surviving letters, but also part of one ofher husband's letters Middle English, p. 239). (A. Barratt,Women's Writing in 29 See also A Calendar Freemen ofLynn, p. 13. of the
30 RR, pp. xix-xx.
31 32 33
M. Begley for this reference. KL/C17/9, Leet Roll for 1357.1 am grateful to KL/C39/91. KL/C50/65-67.
34 D. Owen
(1984), pp. 185-187. 35 A. Little, pp. 8-29. NRO, DCN

Ibid., f. 77.
36
37
44/76/175.
38 A Calendar of theFreemen ofLynn,p. 24.
52
1999
39
RR, f. 128d.
40 William Asshebourne's Book, p. 80. 41 42 NRO,DCN 44/76/49.
William Asshebourne's Book, p. 79. (1984), pp. 332-333.
43 Owen 44
RR, f.120, f. 124d.
45 NRO BL Via (IV) 0.7. 46 For an overall view of urban women atwork see H. Leyser, pp. 154-165; on
Margery Kempe, see pp. 164-5.
47
48
M. Begley for this reference. KL/C17/3, Leet Roll for 1333.1 am grateful to
V. Parker, pp. 33-40.
49 For thevisual impact inparticular of traditional religion onMargery Kempe, which will have applied during her childhood as well as later, see the numerous references to her inDuffy. 50 For the likelyprocess of theChristian education begun in early childhood, and for the formative influence of the continental women saints and the dissemination of English versions of the vitae, see Atkinson, especially pp.
31-36, 92-94,160.
51 For the continental visionary tradition, and Margery Kempe's

relation to it, see, for instance, R. Voaden.
place
in
52
See, for instance, R. Beadle (1997).
53 R. Copeland, p. 271. 54 For the suggestion that recognition of Latin letter-shapes and their corresponding sounds inPsalters and Books ofHours could lead, even when not understood, to recognition of lettersand sounds in thevernacular, and
thence to reading, see M.C. Woods, "Shared Books: Primers, Psalters, and
theAdult Acquisition of Literacy among Devout Laywomen and Women in New Trends inFeminine Spirituality: Orders inLate Medieval England", in TheHoly Women ofLiege and their Dor, L. Johnson and J. Wogan Impact,ed. J. Browne (Turnhout, forthcoming).
53
^^^^^
MysticsQuarterly
55 There has been much discussion of the of theSt Elizabeth ofHungary identity was was no tradition of there that to in It book. the referred long thought mystical revelation associated with the famous Franciscan tertiary St Elizabeth (1207-31). W. Riehle, who was the firstto argue that the reference was to theDominican Elizabeth of T?ss (forrecentdiscussion see A. Barratt
and S. McNamer), now wonders why he "ever doubted that in Margery's Book the famous and 'Franciscan' Elizabeth was meant rather than the unknown Elizabeth of T?ss" (private communication of 22.4.1998), since there is evidence of a tradition of revelations associated with the saint for Leben und Legende der heiligenElisabeth instance in the late fifteenth-century Miniaturen der nachDietrich vonApolda mit 14 Handschrift von 1481 (Frankfurt amMain and Leipzig: Insel Verlag, 1997).
56
See
Tanner,
pp.
11-12.
57 See A. Hudson
58 See J.Holloway.
(1988), pp. 435^36.
59 For a brief seeM. Erler. history of thevocation and its liturgical ceremonies, 60 Hudson (1985), p. 113.
61 R. R?hricht, p. 6.
62 R. Mitchell, p. 63. 63 R?hricht, p. 24. 64 M. Newett, pp. 55-58,160. 65 Nyberg (1972), pp. 28,86-89; Leyser, p. 227.
66 BRUO. 67 The case for the birth of Margery Kempe's argued by L. Howes. 68
69 70
last child inVenice has been
William Wey, ed. G. Williams, Roxburghe Club (1857). The Itinerariesof

