Leann Magners

Margery Kempe was born in 1373 in the County of Norfolk in the town of Bishop’s Lynn (now King’s Lynn). King’s Lynn is in East Anglia and situated north and slightly east of London on the coast of the North Sea. Margery was the daughter of a wealthy and prominent burgess who had served as Mayor on five occasions, had been a member of Parliament, and was an active participant in local government. Her birth took place during the reign of Edward III, her marriage during that of Richard II, but the most significant events in her life occurred during the rule of the House of Lancaster. The first Lancastrian monarch was Henry IV ruled 1399-1413. Following him, his son Henry V ruled until 1422, his grandsons, Henry VI until 1471, and Richard III until 1485. Although we do not know the year of Margery’s death, it is unlikely that she survived until the reign of Richard III. All records indicate that she was alive as late as 1438 and that she was admitted to the Guild of the Holy Trinity in Lynn in that year. In 1521, Henry Pepwell wrote that "she was a devout anchoress," indicating that she took up the reclusive life. Pepwell also indicated that she devoted her life to God "in a cell attached to her beloved St. Margaret’s Church." There is no evidence to substantiate this but it is a reasonable conclusion. The second Book was begun April 28, 1438 and has indications that it is unfinished.

Margery married John Kempe, a merchant, at age twenty. She was typical of wealthy women of the fifteenth century. She loved fripperies and luxuries of all sorts. Since her husband was not as rich nor as successful as her father, Margery went into business for herself to obtain the luxuries to which she had grown accustomed. Margery was successful for a time as a brewer but failed after several years. She tried her hand at milling and was equally as unsuccessful. John and Margery had fourteen children of whom very little is known.

King’s Lynn was a bustling seaport and center of international cultural exchange by virtue of its flourishing trade. Like most towns of the period, it was walled and gated. The town was part of the Hanseatic League, a powerful trade protection organization consisting of nearly eighty trading towns. Merchants from the continent and throughout the British Isles engaged in commerce along its busy thoroughfares. Vessels brought more than merchandise to King’s Lynn; they also conveyed travelers, clergy, and continental literature to its shores. Reading The Book of Margery Kempe provides ample evidence that Margery had access to a majority of the religious literature of the era.

While Flemish cloth was a major import, cargoes of salt, grain, wool, timber, silks, wine, furs, coal, textiles, oils, and fish were also some of the goods conveyed to Lynn. These in turn were traded and transported by river within England and to foreign ports. Textiles were becoming a large part of the trade in Margery’s age as the industry was expanding with the introduction of cotton into the economy. As trade matured, churches, monasteries, and clerics increased in number as well. With the growth in the religious community education advanced exponentially. Markets followed the growth of both international trade and religious expansion. Saltworks and mills sprung up in great numbers in and around Lynn. Salt was another important commodity which was used for seasoning but mostly as a preservative for fish and meats.

Political power was held by a merchant oligarchy and dominated by members of the trading community. The bishops of Norwich were the Lords of King’s Lynn but the oligarchy had wide powers to tax, hold courts, fine, and set tolls. Friction was constant between the oligarchy, the bishops, and the German traders but the merchants of Lynn were deeply and powerfully entrenched. The wealthiest merchants of the town passed positions within local government among themselves. Most of the powers and traditions were held by virtue of ancient custom or royal grant. Towns such as Lynn operated much like principalities with their own constitutions, legislative bodies, armies, ability to make treaties, wage war, and extend their boundaries. Royal and Parliamentary powers were diluted through the local power structures. As Parliament gained power, local control would diminish into history.

The water supply for the town was provided by a "Common Ditch," which was diverted from the river Gay. Huge stone sluices were constructed to isolate the fresh water from tidal contamination. The town, churches, and guilds worked assiduously to protect this resource and punished anyone who worked against these efforts. Records indicate that such punishment usually included placement in the pillory on market day.

