The Book of Margery Kempe (23 page)

On one occasion there happened to be a great fire in Bishop's Lynn,
¹
which burned down the Guildhall of the Trinity. This same terrible and serious fire was very likely to have burned down the parish church – dedicated in honour of St Margaret, a stately place and richly honoured – and also the whole town as well, had there been no grace or miracle.

The said creature being present there, and seeing the dangerous plight of the whole town, cried out very loudly many times that day, and wept most abundantly, praying for grace and mercy for all the people. And notwithstanding that at other times they could not endure her crying and weeping because of the plentiful grace that our Lord worked in her, on this day, in order to lessen their physical danger, they allowed her to cry and weep as much as she liked, and nobody would order her to stop, but instead begged her to continue, fully trusting and believing that through her crying and weeping our Lord would take them to mercy.

Then her confessor
²
came to her and asked if it were best to carry the sacrament towards the fire, or not.

She said, ‘Yes, sir, yes! For our Lord Jesus Christ told me it will be well.'

So her confessor, parish priest of St Margaret's Church, took the precious sacrament and went before the fire as devoutly as he could and afterwards brought it back into the church again – and the sparks of the fire flew about the church. The said creature, desiring to follow the precious sacrament to the fire, went out at the church door, and as soon as she saw the terrible flames of the fire, she immediately cried with a loud voice and much weeping, ‘Good Lord, make everything all right!'

These words worked in her mind, inasmuch as our Lord had said to her before that he would make everything all right, and therefore she cried, ‘Good Lord, make everything all right, and send down some rain or storm that may through your mercy quench this fire and ease my heart.'

Afterwards she went back into the church, and then she saw how the sparks were coming into the choir through the lantern of the church. Then she had a new sorrow, and cried very loudly again for grace and mercy, with great abundance of tears. Soon after, three worthy men came in to her with snow on their clothes, saying to her, ‘Look, Margery, God has shown us great grace and sent us a fair snowstorm to quench the fire with. Be now of good cheer, and thank God for it.'

And with a great cry she gave praise and thanks to God for his great mercy and his goodness, especially because he had said to her before that everything would be well, when it was most unlikely to be well, except through a miracle and special grace. And now that she saw that all was well indeed, she thought she had great reason to thank our Lord.

Then her confessor came to her and said he believed that because of her prayers God granted them to be delivered out of their great danger, for without devout prayers it could not happen that the air, being bright and clear, should so soon be changed into clouds and darkness, and send down great flakes of snow, through which the Are was hindered in its natural working – blessed may our Lord be.

Notwithstanding the grace that he showed for her, still, when the dangers were past, some people slandered her because she cried, and some said that our Lady never cried. ‘Why do you cry in this way?' – and she said, because she could not do otherwise.

Then she fled from people into the Prior's Chapel, so that she should give them no further occasion. When she was there, she had such intense recollection of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, and of his precious wounds, and how dearly he bought her, that she cried and roared amazingly, so that she could be heard a great way away, and she could not restrain herself from doing so.

Then she was astonished how our Lady might suffer or endure to see his precious body being scourged and hanged on the cross. It also came into her mind how people had said to her before that our Lady, Christ's own mother, did not cry as she did, and that
caused her to say in her crying, ‘Lord, I am not your mother. Take away this pain from me, for I cannot bear it. Your Passion will kill me.'

So a worthy cleric came past her, a doctor of divinity, and said, ‘It would be preferable to me than having twenty pounds, if I could have such a sorrow for our Lord's Passion.'

Then the said doctor sent for her to come and speak with him where he was, and she very willingly went to him in his chamber, weeping tears. That worthy and estimable cleric made her have a drink and was very welcoming to her. Afterwards he led her to an altar, and asked what was the reason that she cried and wept so bitterly. Then she told him many great causes of her weeping, and yet she told him of no revelation.
³
And he said she was much obliged to love our Lord for the tokens of love that he showed her in various ways.

Afterwards there came a parson who had taken a degree, and who would preach both morning and afternoon. And as he preached most holily and devoutly, the said creature was moved by devotion during his sermon, and at last she burst out with a cry, and people began to grumble about her crying, for this was in the time that the good friar preached against her, as is written before, and also before our Lord took her crying from her. (For although that matter is written before this, nevertheless it happened after this.)

Then the parson stopped for a little while from his preaching and said to the people, ‘Friends, be quiet, and do not complain about this woman, for each of you may sin mortally in her, and she is not the cause, but rather your own judgement. For, though this manner of proceeding may seem both good and bad, yet you ought to judge for the best in your hearts – and I do not doubt that it is a very good thing. I also dare say it is a most gracious gift of God, blessed may he be.'

Then the people blessed him for his good words, and were all the more moved to believe in his holy deeds. Afterwards, when the sermon was ended, a good friend of the said creature met the friar who had preached so keenly against her, and asked him
what he thought of her. The friar, answering back sharply, said, ‘She has a devil within her,' not at all shifted from his opinion, but instead defending his error.

Soon afterwards, the Chapter of the Preaching Friars was held at Lynn, and to that there came many worthy clerics of that holy order, one of whom was to preach a sermon in the parish church.

And amongst others who had come to the said Chapter was a worthy doctor called Master Custawns,
¹
and he had known the said creature many years before. When this creature heard tell that he had come there, she went to him and showed him why she cried and wept so bitterly, in order to learn if he could find any fault in her crying or in her weeping.