Stenton, Itineraries, p. 16. pp. xx-xxv.
71
Quoted
from Fabri's
.... by
Evagatorum
in Terrae Sanctae, Arabiae

p. 215.
et Egypti
Peregrinationem
H. Weissman,
54
Vol 25,n/2, March/June
1999
72 73 74
See, A.
for instance, Little, fn. 4, p. p. 153.
marginal 17.
annotations
on
105/20-24,
fns. 4-5.
Itineraries,
75 S. Bhattacharji gives a fullaccount of the arrests and examinations in context. See also D. Gray, pp. 13-14. 76 155/18, fn. 1. 77 R. Shklar, p. 284. 78 See Ancrene Wisse: edited MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 402, ed. from os EETS 249 J.R.R.Tokien, (1962), 146/26-29.
79 BRUC: Alan de Lynn, born c. 1348, died at Lynn convent after 1423. 80 Lloyd, p. 114. 81 M. Glasscoe, p. 284, writes of a "divine calling" fuelled by St Bridget's experience urging Margery Kempe to visit Danzig, and comments on the odd absence ofmention of Blessed Dorothea. 82
83
Nyberg (1972), pp. 38-39.

R. Kieckhefer, pp. 22-33.
84 R. Stachnik, pp. 298-299. 85 86 Nyberg (1965), pp. 181-186. For thehistory of Wilsnack as place of pilgrimage, and map showing known locations of pilgrim badges, see R. Buchholz, and K-D. Gralow, Zur Geschichte derWilsnacker Wallfahrt unter besondererBer?cksichtigung der Pilgerzeichen (1992). Glasmalereien inder Stendaler Jakobikirche K.-J.Maercker, Die mittelalterlichen xvi. (1995), p.
87
88 K. Bitterling, 'Margery Kempe, an English sterte inGermany', Notes and as a variant ofMiddle Queries 43 (1996), identifiessterte High German sterzer,
'vagabond'.
89 90
245/31, fn.3. I am grateful to Felicity Riddy for this suggestion.
55
^^^^^
Quarterly Mystics
91
Atkinson,
pp.
43-45.
92 E.M. Wiberg Pedersen, "On the Theology and Spirituality of Beatrice of Nazareth", Franciscan Studies Quarterly 29 (1994), 209-220. 93 to the end. Chapters 24,25 at least from59/31-60/4,62 at least from 152/29 See Hirsh (1975).
94 F. Riddy, "Anchoresses and Urban Identities in Late-Medieval England", paper delivered at the conference on New Trends in Feminine Spirituality: The European Impact of the Holy Women of Liege, University of Liege, 11 14December 1996. 95 Information about Soham and itschurchwas provided by Canon M. Shears,
Vicar of Soham.
96 BRUC does not have an William Bogy of Soham, but does name entry for as or vicar of Saham Toney from 1427, vacancy William Buggy, Bogy, Buky, by 1444.
97 W.P. Cumming, ed., p. xv.
98 99
MS Garrett, Princeton University Library Deposit Ibid., frontispiece, from 1397.
M. Sargent (1984). 100 J. Coppack, Mount Grace Priory (1991). 101 Beadle (1991), p. 90. 102 H.R. Plomer, Wynkyn deW?rde and his Contemporaries (1925), p. 65. 103 The annotations and the textual associations in Pepwell and subsequent anthologizers are analysed in detail by Lochrie (1991).
56
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MANUSCRIPT
BL Additional MS 61823, described by S. B.Meech (BMK pp. xxxii-xlvi).
EARLY PRINTED
EXTRACTS AND REPRINT
fletestreteby Margerie kempede Lynn. Enprynted in Wynkyn de worde.Wynkyn de W?rde, probably 1501, no title page, no colophon, STC 14924, Cambridge University Library, Sei. 5, 27 (BMK App. II, pp. 353-357). Re-issued by Henry Pepwell, 1521, in anthology ofmystical texts, with heading
expanded to conclude .... Margerie kempe ancresse oflynn, and final sentence
a shorte treatyse Here begynneth ofcontemplacyontaughtby our lordeIhesu cryste,or takenout of thebokeofMargerie kempeoflynn .... Here endetha shorte treatyse called
....
Here endetha shorte treatyse ofa deuoute ancres called Margerye kempeofLynne. STC 20972, BL C. 37 (variants given in BMK App. II, pp. 353-357). Seven Pepwell's anthologymodernised and reprinted inThe Cell ofSelf-Knowledge: Early EnglishMystical Treatises Printed byHenry Pepwell in 1521, ed. by E. G. Gardner (1910), pp. 49-59. EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS
The Book of Margery Kempe, Vol. I, ed. S. B. Meech with prefatory note by H. E. Allen and notes and appendices by S. B. Meech and H. E. Allen, EETS os 212 (1940). Corrections by H. E. Allen in letter to the Times LiterarySupplement, 22 March 1941, p. 139. Allen's notes for second unpublished volume held with unnumbered, at BrynMawr College, Pennsylvania. loose papers,
The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. L. Staley, TEAMS Middle English Texts Series, (Kalamazoo, Mich: Medieval InstitutePublications, 1996). Extracts from the text included in several anthologies: e.g. Women's Writing in Middle English, ed. A. Barratt (London, 1992); EnglishMystics of the Middle Ages, ed. B.Windeatt (Cambridge, 1994).