Guardianship of the fresh water supply was most likely one of the few sanitary protections in place in the town. Streets were narrow and dirty with open ditches containing the filth of common privies and garbage dumps. These conditions attracted the ever-present flies, rats, and gut wrenching odors and their concomitant diseases. Food stuffs were often spoiled, ales contaminated, and water polluted. Walking down the street in Lynn was an adventure because the threat of solid or liquid debris being thrown out of upper story windows. Cleanliness and sanitation were rarities and bathing might be a yearly activity. Houses were heated with wood and turf and lit with candles or tallow if the residents could afford these luxuries. If not, clothing, body heat, and sunlight were the only alternatives.

Churches in Lynn were lavishly decorated. Hardly a , wall, ceiling, floor, or fixture was left ungilded, unpainted, unbejewelled, or uncarved. Biblical scenes were painted and carved for the edification of the unlettered, giving visual instruction to the faithful. In addition to this ornamentation, windows of colorfully stained glass adorned and illumined the numerous windows. Those spaces not already embellished were hung with brass depictions of medieval church life.

Churches were not the only edifices in Lynn which illustrated its enormous wealth and prosperity. Guildhalls, public places, and elegant homes also attested to the profit of international trade. Priories and monasteries were evidence of the religious commitment of the era. The wealthiest townsmen built homes apart from the bustling centers of trade. They also removed themselves from contact with the artisans and tradespeople of the town as much as possible. A middle class structure and value system was firmly in place in Margery’s lifetime.

Society and Town Life During Margery’s Lifetime

The societal changes that had begun with the Norman conquest of 1066 unfolded in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Margery Kempe was evidence of that manifestation. One aspect of life in the medieval age was high infant mortality. Overcrowded towns with little or no public sanitation provisions, coupled with no standard of personal hygiene and a lack of medical knowledge, provide only part of the explanation for the high death rates among infants. Garbage was tossed into the street as were body wastes. Rodents roamed freely especially in the larger towns where populations were growing out of control. Other causes include the incidence of the Plague, which arrived in Europe in 1348 and recurred about every seventeen to twenty-five years for the next four hundred years. During the initial outbreak of the plague, it is estimated that about one-third of the entire European population died.

Medieval mindset believed that good was rewarded and evil punished. In light of this mentality, unfavorable circumstances and sickness were considered punishment for sin. Disaster and illness, a part of medieval life, were considered retribution for bad behavior. Fires were a constant danger and many a home and business were lost to flames. Medicine was yet a product of the study of the four humours and medical knowledge was incomplete and often inaccurate. One medical advantage in fifteenth century England was that leprosy was in decline and rarely found .

Food in the late Middle Ages depended on economic as well as social circumstances. The wealthy had the greatest choices and the greatest variety of fare. Domestic and game meats were available to the wealthy but the poorer elements of society were lucky to get the carcasses to make a weak soup. Fish and the bounty of the sea could be found in markets and enjoyed by persons of means. Wines were drunk by the rich while most everyone else drank ciders and ales because water was usually contaminated by some pollutant. Vegetables and fruits were expensive and available only seasonally but spoiled quickly for lack of refrigeration. The one true staple of the poor man’s diet was bread and it was made of many grains and beans. Grain products, such as barley, oats, and millet, comprised the greatest portion of the medieval diet .

All aspects of life were centered on the teachings and expectations of the church. The church was the center of all learning and the didactic force for all literature, art, and drama. Every milieu was controlled for the purpose of propagating the faith and shaping the lives of the populace. A paradox within this was the fact that while a few of the clergy were well-educated, the majority had barely a rudimentary acquaintance with academia. The influence of the church was highly visible and endemic and created a voracious appetite not only for souls but also for power among its leaders. This visibility and hunger began to cause dilemmas for which the faithful endeavored to find solutions.

The era featured tremendous changes within the Christian church, which had become worldly and corrupt and beginning in the fourteenth century many felt that it had lost touch with God. As a result of the politics of power between France and Italy, a schism in the western Catholic hierarchy occurred in 1378 which was not fully resolved until 1449. During this period there were two popes and two seats of the church; one in Rome and the other in Avignon.

