Featured
The Book of Margery Kempe
Margery Kempe and Anthony Bale
Margery Kempe (née Burnham, b. c.1373, d. after 1439) came from the town of Bishop’s Lynn (now King’s Lynn, Norfolk). She was the daughter of a successful and influential merchant. After her marriage and the birth of her first child, Kempe received her first vision of Christ. Following unsuccessful ventures in brewing and milling, and giving birth to a further thirteen children, Kempe made a vow of chastity and she embarked on a life of prayer, penance, and pilgrimage. The Book of Margery Kempe is the account of her spiritual conversion, her travels, and her mystical visions. In Jerusalem she had her first bout of irresistible crying and weeping, which would persist through much of her life. Kempe also visited Rome and all the major shrines of Europe. During the 1420s Kempe was afflicted by an illness that kept her in Lynn, and her husband suffered a serious accident that greatly incapacitated him. Kempe’s husband and oldest son died in the early 1430s, after which Kempe made one last difficult journey, to Prussia. She returned home via Wilsnack and Aachen, and then dictated her Book. In 1438 she was admitted to the prestigious Guild of the Holy Trinity at Lynn. The precise date of her death is unknown.