57
Mystics Quarterly
Modern English version by lastprivate owner of Margery manuscript: The Book of an W. with introduction Butler-Bowdon, Kempe, 1436, by R.W. Chambers (London, 1936; American reprint,New York, 1944; reprinted London, 1954, without date in title). Modern English paperback version with introduction and notes: B.A. Windeatt, The Book of Margery Kemve (Harmondsworth, 1985; reprinted with updated
Medieval Women's bibliography, 1994).Modern English extracts inanthologies: e.g. Visionary Literature,ed. E. A. Petroff (New York, 1986);Medieval Women Writers, ed. K. Wilson (Athens,Ga., 1984). Further popular translations and modern English renderings have been made. Translated extracts have appeared in anthologies in other languages.
DOCUMENTARY
SOURCES
The King's Lynn Borough Archives (KL) are themain source of documentary evidence concerning the Brunham and Kempe families and other people mentioned inThe Book of Margery Kemve. Relevant archives include:Holy Trinity
Guild of Merchants' minutes and accounts, and further minutes, statutes and
accounts of religious guilds; Hall rolls and books; registers and enrolments of Red Register of charters, deeds, wills, including RR, the late fourteenth-century King's Lynn,KL/C10/1, ed. H. Ingleby (1919-21), and the early fifteenth-century William Asshebourne's Book, KL/C10/2 (not available when BMK was in preparation), ed. D. M. Owen, Norfolk Record Society XLVIII (1981), and registers of freemen; court records, including Leet rolls; chamberlains' accounts and, for isolated years, accounts of other borough officers.
The Norfolk Record Office (NRO) has further medieval deeds relating to Lynn properties, and wills proved in the local ecclesiastical probate courts. It also has an exchange of correspondence about Margery Kempe, her family,and possible lines of research, between H. E. Allen and H. L. Bradfer-Lawrence in 1944:NRO BLIV b (Margery Kempe).
The Corporation of London Record Office, London Guildhall, houses the Liber which is a collection of deeds transcribed 1424-1453 inorder to establish Lynne, property rights of the Lawneye and Wyth families in Lynn. The documents
58
+
1999
transcribed include several from the late fourteenth centurywith references to JohnBrunham as witness. A full description of themanuscript is given by S. Jenks, "Der Liber Lynne und die Besitzgeschichte des hansischen Stalhofs zu Lynn", Zeitschriftdes Vereins f?r L?beckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 68 (1988), 21-81. BMK Appendix III. 'Extracts from documents' (pp. 358-375) has a detailed account of and selected extracts fromKL and NRO documents, including the a known to references only Margery Kempe: KL/C38/16 (formerlyGd. 60), an account roll of the Holy Trinity Guild of Merchants, entry forLent 1438: Plegius Bartholomeus Colles de Margeria Kempe.xx
Recept' in quadragesima per Iohannem Asheden.xx
s.
s.
Gd. 61), an account roll of theHoly Trinity KL/C38/17 (formerly Guild ofMerchants, entry for the first week of Lent, February 1439: Et de Iohanne Assheden pro introitu Margerie Kempe
solucionem.xx s.
inplenam
Transcripts and calendars of selected documents, with introduction and bibliography, are given by D. M. Owen, The Making of Kings Lynn: a Documentary Survey (London, 1984). References toBrunhams and Kempes not included inBMK, of particular interest with regard to Margery Kempe: KL /C17 /3 Leet roll for1333, records fine imposed on Alice Kempe for forestalling the assize of fish. 2. KL / C17 /9 Leet roll for1375, records fines imposed on John Brunham for obstructing the Tuesday Market with timber, and on John Kempe forbreaching the assize of ale. 3. 4. KL/C10/1 (RR) f.120,John Kempe junior elected to Magna October 1395. Jurata, KL/C10/1 (RR) f. 124d, JohnKempe's replaced by Thomas Faukes, within the year. name cancelled, 1.
59
Mystics Quarterly
5. NRO BL Via (IV) 0.7, the 1408-9 will ofMargery Lok, has a codicil of 1410 in which coral beads and 40 s. are bequeathed to an Isabelle de Brunham. In the same document there is a bequest to John Kepe, which has sometimes been interpreted as Ke[m]pe,
there is no reason for such an interpretation since there was
but
burgess JohnKepe, or Keep, inLynn at this time. KL/C39/91,