In addition to hierarchical concerns, rampant dissolution had become endemic within all areas of church life. The most articulated protests were made against the sale of Indulgences, which remitted sins and gave credit to the sinner, alleviating his or her time spent in Purgatory. Indulgences had become big business and had moved far from their intention of working diligently to achieve a place in heaven. Profit had become their raison d’être. Simony, the sale of church position, received almost as much protest as the sale of indulgences. A third area of concern involved absentee clergy, men paid to care for the faithful but who governed from a distant place.

Religious life had also become corrupt. Nunneries, long the refuge of unmarriageable daughters, became much like boarding schools for spoiled rich women. Many of these women were disinterested in the religious life and the nunneries became social clubs. When they were supposed to be in silent prayer or during church services, the women would play with their pet dogs and titter among themselves. Many refused to wear the required habit (or uniform) and would only dress in the latest styles. The monks of the era were no better. Many lived in luxury, eating rich foods and disregarding the expectations of celibacy.

This lack of piety reaped responses throughout the Christian world. Ecclesiastic reformer and Doctor of Theology, John Wycliffe (1320-1384),undertook to amend these deviations from proper church decorum. Wycliffe preached and wrote extensively to correct these behaviors and based his teaching on scripture. He and his numerous followers wrote and posted tracts and notices in public places. These writings usually denounced the clergy as deceptive, unfit, and untruthful. Wycliffe’s large following and his activist role caused him to be denounced as a heretic by the pope. His followers came to be known as Lollards. Margery Kempe was accused of Lollardy on many occasions. She was "threatened with a cartful of thorns and a barrel with which to burn." Wycliffe has often been associated with the stirrings of Reformation but the impetus was present before his vocalization of the many concerns of abuses within the Catholic Church. Another religious reformer, Jan Hus (1372-1415), a Czech, was accused of being a Wycliffite and burned at the stake for heresy July 6, 1415.

Although Joan of Arc (1412-1431) was born much later and died earlier, she was also a contemporary of Margery Kempe. Joan of Arc was a religious zealot who distinguished herself in French history from her sixteenth year until she was immolated at nineteen. Born Jehanne la Pucelle, and known as the Maid of Orleans, she fought valiantly in the civil wars that were tearing France apart. She was canonized as a saint in 1920 and immortalized in twentieth century plays, films, and histories. Today we know her as the beautiful young martyr who died a fiery death convicted of heresy and witchcraft.

The later Middle Ages also saw the growth of the Cult of the Virgin, a concentrated interest in the mother of Jesus. The effects of this admiration and reverence for the Virgin had many effects. Margery Kempe was one of the adherents to this worship. Her Book reverberates with images of Margery’s piety, charity, and good works in the name of the mother of Jesus. Margery’s emulation of Mary Magdalen is also a reflection of this veneration. The Cult of the Virgin also had the effect of elevating women in the esteem of the church. By virtue of this elevation, women embraced the movement with enthusiasm.

Another facet of religion in the fifteenth century England was pilgrimage. Depending on financial circumstances, Catholics would travel to sites within the country or to the three principal overseas sites of Jerusalem, Rome, and St. James Compostela. The most venerated site within England is one which Chaucer made memorable, the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury. Pilgrimage offered its own controversies within Margery Kempe’s era. It had become fashionable and, for some, a source of tourism. The church preached against using pilgrimage for other than religious motives. Writings of the era denounce pilgrimage for the sake of novelty and curiosity. The Book of Margery Kempe recalls many sites that were worthy of pilgrimage and Margery’s experiences of pilgrimage including the three most famous and several within England.