The worthy doctor said to her, ‘Margery, I have read of a holy woman
²
to whom God had given great grace of weeping and crying as he has done to you. In the church where she lived was a priest who had no favourable opinion of her weeping, and caused her through his prompting to go out of the church. When she was in the churchyard, she prayed God that the priest might have some feeling of the grace that she felt, just as surely as it did not lie in her power to cry out or weep except when God willed. And so, suddenly, our Lord sent him such devotion during his mass, that he could not control himself, and then, after that, he no longer wished to despise her but rather to comfort her.'

Thus the said doctor, confirming her crying and her weeping, said it was a gracious and a special gift of God, and God was highly to be magnified for his gift.

And then the same doctor went to another doctor of divinity, who was assigned to preach in the parish church before all the people, asking him that, if the said creature cried out or wept at
his sermon, he would bear with it meekly, and not be at all dismayed by it, nor speak against it. So afterwards, when the worthy doctor was going to preach, and was brought fittingly to the pulpit, he began to preach most holily and devoutly of our Lady's Assumption, and the said creature – lifted up in her mind by high sweetness and devotion – burst out with a loud voice and cried very loudly, and wept very bitterly. The worthy doctor stood still, and bore with it meekly until it stopped, and afterwards he preached his sermon through to the end.

In the afternoon he sent for the same creature to the place where he was, and made her very welcome. Then she thanked him for his meekness and his charity, which he showed in putting up with her crying and her weeping in the morning at his sermon. The worthy doctor replied to her, ‘Margery, I would not have spoken against you, though you had cried until evening. If you will come to Norwich, you will be very welcome and have such hospitality as I can offer you.'

Thus God sent her an excellent patron in this worthy doctor, to strengthen her against her detractors, worshipped be his name.

Afterwards, in Lent, a good clerk, an Augustinian Friar, preached in his own house at Lynn and had a very large audience, the said creature being present at that time. And God, of his goodness, inspired the friar to preach a great deal about his Passion, so compassionately and so devoutly that she could not bear it. Then she fell down weeping and crying so violently that many people were astonished at her, and cursed her most vehemently, supposing that she could have left off her crying if she had wished, inasmuch as the good friar had so preached against it, as is written before. And then this good man who now preached at this time said to the people, ‘Friends, be quiet – you know very little what she is feeling.'

And so the people stopped and were still, and heard out the sermon in quietness and rest of body and soul.

Also, on a Good Friday at St Margaret's Church, the Prior
¹
of the same place and the same town of Lynn was going to preach. And he took as his theme ‘Jesus is dead'. Then the said creature, all wounded with pity and compassion, cried and wept as if she had seen our Lord dead with her bodily eyes. The worthy Prior and doctor of divinity bore with her most meekly and held nothing against her.

Another time, Bishop Wakeryng,
²
Bishop of Norwich, preached at Lynn in the said Church of St Margaret, and this creature cried and wept most violently during his sermon, and he put up with it most meekly and patiently, and so did many a worthy clerk, both regular and secular, for there was never any clerk who preached openly against her crying except the Grey Friar, as is written before.

So our Lord of his mercy, just as he had promised the said creature that he would ever provide for her, stirring the spirits of two good clerics
³
who had for many long years known her conversings and all her search for perfection, made them strong and bold to speak for his part in excusing the said creature, both in the pulpit and outside it, wherever they heard anything moved against her, strengthening their arguments sufficiently with authorities from holy scripture. Of these clerks, one was a White Friar, a doctor of divinity; the other was a bachelor of canon law, a man who had laboured much on the scriptures.

And then some envious persons complained to the Provincial of the White Friars
⁴
that the said doctor was associating too much with the said creature, forasmuch as he supported her in her weeping and in her crying, and also informed her in questions of scripture, when she would ask him any. Then he was admonished, by virtue of obedience, that he should no longer speak with her nor inform her about any texts of scripture, and that was most painful to him, for, as he said to some people, he would rather have lost a hundred pounds, if he had had it, than her conversation – it was so spiritual and fruitful.

When her confessor perceived how the worthy doctor was charged by obedience that he should not speak with her, then he, to exclude all opportunity and occasion, also warned her by virtue of obedience that she should not go any more to the friars, nor speak with the said doctor, nor ask him any questions, as she had done before.

And then her thoughts were very sorrowful and gloomy, for she was excluded from much spiritual comfort. She would rather have lost any earthly good than his conversation, for it was to her a great increasing of virtue.

Then long afterwards, she happened as she went along the street to meet the said doctor, and neither of them spoke one word to the other, and then she had a great cry, with many tears. Afterwards, when she came to her meditation, she said in her mind to our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘Alas, Lord, why may I have no comfort from this worthy clerk, who has known me so many years and often strengthened me in your love? Now you have, Lord, taken from me the anchorite – trust to your mercy – the most special and singular comfort that I ever had on earth, for he always loved me for your love and would never forsake me while he lived for anything that anyone could say or do. And now Master Aleyn is barred from seeing me, and I from him. Sir Thomas Andrew and Sir John Amy
⁵
have got benefices and are out of town. Master Robert scarcely dares speak to me. Now I have in a way no comfort from either man or child.'

Our merciful Lord Christ Jesus, answering in her mind, said, ‘Daughter, I am more worthy of your soul than ever was the anchorite and all the others you have mentioned, or than all the world may be, and I shall comfort you myself, for I would speak to you more often than you will let me. And, daughter, I want you to know that you will speak to Master Aleyn again, as you have done before.'

And then our Lord sent, through the provision of the Prior of Lynn, a priest to be the keeper of a chapel of our Lady, called the Gesine, within the church of St Margaret, and this priest
⁶
many times heard her confession in the absence of her principal con
fessor. And to this priest she confided her whole life, as near as she could, from her young age, both her sins, her troubles, her trials, her contemplations, and also her revelations, and such grace as God worked in her through his mercy, and so that priest well believed that God performed very great grace in her.