Iohannes
borough officers' accounts for 1412, includes in list of burgesses

hosyer.
Brunham
SECONDARY SOURCES
This selective list of secondary sources primarily records articles and books of biographical or background interest. Aers, D., Community,Gender, and Individual Identity:EnglishWriting 1360-1430 (London,1988). -, ed., Culture andHistory 1350-1600 (London, 1992). World of Atkinson, C.W., Mystic and Pilgrim: theBook and the Margery Kempe (Cornell, 1983). Barratt,A., "The Revelations of Saint Elizabeth ofHungary", The Library, Sixth Series, 14 (1992), 1-11. Barron,CM. & A.F. Sutton, eds.,Medieval LondonWidows (London, 1994).
Beadle, R., "Prolegomena to a Literary Geography of Later Medieval Norfolk Regionalism", inRegionalism inLateMedieval Manuscripts and Texts: Essays Celebrating thePublication of'A Linguistic Atlas ofLateMiddle English', ed. F. Riddy (Cambridge, 1991).
-, '"Devoute
and the N-Town
Plays", inNicholas Love at Waseda: Proceedings of the InternationalConference20-22 July1995, ed. S. Oguro, R. Beadle and M. G.
ymaginacioun'and
the Dramatic
Sense
in Love's
Mirror
Sargent (Cambridge, 1997). Beckwith, S., "A VeryMaterial Mysticism: The Medieval Mysticism ofMargery Medieval Literature:Criticism, IdeologyandHistory, ed. D. Aers Kempe", in (Brighton, 1988).
60
+ 1999 Vb/ 25,#2/2, March/June
^^^^
Bhattacharji, Sv God is an Earthquake: theSpiritualityof Margery Kempe (London, 1997). R. Copeland,