The fourteenth century profited from the reign of Edward I, under which Parliament was organized as a continuous institution for the purposes of consulting and advising the king. Edward also issued many statute laws, codified common law, restated crown rights, reformatted police and local defense, and defined the realm of ecclesiastic jurisdiction. Edward I also expelled the Jews from England. Following their expulsion, Jews were not allowed to return until after the English Civil War. Margery’s era also suffered because of Edward’s profligacy and poor management. The House of Lords came into existence after his death as England’s barons asserted power to avert further mismanagement. Also following Edward’s death, Scotland attempted freedom and the Hundred Years War began. This war, which began in 1337, was fought intermittently as a war of succession and concentration of power, and ended without truce or fanfare. A dynastic power struggle between France and England, it resolved itself through war, death, and attrition and informally ended in 1453.

One aspect of the Hundred Years War which affected life in King’s Lynn during Margery Kempe’s lifetime was The Peasants Revolt in 1381. The war was extremely expensive and the king had imposed levys to help defray those costs. Throughout England the king’s levy fell heavily on the peasants. As tax farmers attempted to harvest this tax, peasants reacted at first with words and eventually with action, some of it violent. The Peasants’ Revolt is recorded as a "germinating of the spirit of liberty" and inspired reforms that would eventually end serfdom in England. King’s Lynn’s peasants took an active part in the revolt.

Margery’s life was anomalous in ways beyond her religious and pilgrim activity. Although Margery lived in an age of enormous change, women in fifteenth century England were, for the most part, bound to the home. Men were the usual participants in public and community life. Society was patriarchal or paternalistic. The king served as father and head of the nation, with fathers and husbands serving as leaders of community and heads of households. These facts were accepted as the natural order of life. Marriages were to be performed in the presence of a priest and three or four witnesses. All questions of marriage were under the jurisdiction of church courts. At the death of a father, feudal lords decided the marriage partners of minor children. Widows had church protection from forced remarriage, and in Feudal England, maintained a privileged position wherein they were expected to spend much time in prayer and charity.

An interesting study of family life postulates that love, affection, or friendship were not yet inculcated in domestic life of the period. This author’s use of manuals for confessors shows that these attributes came into vogue in the last half of the sixteenth century. Love was not expected as part of marriage and was considered by the church as "bad." The only acceptable love was that which grew out of the love of God. Sex, on the other hand, was expected as part of marriage and both partners were obliged to respond to the desires of the other. The Catholic Church taught, and it was understood, that coition was for procreation, not solely for pleasure.

Childbirth in the fifteenth century was often dangerous because of the unsanitary conditions and lack of medical knowledge. The birth of Margery Kempe’s first child was an example of a difficult birth which resulted in psychological trauma for the mother. The pregnancy was difficult and the delivery such a torment, she requested a priest to confess her sins. The mental anguish lasted for eight months and ended when she had her first mystical visitation. The remaining thirteen births are not discussed, therefore, no knowledge of their circumstances or outcome is available. Margery was fortunate because of her social and economic position within the community. Had she been poor or of peasant class, the outcome might have been radically different.

Birth control was practiced but frowned upon by the church. The method most widely used in the middle ages was abstinence. Even this form of restricting the size of one’s family was a subject for the pulpit. Stillbirths and miscarriages were common, most likely resulting from poor diet and exhaustive work. Self-induced abortions would also have reduced family size. A popular method of restricting family size included nursing children for an extended period of time. Regardless of the method used to limit the size of family, many medieval women conceived eight children in a twenty-year marriage. Unfortunately, between a quarter and a third of these children died before adulthood.

Marriage was a social institution which joined families of similar circumstances for the purposes of perpetuating their lineage, wealth and class. It was a for-profit business. The church expected seducers to marry the seduced. Unlike the arranged marriages, these were not always sound financial matches. Girls were expected to have a dowry which would help the young couple begin on a good financial footing.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best surviving works of the era, was penned by an anonymous author. According to the Norton Anthology, the same author most likely penned the three religious poems - Pearl, Patience, and Purity which were written sometime between 1375 and 1400. The same era that produced this author and Margery Kempe also yielded Geoffrey Chaucer (1343? -1400). Margery is often compared with Chaucer’s fictional character, Alisoun, "The Wife of Bath." One author points to the similarities in Alisoun and Margery and imagines that either Chaucer read Kempe (which is impossible) or that Kempe read Chaucer, or rather had it read to her since she was illiterate. He is aware of the impossibility because each work has a different purpose .

