ABSTRACT
An exposition of Margery’s devotion is the rationale of The Book; this is the context in which it provides fullest information and a fulsome exposition. Its most valuable historical aspects are that it goes further in exploring and reconstituting the development of an individual’s devotional life than any other text from England in the fifteenth century, and that it does so with a particular emphasis on social contexts not found in many devotional treatises. This emphasis gives us insights into religious attitudes and influences in Lynn, into the interaction of traditional and novel modes of pious behaviour, and the relationships between elite and popular forms of worship.
