Medieval Piety

Religion in the Middle Ages takes on a character all of its own as it is lived out differently in the lives of medieval men and women spanning from ordinary laity to vehement devotees. Though it is difficult to identify what the average faith consists of in the Middle Ages, the life told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts.

A central component of medieval religion that is evident in even the slightest dissection of the life of Margery Kempe or the directed discipline from the author advising contemplation is an unmistakable desire for religious experience. Even among married men and women who are occupied with family responsibilities, lay people during this time such as we see in the life of Margery herself are seeking more intense religious ways of living. Margery, as the example, lived with her husband with whom she had fourteen children. Growing up influenced by the church, her spirituality came to a heightened level when she and her Jesus began having actual communication with one another. While the church was catalyzing religious experience in medieval communities, upon the realization of direct mystical connection with Christ in the lives of people such as Margery, the desire for the inward search for spiritual satisfaction spread.

Another tendency of those practicing religion in the Middle Ages is to take Jesus' words from the Bible to a new literal level affecting medieval lifestyles across the board. Where monks and nuns had typically been the only observers of chastity, fasting, and poverty, laity began to observe these life practices as well. In Margery Kempe's life, this apodictic understanding of Jesus' biblically recorded or spoken words is evident among her commitment to make vows of chastity, her desire to embark on long pilgrimages, and her steps of unquestionable obedience as she advances on her spiritual journey. The absolute submission of Margery and the dedication to perfect contemplation in The Cloud of Unknowing which warns, “…you are not to read it…unless you really believe that he is a person deeply committed to follow Christ perfectly,” identify the seriousness of medieval desire for spirituality (43). Pursuing such spiritual fulfillment is a responsibility not to be taken lightly.

Often, literal commands of Jesus such as pilgrimages have two and three fold benefits. Besides the very physical connections with the sacred that they offer arriving at places of sacred history, pilgrimages are also a form of penance for sins. Because of the sacrifice of time, money, and risk to make these pilgrimages, best seen by Kempe's outrageous devotion in leaving behind her life and family for long periods of time, pilgrimages assist in erasing sins in ones life. Another reason that Margery and medieval Christians would embark on these pilgrimages is for the reverence of saints and their relics that they would visit. The Middle Ages emphasized an important connection to the lives of past saints believing that the saints still had power to intercede blessings into the lives of religious people on Earth. Where Margery is set a part from common laity, during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem she receives a special spiritual gift of “cryings” that she can not control when religious emotion comes over her. Describing these outbursts, the author of her autobiography says, “The crying was so loud and so amazing that it astounded people…” (Windeatt, 104). It is assumable that emotional experiences upon pilgrimages of either laity or monastics to such places as the Holy Land would be common, however that people were astonished by Margery’s powerful “cryings” is evidence that her reactions to such places are atypical in intensity.

Margery Kempe believed herself to be an intercessor of help for those who had already passed away after death into purgatory. This reflects the medieval concern for the dead that is central to their religious responsibility. Medieval Christians hold that they may expect to endure suffering after death in order to pay for their unforgiven sins; however, the prayers or good deeds of the living, such as Margery Kempe, can be exchanged for their pensions. Margery reports of her experiences in this responsibility, asking God,"…in weeping…it is fully my will that you give half to Master R. to the increase of his merit, as if he did these things himself" (Windeatt, 55). The act of weeping in suffering