Also, during the late middle ages the genre known as the mystery play evolved. The Towneley Mysteries, relating stories of religion such as the Nativity were written about 1426, and performed in churches. Additionally, Piers Plowman, written c. 1377, recounts more than the story of a worker in the fields; it vividly illustrates life in the Middle Ages. Many authors study the literature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as representative of the language of the era.

Julian of Norwich (1342-1416), Christine de Pisan (1363-1429), and Margaret Paston (1423- 1484)also lived during the same era as Margery. As is Margery, these women are known through their writings. Julian lived as an anchoress and is known only from her writings and those about her. Julian’s writings explain her visions and are intended to instruct other Christians. An important fifteenth century cleric, Julian was visited by Kempe and mentioned in her Book. Christine de Pisan is noteworthy as the first professional woman writer in Europe. She began her career at twenty-five when she became widowed and left to support her three children, a mother, and a niece. She not only contributed to the literature of the times but her style and courage promoted women’s virtues and intelligence as well. In a way, she was one of the first feminists. Unlike Christine de Pisan, Margaret Paston was not recognized in her own time. Neither was she an author in the accepted format. She is known by virtue of the family correspondence which was carried on for over 150 years and survived the ages. Paston’s life and times are vividly detailed within the pages of this rich correspondence.

Agriculture was the primary work of the late Middle Ages and the weather during Margery’s lifetime was favorable for large crops. In fact, the period is described as "the plentiful decades." Despite the favorable conditions, families and communities had to work together to ensure enough food for survival. The tools of farming were primitive and the work was long and hard. Iron was used for plow tips to cut through the hard earth. One threat to farming, enclosure, began in this era. Enclosure has always been a significant topic in history because some historians use it as a point of demarcation between modern and medieval farming. Enclosure took the common areas of a town or village and hedged or fenced the areas thus restricting their use. Fencing of land had begun long before the sweeping enclosures of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Fencing laws had been enacted as early as the fifteenth century to restrict animals such as cattle from roaming on farm land. Cattle were valuable animals for their food output. Cheese was an important food by-product but butter served as food and lubricant being more available and cheaper than other forms of fat. Cattle served not only as dairy animals but also as work animals to pull plows. Pigs were also kept if they could be raised on the leavings of a home or fend for themselves in the forests. Birds and dogs were often kept as pets but cats were not. However, cats were necessary on ships as rat chasers, otherwise damage to cargo could not be contained. The most valuable animals of this era were sheep. Sheep provided a continuous yield of wool which was a symbol of wealth. The profits derived clothed many a man and built many a church. Oftentimes a garden plot yielded peas, bean, herbs, onions, leeks, and shallots. Gardens within castle walls sometimes displayed lilies and roses.

Yearly fairs and markets were profitable and part of commerce during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, much as they had been in prior eras. Added to these forms of merchandising, shops selling an assortment of wares were part of daily life during the late Middle Ages. Many street names identifying the predominant seller remain in the twentieth century such as Ironmongers Lane, Smith Alley, and Threadneedle Lane. Mills grinding corn and grain had been powered by water and some by wind but Margery Kempe’s mill was horse powered.

Guilds were part of work long before they were recognized in 1383 by Parliament. One source lists the usual term of apprenticeship at seven years. Most trades and crafts came under the guidance of such associations. Guilds controlled the occupations of clergy, textile work, tailors, butchers, bakers, brewers, barbers, chandlers, tanners, smiths, masons, carpenters, shoemakers, and many others. Guilds exerted power by limiting the number of apprentices, directing all aspects of quality within a craft, and controlling costs and prices.

