Perhaps her most famous and misunderstood trait was her frequent and uncontrollable weeping. She cried in church, during sermons, at the sight of images of Christ, or at the mention of His name. These tears, she claimed, were gifts from God and expressions of divine love. To her contemporaries, however, they were often seen as excessive, disruptive, and even suspect.
Margery also chose to take a vow of chastity—despite being married—and persuaded her husband to honor it. This was a radical decision, challenging the traditional role of wives and mothers in society.
Pilgrimages Across the Christian World
Driven by her visions and a yearning for spiritual perfection, Margery embarked on a series of dangerous and exhausting pilgrimages. She traveled to:
- Canterbury, to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket.
- York, where she was tried for heresy.
- Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
- Rome, where she encountered both admiration and ridicule.
- The Holy Land, reaching Jerusalem itself and experiencing profound visions at sites associated with the life and death of Christ.
Her pilgrimages were remarkable not only for their extent but also because she undertook them as a woman without male protection or ecclesiastical authority. Along the way, she frequently clashed with priests, fellow pilgrims, and civic officials who doubted the authenticity of her visions and labeled her a heretic or a madwoman.
Controversy and Accusations of Heresy
Margery Kempe lived at a time when the Church was increasingly suspicious of unlicensed spiritual authority, especially among women. The shadow of Lollardy, a heretical movement inspired by John Wycliffe that criticized the Church and promoted lay preaching, loomed over many mystics.
Although Margery was not a Lollard, her assertive speech, public tears, and theological claims brought her under suspicion. She was arrested and examined multiple times, including before the Archbishop of York. Remarkably, she always managed to defend herself successfully, appealing to her orthodoxy and her love of the Church.
One of her defenders was the anchorite and mystic Julian of Norwich, whom Margery visited in what may be one of the most poignant meetings between two of England’s most famous medieval spiritual women. shutdown123