For centuries, scholars only had one version of the life of Margery Kempe, an English mystic who lived in the 14th and 15th centuries — until a ping pong match revealed her story in her own words. For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.orgEmail us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the special focus of this bonus episode?
Hey there, Consider This listeners. We're not normally in your ears on Saturdays, but today we've got a special bonus episode for you. It's the first in our new series of short-form audio documentaries. It's got medieval monks, rapturous crying fits, ping pong, and a little bit of time travel. So stick around for Saturday, February 8th. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.
It's Consider This from NPR. What if you could pick up the phone and call the past? Today's story does just that. It's brought to us by the Berlin-based producer Sara Zare Hushiori Ha. This is Marjorie.
Recently I've been thinking about what it would be like to call Marjorie Kemp. How would I talk to someone who lived over 500 years ago? Hey Marge. Hello Mrs. Kent. Hi this is Sarah.
Chapter 2: Who is Marjorie Kempe and why is she significant?
Marjorie.
Hi Marjorie.
Marjorie.
Chapter 3: What role does a monk play in Marjorie Kempe's story?
We haven't met. Also you're dead. I would like to tell her about this monk. His name was Winkender Ward. And after her death, he took the liberty to republish a few pages of her book. And he called it a short treatise of contemplation. We don't know what else she wrote about in her book, but he references it, and so we know that it existed at some point.
And in his treatise of contemplation, he describes her, Marjorie Kemp. And he describes her as a very quiet person. A good Christian woman who worships Jesus on her own terms. A good wife. A good mother. A calm listener. And that's about all that we knew about Marjorie Kemp. She was a devout, quiet Christian who had 14 kids and lived in a small village in England called Kingsland.
Chapter 4: How did a ping pong match lead to a historical discovery?
And then I would like to tell her about this ping pong match that happened in the 1930s, also in England. But I guess first I would have to explain what ping pong is. So it's a game that's usually played by two to four people and each person holds a paddle in their hand and you try to play so that the other person can't get to the ball in time.
Chapter 5: What was found during the ping pong match that changed history?
And I guess that's all that she would need to know for now. Anyway, the crazy part about this ping pong match was that one of the players stepped onto the ball and then went back into his country house to get a new one. And as he was looking through the cupboard to find a ball, he found something else. A book. It looked old, like really, really old. And it was full of notes.
Chapter 6: How does Marjorie Kempe's own account differ from the monk's?
He took it to the library to have it checked out by someone professional. And it turns out that this was Marjorie's book, the book that the monk had read and chosen a few parts from to republish. So now there are these two documents. One, written by a monk about a quiet, inward-turned Marjorie Kemp, whom he uses as an example of how to be a good, calm Christian woman.
And then, newly discovered, there's another one. The original book, Marjorie Kemp's own version, the entire thing, written by herself. Well, actually, she couldn't read or write, so she had to hire scribes, but either way, a book by her own account. In the Middle Ages, there were a few women who had books written about their lives.
But normally, the procedure was that someone was a holy woman because they had performed a miracle or two and then gathered a following because of that. And then when they died, someone else would write a book about their life. But Marjorie, she hasn't performed a miracle. Not that I know of, anyway. And she also didn't gather a following. Not in her lifetime.
So I guess at some point she must have just decided to write a book about herself so that she would be remembered in the way that she wanted. A few medievalists started reading her book, expecting kind of a long-form version of the monk's treatise. But soon they found out that her version of herself was wildly different to what the monk published.
She was very Christian, but she wasn't calm and she definitely wasn't quiet. And she was a mother of 14 kids, but she doesn't really talk about them. Instead, she talks about anything and everything else and in so much detail. She writes about food and what she likes and doesn't like and how she tries to become a vegetarian at some point, but people are being very difficult about it.
She writes about what is arguably the first English account of postpartum depression, hers was cured by Jesus, about her travels. She traveled to Christian sites of worship all over Europe, sometimes with company, but often alone. She writes about how she decides to wear all white in her 40s.
Wearing white was a sign of virginity and Marjorie had already had 14 kids at that time, so definitely not a virgin. And people in her village did not take this lightly. She writes about her sexual desires, not just towards her husband, but also towards other people and towards Jesus. And she writes about what kind of became her signature move, crying.
She cries at every occasion, which gets her excluded from all kinds of social gatherings, and in some cases, even banned from church services. She cries every time she thinks about Jesus, or Mary, or both. When she travelled to Jerusalem, she was so overwhelmed by everything and cried so hard that she fell off her donkey.
Overall, she's just this badass who does all of these things that the monk definitely left out on purpose because they don't fit the image that he wanted to create. He totally monkwashed her and took away all of the sexiness and the directness and the dirtiness and the realness of her story.
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