Laundry seems always to have been women’s work but in the Middle Ages men usually made the soap. By the fourteenth century laundresses were regulated and many commercial soapmakers had become rich. Still, large amounts of soap were homemade when mutton fat was available. Laundry was not done weekly as it is in the twentieth century. It was allowed to accumulate and was washed as a holy day or church feast approached.

Many men worked in transport, the majority of them as seamen. The work was hard and once out of port it might be years before a man saw home again. The smaller boats were the hardest and the food on them not always even palatable. Seamen on larger ships worked as hard but were better fed as a rule. Cargoes were diverse and during the fifteenth century, cranes were erected in the larger ports to off-load them from the ships’ hold. One such cargo is listed as containing soap, green ginger, linen cloth, hemp, frying pans, cauldrons, cork, oil, dyes, salmon, salt eels, wood, nails, and stockfish.

Called the late medieval period by western historians, 1350-1500 saw the advent of the use of gunpowder (fourteenth century)and the invention of the printing press. The Renaissance, born in Italy in the middle of the fourteenth century, would not fully reach the balance of Europe until the closing of the fifteenth. Many other discoveries and occurrences dotted the historical landscape of this era but not many impacted life as had these. Universities had been born in the thirteenth century with Bologna, Paris, and Oxford among the first. By 1400 there were fifty-three more. Navigational advances urged discovery of foreign lands. Competitive instincts were fostered as the wealth from foreign lands found its way back to Europe. Politically, the centralization of monarchical power was emerging. Local control was diminishing as some western monarchs changed the balance of power. Economically, the seeds of the industrial revolution were planted, especially in the Netherlands and England as textile manufacturing created a competitive economy. The emergence of credit and banking found their way north from Italy. Society, which had been divided between the clergy, nobility, and peasants was becoming more stratified as commerce expanded and wealth was gained. Feudalism began its decline as monarchs concentrated power and commerce competed with agriculture as a form of work. As feudalism lost its grip on peasants, they found new avenues of production. Commerce and the freedom from feudal bonds promoted growth of urban centers. Within the religious realm, reformation became part of the constant conversation. Religion was still a prime focus of the late Middle Ages, with the church calendar determining life patterns. Yet, belief in magic and the supernatural characterized life. War, famine, droughts, unexplained deaths and accidents nourished belief in witches and sorcery. These were part of the mosaic that was the later Middle Ages European history.

Renaissance Italy produced da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bellini, Botticelli, Titian, Brunelleschi, Lorenzo de’ Medici, Petrarch, and Machiavelli to name but a few. Not long into the sixteenth century, Italy and its Renaissance ebbed and the flow of culture moved north spreading throughout the known western world. As artists sought refuge from the failing Italian state, they infected the world with a fast-growing germ of humanist thought and renaissance freedom of expression. Notables such as the Dutch Erasmus and the English Sir Thomas More became voices for humanist reform of church and education.

The Great Schism (1378-1417) within the Catholic Church was, in large part, a result of the growing power of the monarchy in France, Spain, and England. During the schism two popes ruled the Church, one in Avignon, France and the other in Rome. The expansion of monarchical power diminished papal authority and allowed the shift of control from church to state. For a time, three popes claimed the throne of the church and this disunity increased calls for reform. Clerics throughout Europe, including William of Occam, John Wycliffe, Jan Hus, and eventually Martin Luther in 1517 wrote, spoke, and agitated for church reform. When the Reformation resulted, the power shift was complete.

Portugal, with its long Atlantic coast and equally long, inhibiting border with Spain, began the voyages of discovery to the "new world." Prince Henry (1394-1460), called Henry the Navigator, began exploring the seas off the coast of his country and continued south to Morocco as early as 1415. Henry’s interest and encouragement of scientific and mercantile discoveries spurred Portugal’s prominence in exploration in the fifteenth century. However, the Portuguese and the Spanish would not begin their trans-oceanic exploration until the last quarter of the fifteenth century.