and
"WhyWomen Can't Read: Medieval Hermeneutics, Statutory Law,

Heresy Trials", in S. Heinzelman and Z. Wiseman, eds.,
the Lollard
Women: Law, Literatureand Feminism (Durham; London, 1994). Representing Cumming, W. P., ed., The Revelations ofSaint Birgitta,EETS os 178 (1929). Medieval Delany, S., Writing Women: Women Writers and Women in Literature, Modern (New York, 1983). to
Despres, D., Ghostly Sights:VisualMeditation inLate-Medieval Literature (Norman, Okla., 1989). Dickman, S., "Margery Kempe and the English Devotional Tradition", in The Medieval Mystical Tradition inEngland, I, ed. M. Glasscoe (Exeter, 1980). Mittelalter (Stuttgart,1981). Dinzelbacher, P., Vision und Visionsliteratur im Altars: Traditional Religion in England circa 1400 Duffy, E., The Stripping of the 1580 (New Haven; London, 1992). Ellis, D.S., "Margery Kempe and King's Lynn", in Margery Kempe:A Book ofEssays, ed. S. J. McEntire (New York, 1992). Miraculous Books", in Langland, the Ellis, R., "Margery Kempe's Scribe and the and the Medieval Mystics English Religious Tradition, ed. H. Phillips (Cambridge, 1990). Middle English Version -., ed., The Liber Celestis ofSt BridgetofSweden: the inBritishLibrary MS Claudius B i, together with a Lifeof theSaintfrom theSame Manuscript, Vol. 1: Text, EETS os 291 (1987). Middle Ages", Mediaeval Erler,M.C., "English Vowed Women at the End of the Studies 57 (1995), 155-203. Fanous, S.B., "Biblical and Hagiographical Oxford, diss., (1997). imitatioin theBook of Margery Kempe",
Medieval England (Norwich, 1995). Gallyon, M., Margery Kempe ofLynn and Gibson, G.McM., The Theater ofDevotion: East Anglian Drama and Society in the later Middle Ages (Chicago, 1989). Glasscoe, M., EnglishMedieval Mystics: Games ofFaith (London, 1993). 61
^^^^
Quarterly Mystics
Medieval Goodman, A., "The Piety of John Brunham's Daughter, of Lynn", in Women, ed. D. Baker (Oxford, 1978). Gray, D., "Popular Religion inLate Medieval English Literature", inReligion in Middle Ages, ed. P. Boitani and A. Torti the Poetry and Drama of the (Cambridge, 1990). Hanawalt, B., ed., Women andWork inPreindustrial Europe (Bloomington, 1986).
Hirsh, J.C.,"Author and Scribe inThe Book of Margery Kempe",Medium Aevum 44 (1975), 145-150. Middle English Prose: a Critical Guide to -.,"Margery Kempe", in Major Authors and Genres, ed. A. S. G. Edwards (New Brunswick, 1984). Holbrook, S.E., "Margery Kempe and Wynkyn de W?rde", in The Mystical Tradition inEngland, IV, ed. M. Glasscoe (Woodbridge, 1987). Holloway, J.B., "Bride, Margery, Julian and Alice: Bridget of Sweden's textual medieval England", in Margery Kempe: a Book ofEssays (New community in McEntire. York, 1992), ed. S. J. Howes, L.L., "On the Birth ofMargery Kempe's Last Child", Modern Philology 90 (1992)220-225. Books (London, 1985). Hudson, A., Lollards and their -., The Premature Reformation:WyciiffiteTexts and Lollard History (Oxford, 1988). Hutchison, A.M., "Devotional Reading in the Monastery and in theLate Medieval inDe Cella in Seculum: Religious and Secular Life and Devotion Household", inLateMedieval England, ed. M. Sargent (Woodbridge, 1989). Jenks, S., England, die Hanse und Preu?en, Handel und Diplomatie, 1377-1474 (Cologne, 1992). Saints and TheirReligiousMilieu Kieckhefer, R., Unquiet Soids: Fourteenth-Century and London, 1984). (Chicago Knowles, D., The EnglishMystical Tradition (London, 1961). -., "Kempe, Margery", Dictionnaire de spirituality ascetique et 1696-98. 17 mystique, vols. (Paris, 1932-95); Vol. 8 (1974), cols.
62
N.J.; London, 1990). Lepow, L.E., Enacting theSacrament (Rutherford, Leyser, H., Medieval Women: a Social History ofWomen in England 450-1500 (London, 1995). Little,A.G., ed. E. Stone, "Corrodies at theCarmelite Friary of Lynn", Journalof Ecclesiastical History 9 (1958), 8-29. GermanHanse 1157-1611 (Cambridge, 1991). Lloyd, T.H., England and the Flesh (Philadelphia, 1991). Lochrie, K., Margery Kempe and Translations of the Medieval England: an Encyclopedia, ed. P. E. -., "Margery Kempe", in M. T. Tavormina and T. Rosenthal (New York; London, 1998), Szarmach, J. 390b-391b. Marzac-Holland, N., ThreeNorfolk Mystics: Richelde de Faverches in Walsingham, Recluse in Norwich, Julian, Margery Kempe inLynn (BurnhamMarket, 1983). McEntire, S.J., ed.,Margery Kempe: A Book ofEssays (New York, 1992). McNamer, S., ed., The TwoMiddle English Translations of theRevelations of St Elizabeth of Hungary (Heidelberg, 1996). McNiven, P.,Heresy and Politics in the Reign of Henry IV (Woodbridge, 1987).
