Margery Kempe: Martyr in the Middle Ages

The Book of Margery Kempe was one of the earliest autobiographies written, but was not entirely an autobiography. The biography was dated back to 16th century Middle Ages and was interpreted from Margery’s word by a monk. Margery’s story details the life of a woman who was scorned and deemed a heretic because of her intense devotion to Christianity. Although Margery was said to have had 14 children and a middle class home, her devotion lead to her to celibacy from her husband and wore only white to represent her renowned pureness. She expressed visions to the public, which in turn titled her a heretic and endured a great amount of suffering.

Margery’s beliefs made her a heretic in the public’s eye and in some cases thought of as a martyr. During the Middle Ages, Saints were often, at first, seen as martyr’s due to the miracles they enacted on others. Martyr’s were admired for their intense persecution and willingness to die for their faith. These Saints were an integral part to Medieval Christianity because without their intense persecution and beliefs, a hierarchy within the Christian religion would have not been established. Saints were then put on a pedestal for their great devotion and lessons they brought into the world. Saints were also said to experience visions, performed miracles, and were extremely blessed in the eyes of their faith.

As a notable theme in the story, Margery felt her suffering was a necessity to be closer to her faith and ultimately God. Her suffering is rooted from the New Testament where Christ informs St. Paul that he must suffer in Christ’s name in order to be closer to God. Margery does not directly cite this verse in her story, but she follows the same notion. In a way, Margery’s interpretation of being scorned from being persecuted is because her suffering is a reminder of the greater suffering that Christ endured. Margery’s visions make her a witness (martyr can also be interpreted as witness) to Jesus and Mary’s suffering, making her connected to the suffering. Margery’s tears then become a sign of her willingness to share that suffering. As a place in the tradition of Christian mystics, Margery’s tears “saving others” acts as a personal union with God. By looking at Margery and saints in the Middle Ages, readers are able to see a more clear distinction. Although Margery was not inactly a Saint, one may say she held saint qualities and should be noted in Christianity’s history.   

Work Cited:

http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/saints/

Feminine and Jewish Discrimination "Bleeding" into the Medieval Era

Feminine and Jewish Discrimination "Bleeding" into the Medieval Era

During the Middle Ages, differences between men and women were established through physiological capabilities, such as men producing sperm and women producing menstrual blood. According to Galen, a man who claimed to be an authority on the female body, women were incomplete and deformed versions of men. Women’s ovaries and menstrual blood were thought to be crude mimics of a man’s testicles and sperm. This idea was based on the thought that women did not receive enough heat in the womb, preventing them from fully developing into men who received plenty of heat and were the perfect form of humanity. The notion of woman being a lesser man was integrated into many tales written in the Medieval era, one such tale being Beroul’s Tristan. In this story, Beroul utilizes female menstruation as a form of othering, degrading the leper Ivan as simultaneously feminine and Jewish.

Under Galen’s belief that women were deformed versions of men, a parallel can be drawn between Ivan the Leper and women. Leprosy is a disease that causes deformation of the body through loss of body parts, such as an arm or leg. This disease can be connected to women because of their incomplete bodily construction, i.e. their inability to have testicles and sperm. These missing body parts portrayed women as deformed as well, and since both leprosy and being a woman were seen as deformities, there is a connection between Ivan and the female body. Such a connection allows for the ridicule of Ivan, especially in the manner of how he is killed.

Ivan, the leper to whom Queen Isolde is given as a form of punishment for sleeping with another man, is abruptly put in his place by Tristan and Gorvenal who end up saving the Queen. As recited in the story, “Gorvenal indeed, snatching up an oak sapling, crashed it on Ivan’s head till his blood ran down to his misshapen feet” (Beroul). Notice here that blood ran from Ivan’s head down to his feet. This occurrence could invoke imagery of menstruation because the blood is running down Ivan’s body and presumably down his thighs and lower legs. Ivan’s bleeding mixed with his deformities mirrors the biological and conceptual ideas thought about women in the Medieval era since women bled between their legs and were “deformed” men.

Perhaps if we examined this a little more, we might notice how Ivan’s bleeding is reminiscent of the notion that Jewish men menstruate. It was believed that Jewish men were not fully formed either, and because of this they would menstruate from their anus or even their penis. Such a thought lumps Jews right in there with the grossness of women and demonstrates a form of othering that Christian males would often use back in the Middle Ages. This othering could certainly have been utilized when depicting Ivan because he noticeably bleeds from his head. In this case the word head may be representing the head of a penis instead of the cranium, meaning that Ivan would not only be deformed like a woman, but also bleeding from his male genitalia like a Jewish man.

Whether Beroul was actually attempting to other Ivan as female and Jewish can be debated, but textual evidence along with the prevalent theories about women during the Medieval era seem to point to the conclusion that he was.