Europe was dominated by the Catholic Church and the world was still thought of as being Europe, Africa, and Asia. Within this context, Jerusalem was thought of as the center of the world. The developments of sailing during the fourteenth century, such as "stern post rudder" and better designed rigging, made bigger and faster ships possible. These, plus advances in navigational method, made exploration to the farther reaches of the world favorable. Africa had yet to develop much of a centralized unity by the fifteenth century. India was also in disunion, torn apart by Turks from the West and neighbors on all sides. However, within the Americas, the Aztecs were establishing hegemony in some areas and the Incas were doing likewise in others. The duchy of Lithuania came together in 1386 by a marriage that also incorporated the kingdom of Poland, Prussia, Ukraine, and Moldavia. Almost a hundred years later, in 1472, Ivan the Great began the consolidation of Russia and became its first "Tsar."

Byzantine Empire

The middle of the fifteenth century (1453) witnessed the fall of the Constantinople to an infidel army and the last Crusade (1441). During the two hundred years preceding its fall, Byzantium had been diminished in size by incursions of Slavs from the west and Ottoman Turks from the east. During this interim in Byzantium, the Catholic Church was sundered by a schism between Roman and Orthodox factions. This division weakened the Byzantine empire, thus allowing susceptibility to conquest. Mehmet II and his Turkish army defeated the eightieth successor to Constantine, Emperor Constantine XI, on May 28, 1453. From this point of departure, the Ottoman Turks built the great western arm of their empire.

China

China, during the lifetime of Margery Kempe, was ruled by the Ming dynasty (1366-1644). This era in Chinese history was marked by cultural flowering and political unity. The Ming dynasty also established China’s conservatism and isolationist stance. Formerly a leader in navigation and builder of great ocean-going vessels, China restricted sailing to its coastal waters. Its people were forbidden to travel beyond China’s borders. Soon China began to lose peripheral land masses and foreigners established themselves and missions on Chinese soil.

Japan

From 1333 until the beginning of the sixteenth century, Japan experienced almost continuous civil war. Neither shogunate nor emperor could maintain uninterrupted power. This era also experienced an unchecked lawlessness and corruption because of lack of effective leadership. Peasants, who comprised the majority of Japanese, were affected most by the constant warfare. The disturbances of criminals and warfare inflicted oppressive social and economic hazards on them. Yet Japan advanced culturally and economically as a nation. Foreign visitors would not arrive in Japan until the middle of the sixteenth century (1543). Until that time, Japan resisted the impact of foreign cultures, while it developed an urban society and a variety of high arts.

Paper had been manufactured in China since the second century B.C. using mulberry trees, bark, leaves, rags, and other organinc material but the process was unknown in Europe until the twelfth century. The process progressed across Asia to Morocco and eventually to Spain about 1150. By the time papermaking reached Europe, rags had become the predominant portion of its composite mixture. From Spain, the craft reached (in order)France, Italy, Germany, and finally, England in the middle of the fifteenth century. Prior to the use of paper, skins of sheep, goats, or calves, processed into parchment or vellum, served as the medium used for most documents. For example, in 1456, Gutenberg 's first bible was printed on three hundred sheets of parchment.

When Margery Kempe's Book was penned, all of these three mediums were available. But until the last quarter of the fifteenth century, paper was mostly produced by hand, making its use expensive and limited. Within fifty years, paper was being manufactured in paper mills all over Europe. The Meech and Allen translation of The Book of Margery Kempe reports that the paper used for the extant fifteenth century volume owned by Butler-Bowden was of Dutch origin and had two different watermarks. An educational source on the internet (cindy.bowden@ipst.edu) states that fifteenth century paper would have been made on forms that left distinctive mold markings. These markings would look like stripes and be visible when the paper was held up to the light. The color of the paper would have been light cream color. Watermarks would have been part of the mold which formed the paper and each papermaker of note would have had his own design.

For more information, the following sources would be helpful:

• Paper-making
• Dard Hunter. Papermaking Through Eighteen Centuries. New York: William Edwin Rudge, 1930