Meale, C, ed.,Women and Literature inBritain, 1150-1500 (Cambridge, 1993,2nd. ed. 1996). Mitchell, R., The Spring Voyage: theJerusalem Pilgrimage in 1458 (London, 1964).
Moorman, J.R.H., Medieval Franciscan Houses (St. Bonaventure, N.Y, 1983).
Nelson, A.H., TheMedieval English Stage (Chicago, 1974). Newett, M.M., Canon Pietro Casolas Pilgrimage to Jerusalem in theYear 1494 (Manchester, 1907). Mittelalters (Lund, 1965). Nyberg, T., Birgittinische Klostergr?ndungen des -,Dokumente und Untersuchungen zur inneren Geschichte der drei Birgittenkl?ster Bayerns 1420-1570. 2 vols. (Munich, 1972-74). Vol. 1,1972. Medieval England", Journal Orme, N., "Children and theChurch in ofEcclesiastical 45 563-587. (1994), History Owen, D.M., TheMaking of Kings Lynn:A Documentary Survey (Oxford, 1984).
63
^^^^
Mystics Quarterly
Parker, V., TheMaking ofKings Lynn: Secular Buildings from the 11th to the 17 th Century (London, 1971). Riddy, R, "Mother Knows Best: Reading Social Change Speculum 17 (1996), 66-86. Riehle, W., TheMiddle EnglishMystics (London, 1981). R?hricht, R., Deutsche Pilgerreisen nach demHeiligen Lande (Berlin, 1880). Medieval Culture (Cambridge, 1991). Rubin,M., Corpus Christi:The Eucharist inLate Sargent, M.G., "The Transmission by the English Carthusians of Medieval Spiritual Writings", JournalofEcclesiasticalHistory 27 (1976), 225-240. -, James Grenehalgh as Textual Critic (Salzburg, 1984). Shklar, R., "Cobham's Daughter: The Book of Margery Kempe and the Power of Heterodox Thinking", Modern Language Quarterly 50 (1995), 277-304. Skorich, K., "A Frontier with Traffic: The Narrative of Margery Kempe's Eucharistie Piety,with Special Reference to the Eucharist as a Symbol of
Communitas", Oxford, diss., (1996).
in a Courtesy Text",
Stachnik,
ed., with A. Triller and H. Westpfahl, Kanonisationsprozesses Dorotheas vonMontau (1978). R.,
Die Akten
des
Staley, L.,Margery Kempe's Dissenting Fictions (University Park, Pa., 1994). Stargardt,U., "The Beguines of Belgium, theDominican Nuns ofGermany, and Medieval Heffernan, ed., The Popular Literatureof Margery Kempe", inT. J. England (Knoxville, 1985). Mediaeval Stenton, F.M., "The Road System of 7 (1936) 1-21. History Review England", Economic
Diocese of Norwich, 1428-1431 (London, 1977). Tanner, N.P., Heresy Trials in the Thurston, H., "Margery theAstonishing", Month 168 (1936), 446^56. Uhlman, D.R., "The Comfort ofVoice, the Solace of Script:Orality and Literacy in the Book of Margery Kempe", Studies inPhilology 91 (1994), 50-69. Voaden, R., ed., ProphetsAbroad: The Reception ofContinentalHoly Women inLate Medieval England (Woodbridge, 1996).
64
+ Vol 25,#1/2, 1999 March/June
^^^^
Wallace,
D.,
ed., TheMedieval Mystical Tradition inEngland, III (Woodbridge, 1984). Watson, N., "Censorship and Cultural Change in Late-Medieval England: Vernacular Theology, the Oxford Translation Debate, and Arundel's Constitutions of 1409", Speculum 70 (1995), 822-864. Watkins, E.I., "In Defence ofMargery Kempe", 1953). in Poets andMystics (London,
"Mystics
and
Followers
in Siena
and
East Anglia",
inM.
Glasscoe,
Medieval and EarlyModern Watt, D., Secretaries ofGod: Women Prophets in late 1997). England (Cambridge, Weissman, H.P., "Margery Kempe in Jerusalem:Hysterica Compassio in the Late Middle Ages" inActs of Interpretation,theText and itsContexts, 700-1600.
Medieval and Renaissance Literature in Honor ofE.T Donaldson, ed. Essays in M. J. Carruthers and E. D. Kirk (Norman, Okla., 1982).
65
+ MysticsQuarterly
^^^^^
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Mystics Quarterly
Charity Scott Stokes taughtmedieval English at theUniversity ofMunich for twenty years; early work on Anglo-Norman and Middle English devotional was written under hermarried name (C.Meier-Ewert). Subsequently literature she taught English in secondary schools in Britain, and thenmoved to the Education Department of the Polytechnic of East London. In 1998 she became an associate member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
68

