In medieval England few people travelled
for leisure or to visit places where they were unknown. Strangers in Hull were a rarity, especially
female ones. Margery Kempe would
therefore have caused quite a stir as she arrived one day in 1417. Dressed all in white she and her small band
of followers would have made a striking sight as she walked down the High
Street or stopped in the Market Place to admire Holy Trinity.
A few in Hull may have heard rumours
about Margery. She had apparently left
her husband, children and a conventional family life in Norfolk to dedicate her
life to God. Visions of Jesus had
instructed her to undertake pilgrimages alone to Rome, Spain and the Holy
Land. So deep were her religious
feelings, she was said to cry out and sob intensely when at pray or receiving
communion.
Women could live a religious life, as
long as they did so quietly in holy orders as a nun. They should not live like Margery Kempe
travelling around the country. Although
even as nuns they were seen as less holy then men. When setting up his religious house in Hull,
Michael de la Pole had at first considered a house of nuns, but then decided
that the monks of a Cathusian monastery would serve God far better.
Margery’s unusual behaviour in a time
that didn’t tolerate difference meant she was often accused of being a Lollard,
one who held deviant religious beliefs.
She was regularly arrested by the authorities and interrogated on
suspicion of heresy, although each time they were forced to admit that she held
the correct opinions on crucial matters such as the Eucharist.
Margery did have some supporters among
the clergy and before arriving in Hull she had spent some time with her
confessor at Bridlington Priory. Most
people in Hull though feared what harbouring an alleged heretic would do for
their standing both in front of the Almighty and authorities closer to
home. After spending just one fretful
night in the town, Margery had to leave but only got as far as Hessle before
being arrested once again.
She was escorted to Beverley amid jeers
from passers by of ‘Burn this false
heretic’. As this was cloth producing
country, to this was added the regional specific shout that she should ‘go and
spin…wool as other women do’. After
undergoing questioning once again, Margery was once again declared orthodox. Later in life, once ill health had
curtailed her wanderings, Margery dictated a book documenting the unique and
difficult path God had called her to follow. This book is the earliest surviving
autobiography written in English.
Pictures: Extract
from Margery Kempe’s autobiography. Top from: The Book of Margery Kempe (Medieval
Institute Publications, 1996), full text can be found at: http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/publication/staley-the-book-of-margery-kempe. Below from: B. A. Windeatt (trans) The Book of Margery Kempe (Penguin,
2004)
