The Making of The Book of Margery Kempe: The Issue of Discretio Spirituum Reconsidered
Devotion to the Holy Spirit was a fundamental aspect of the Christian faith in the late Middle Ages and discretio spirituum was understood as a prerequisite for fully embracing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The problem of discretio spirituum is embedded in the entirety of Margery's Book, which bears witness to the way the ideological political struggles in which clerical authority increasingly cast doubt upon female spiritual experience. Lying behind Margery's Book, and undoubtedly influencing her treatment of the issue of discretio spirituum, are the two Church Councils in her lifetime. On her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Margery passed through Constance as the city was preparing for the forthcoming Council (1414–18). One of the major issues of the Council was the authenticity of St Bridget's revelations. Even after her canonization and its subsequent confirmation, many delegates questioned the divine origin of her visions and connected the issue with schism and heresy. The tension continued into the Council of Basle (1431–49), which was in progress when Margery revised the first version of her Book. Following the chronological development of the controversy over Bridget's revelations, this article contextualizes the Book within the specific international climate of the early fifteenth century and makes links to then evolving thinking about discretio spirituum in order to illuminate its impact on the creation of Margery Kempe's spiritual autobiography.
Versions of Virginity in Late Medieval England
Introduction: Scope of the Study The Critical Map Narratives of Virginity Perpetual Incorruption in Corruptible Flesh: Towards a Theory of Virginity Performing Virginity: The Katherine Group Containing Virginity: The Veil and the Wall Like a Virgin? The Book of Margery Kempe Acknowledgements Abbreviations Chapter One. Introduction Scope of the Study 0 The Critical Map 0 Narratives of Virginity 00 Chapter Two. Perpetual Incorruption in Corruptible Flesh: Towards a Theory of Virginity Medieval Terms 00 Modern Terms 00 Chapter Three. Performing Virginity: The Katherine Group Binaries of Sanctity 00 Virgin Martyr Legends 00 The AB Texts 00 Virgins and Romance 00 Sponsae Christi 00 Sex, Violence and Spectacle 000 More Hagiographic Virginities 000 Chapter Four. Containing Virginity: The Veil and the Wall Some Parameters 000 Gendering Nuns 000 The Monastic Self in the Community 000 The Veil and the Virgin Individual 000 The Wall and the Virgin Community 000 The Nun of Watton 000 Chapter Five. Like A Virgin? The Book of Margery Kempe Placing Margery 000 Modes and Techniques of the Book 000 Reclaiming Virginity 000 Hagiographic and Other Models 000 Margery and the Virgin Martyrs 000 Continuities and Ruptures 000 Martyrdom and Closure 000 Suffering and Penitence 000 Martyrdom by Slander 000 White Clothes 000 Relationships, Sexuality and Desire 000 Final Remarks 000 Conclusion 000 Bibliography 000 Index
Historical writing in twelfth‐ and thirteenth‐century Scotland: the Dunfermline compilation
This article examines the first three items in a manuscript housed in the Royal Library in Madrid but written at the Benedictine abbey of Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland during the reign of James III (1460–88). It argues that the three items were originally put together during the reign of Alexander III (1249–86) and together formed a compilation which should be viewed as the earliest extant history of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century kings of Scots. Interestingly, the Dunfermline compilation did not stress the Irish ancestry of the kings of Scots, as might be assumed, but instead set its subjects against the backdrop of their Anglo-Saxon descent from the house of Cerdic. The article then considers the relationship of the Dunfermline compilation to Turgot's Vita Sancte Margarete and Aelred of Rievaulx's Genealogia Regum Anglorum and argues that the use of these sources in the compilation suggest that it was put together for a particular political purpose, a purpose for which the Anglo-Saxon ancestry of the kings of Scots had particular relevance.