K

KEMPE, MARGERY (ca. 1373–after 1438)
Controversial mystic and author of the fi rst extant au-
tobiography in English. The Book of Margery Kempe
is both a mysti cal treatise consisting of the author’s
visions and conversations with Christ and a narrative
of her life, including her conver sion, pilgrimages, and
arguments with church authorities. Kempe, who was
illiterate, dictated her autobiography to two different
scribes. The original manuscript has been lost, but a
15th-century copy was discovered in 1934.
Born in the East Anglian town of King’s Lynn ca.
1373, Margery was the daughter of John Brunham,
mayor of the town. At the age of twenty she married John
Kempe. After the diffi cult birth of their fi rst child Kempe
suffered a breakdown. This experience, followed by
business failures in brewing and milling, led eventually
to her mystical conversion. Her fi rst ordeal as a mystic
was to convince her husband to be celibate, but only
after twenty years of marriage and fourteen children did
he agree, on the condition that she pay off all his debts.
With the consent of her husband and the church Kempe
was fi nally free to pursue her vocation as a mystic.
The “way to high perfection,” however, was fraught
with diffi culties. Kempe encountered hostility from
people who doubted her holiness and questioned her
orthodoxy. She trav eled around England seeking support
and verifi cation of her visions from many holy people,
including the anchoress Julian of Norwich. Neverthe-
less, she continued to arouse suspicion and persecution
for her behavior, including her bold speech and her
“boisterous weeping.” She was arrested as a Lollard,
threatened with burning at the stake by her English
detractors, and deserted by her fellow pilgrims on her
travels abroad. Kempe’s weeping in particular inspired
her contemporaries to revile her and modern readers to
label her “hysterical.”

Kempe’s travels took her to the Holy Land, Italy,

Santiago de Compostela, and fi nally, near the end of her

life, to Danzig, Prussia. The Book ends with her return

to King’s Lynn, where she still inspires both hostility

and marvel as a woman in her sixties.

The Book of Margery Kempe departs from the medi-

eval saint’s life and mystical treatise. Unlike the saint’s

life, which is biographical, Kempe’s book is autobio-

graphical. As author and narrator of her own life Kempe

develops some hagiographic conventions, such as the

themes of her suffering, pa tience, and charity, while

ignoring others. Her book is also unusual as a mystical

treatise. Kempe’s visions and revelations are grounded

in everyday, autobiographical details, including her

struggles for acceptance, her fears for her own safety,

and her travels.

Kempe’s work is divided into two sections, or books.

The fi rst book ends with the death of her scribe. Kempe

spent four years trying to convince the second scribe to

recopy and fi n ish her book. He hesitated because of her

notoriety and the illegibility of the fi rst scribe’s writing

but fi nally agreed. The 15th-century manuscript that sur-

vives may be a copy of the original dictated by Kempe

to the second scribe. This copy belonged to Mount

Grace, a Carthusian monastery in York shire, but was

later lost. William Butler-Bowdon discovered it in 1934

in his family library, and Hope Emily Allen iden tifi ed

it as The Book of Margery Kempe. (It is now BL Add.

61823.) Until 1934 only brief extracts of Kempe’s book

had been known; these extracts, printed by Wynkyn de

Worde (ca. 1501) and Henry Pepwell (1521), mislead-

ingly omit Kempe’s autobiographical passages, and one

incorrectly labels her a “devout anchoress.”

As a mystical treatise Kempe’s Book is often com-

pared with the work of her contemporary Julian of

Norwich. Kempe’s mysticism, like Julian’s, belongs