Rough draft of my Medieval England research paper on women mystics:
If you name your daughter Theodora, she'll take a vow of chastity, refuse to marry (thereby denying you the economic resources of her person), follow a hermit around, change her name to Christina, and have visions in which she talks to God.
Forget Lollardy, if I had to spend five minutes with Margery Kempe, I'd burn her at the stake. How this woman possibly managed to live so long (and die of natural causes!) I have no idea. Example of Margery's typical interactions with other people:
Because of the compassion that she had for our Lord's Passion she cried so astonishingly loud, and as they had never heard her crying previously it was all the more amazing to them... Some said she had epilepsy, for while she cried she wrested her body about, turning from one side to the other, and turned all blue and grey, like the colour of lead. Then the people spat at her in horror at the illness, and some scorned her and said that she howled like a dog, and cursed her, and said that she did a lot of harm among the people.Anti-psychodic medications would have done wonders for this woman.
THE END.
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