ABSTRACT
Weeping for Christ’s crucifixion allows Margery Kempe to link herself with a potent tradition, that of the many thirteenth- and fourteenth-century continental female saints and mystics who also distinguished themselves by uncontrollable weeping as well as excessive bodily penances. Thus the association between tears and prayers is constantly confirmed, an association which points to Kempe’s power. Kempe embarks on her journey on the Continent impulsively, without getting permission from her confessor—in fact, defying his instructions, solely because she is “comawndyd in her hert” to go. Thus Kempe’s work ends by simultaneously emphasizing and demonstrating her role as intercessor for humankind, with a prayer which is both a model for others and a validation of itself. Kempe’s accounts of her many pilgrimages constantly emphasize the difficulties of communication in foreign lands, but as her self-assurance and self-validation grow, she learns to overcome these difficulties.