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MARGERY KEMPE: HER LIFE AND THE EARLY HISTORY OF HER BOOK Author(s): CHARITY SCOTT STOKES Reviewed

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

AND SHORT TITLES

BRUC BRUO EETS os KL Liber I Liber II NRO

A.B. Emden, Biographical Register of the University ofCambridge to

Vol 25, #2/2, March/June

fireof 1421 inLynn, supports theview expressed in

LATE MEDIEVAL LYNN

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

thevarious hardships of travelling by water, on foot,on horseback, and in carts

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

in attendance at StMargaret's Church, 1400 at theChapel of StNicholas at theChapel of St James.

Austin Blackborough, a six-mile within radius

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apprenticeships in latemedieval Lynn.

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bustle of traders and travellers and pilgrims fromhome and abroad.

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St John the Baptist, and the virgin

Given Margery Kempe's

- for repartee, for edifying predilection forwords

may have found it expedient to emphasise her orthodox dependence

she, or her confessors

1999 Vol 25, n/2,March/June

theKempes' home for the firsttwenty-five

Vol 25, #2/2, March/June

of Sir John Oldcastle

by her tempter,and blamed herself (pp. 12-16).

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On one occasion atMass

+ 1999 Vol 25,#1/2, March/June

did succeed in adopting a secular lifeof penitence and prayer, interspersedwith

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

(pp. 61-63). The Council

with Margery Kempe

weeks of isolation inVenice she bore a child.67

in 1462 led via Metz, Basel, and Schaffhausen toConstance,

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

months later in thebattle ofAgincourt.

+ 1999 Vol 25,#1/2, March/June

her and spoke

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

miles south of Ely, but released on production of the archbishop's 128-137).

and secular, as also

+ 1999 Vol 25,#1/2, March/June

goodnesse declaryd hem tohirmende

Vol 25, #2/2, March/June

TRAVELS TO THE BALTIC, WILSNACK AND AACHEN, 1433 H34

Vol 25, #1/2, March/June

good love of her confessor and her friends (pp. 237-247).

+ Vol 25,#1/2, 1999 March/June

+ 1999 Vol 25,#1/2, March/June

Grace Priory, perhaps by way of the monastic foundations at Syon or Sheen.

+ 1999 Vol 25, n/2,March/June

intended as a support for lay people's devotions. Pepwell

the worldly and

of the narrative, longer

Vo/ 25, #1/2, March/June

(1984). I am grateful toDr. S. Fanous for firstalerting me

Lynn", Zeitschriftdes Vereinsfiir L?beckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde 68 (1988), 21-81. 14 15 16

(1984), pp. 185-187. 35 A. Little, pp. 8-29. NRO, DCN

38 A Calendar of theFreemen ofLynn,p. 24.

f tf> <?J\J A ?^C~