First Name:
Erika
Last Name:
Gleason
Major Department:
English
Thesis Director:
Allison Gulley
Date of Thesis:
May 2012
This thesis looks at the charges of heresy brought against Margery Kempe by the church in her autobiography,The Book of Margery Kempe. Kempe attributes these charges as a direct result of her frequent bouts of public weeping, an intense symptom of her religious piety. This thesis first examines what it means to be a heretic in the fourteenth century. It then exhibits the reasons for her weeping and compares this behavior with other contemporaries of Kempe’s time, thereby demonstrating that because this behavior was in many ways traditional, there must be other reasons for claims of heresy. The second chapter highlights the unique ways Kempe attempts to fill the roles of wife, mother, businesswoman, and preacher, and suggests that her nonconformity in these areas of her life contribute most powerfully to the church’s claims against her.