Kaitlyn Akel

4/11/2016
Dr. Sexton

Challenging the Notion that the Late Medieval Church was Anti-Body

Late Medieval European Christianity prided itself on rising high above the human flesh

and transcending the material of Earth. There were many clerical decrees dictated by Pope

Innocent III in 1215 (Coon, 3/29/2016) that truly structured that stigma by proposing many anti-

indulgence and anti-sexual canons and imposing them on priests (Coon, 3/29/2016), so that they

can better transcend the Earth and become better channels to the divine. Additionally, there were

plenty of restrictions imposed on women as well, as their value was dictated on how pure and

sexually ignorant they were; the more abstinent a woman was, the more virtuous and spiritual

she was considered. From these depositions, it is easy to see how the Late Medieval Church is

arguably anti-body, and against its natural expression.

However, this is not the case. There are many evidences that argue the opposite. The

Church was not entirely anti-body, and at times, The Church was unopposed to the unspiritual

expression of human bodies in order to achieve some sort of transcendent feeling with Christ.

The interpersonal, interspatial, and interfemale experiences of the English businesswoman

Margery Kempe (Coon, 3/29/2016) embodies this argument, and shows that Late Medieval

Christians’ are rather promotive of their physical depositions, instead of adamantly against them.

While Late Medieval Christians strived futilely to remain anti-body and in denial of the

flesh, Margery Kempe’s interpersonal experiences, specifically in her relationship with Jesus

Christ, advocate otherwise. Her attempts to become virginal again while being a wife and a

mother (Long, 4/12/2016) are not taken seriously by those who know her, specifically, her

husband, who believes she is a “no good wife” (Kempe, 58). This can be attributed to the fact
that at the time, a woman’s worth could be based off whether she was a virgin, a widow, or a

wife, the latter being of the least value, because in a society that claims to be anti-body, a woman

who has the least experience with the body is considered more spiritual, because they would

resemble the nature of the Virgin Mary (Long, 4/12/2016). This mindset was turned into a point

system that was justified by Matthew 13:23: “…This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a

hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” (Long, 4/12/2016) Thus, under this context,

Margery was on the lowest tier, as she was not only a wife, but also the mother of fourteen

children (Coon, 3/29/2016); by these standards, she gets “thirty fold the fruits of chastity” as

opposed to a virgin getting “one hundred fold” (Long, 4/12/2016).

However, her relationship with Jesus Christ negates the influence of this religious dogma

and, therefore, contradicts the assumption that the Late Medieval Church was anti-body. In her

attempts to remain pure and chaste, her relationship with Jesus develops into something that is

not strictly spiritual; in fact, it becomes very pro-body. They marry (Kempe, 126), and Jesus

encourages sexual intimacy between them, like an earthly couple: “Daughter, you greatly desire

to see me, and you may boldly, when you are in bed, take me to you as your wedded husband...”

(Kempe, 126). This interaction is a sexual connotation; the fact that this relationship is insinuated

by Jesus Christ denotes acceptance of sexual relationships in his eyes, meaning a woman does

not have to be a virgin to be accepted and loved by Jesus, which invalidates the point system

dictated by The Church. Additionally, since Margery was illiterate, and her story was mediated

by male scribes and clergymen (Long, 3/31/2016), they were heavily subjected to these

interactions. The fact that they heard her story and recorded it implies at least a modicum of

acceptance of the sexuality associated with her relationship with Jesus Christ, which indicates
that The Church is not quite as anti-body as their dogma claims, as there was no explicit

resistance to documenting her story.

Additionally, Margery’s interspatial experiences also indicate that the Late Medieval

Church was not anti-body, as not only are the buildings of her time modeled after human

anatomical structures (Sexton, 4/7/2016), but also encourage the human interaction with the

material of liturgical tradition. In her story, Margery makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and while

visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, she is overcome with such a visceral experience:

“…she fell down because she could not stand or kneel, but writhed and wrestled with her body,

spreading her arms out wide, and cried with a loud voice as though her heard would have burst

apart…” (Kempe, 104). It is curious that this corporeal episode involving her splayed arms,

(modeling Christ’s death)

should happen in the Church of

the Holy Sepulchre because the

building is designed to resemble

the body of Christ transfixed on

a cross. (see figure 1).

When examining the

image, one can see how this is

very possible. The entrance to

the church exists on the left side

Figure 1: Floor Plan of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
of Christ’s torso, where the (Sexton, 4/14/2016)

spear wound he received at his death was given, so when Margery enters the church, she is

literally entering the body of Jesus Christ through something so historically significant at that
time as his side wound (Coon, 3/29/2016). Additionally, the Catholicon is modeled after a chest

cavity, as well as other vital organs such as the liver, or stomach. This is significant because

those who attend liturgy at this Church worship specifically in that space (Sexton, 4/14/2016). If

the Catholicon represents some of the human body’s most vital organs, the bodies of those who

make up the congregation are interacting together throughout the liturgy as the most vital

components of that cavity, keeping Christ’s body, in other words The Church, alive, both

figuratively through spreading God’s word, and literally, through participation in liturgical

services.

Another physical space that Margery most likely inhabited was the York Minster

Cathedral near her town of King’s Lynn in England (see figure 2). This cathedral is of the Gothic

architectural style (Sexton 4/14/2016), although it does

Figure 2: Floor plan of York Minster

Cathedral (Sexton, 4/14/2016)

not closely resemble the French cathedrals, like St.

Quentin (see figure 3), whose primary transepts are

smaller than York Minster’s and contains more

Figure 3: Floor plan of St.
originally Gothic features such as a circular chevet and Quentin (Shortell, 36)

choir in the apse (Shortell, 36). Both of these buildings are modeled after a body as well, as they
both have high ceilings and ribbed vaults, representing tendons connecting muscles and

membrane to other bones and

structures throughout the

cathedrals. To continue, alike the

Church of the Holy Sepulchre,

York Minster’s transepts are

obviously analogous to a

cruciform. Additionally, its

specific internal features are very

Figure 4: Inside of York Minster Cathedral
reminiscent of a chest cavity (see (Sexton, 4/14/2016)
figure 4), with the open airways on the cathedral’s sides representing spaces between ribs. The

top part of the ribbed vault acts as a sternum, and is attached to the ribs by the vaulted webs that

act like ligaments. Towards the back of the chest, the space narrows, indicating the neck of a

body, holding up its head, in other words, the very back of the far transept. It is interesting to

note that Communion, where the ingested bread and wine transmute into the flesh and blood of

Jesus Christ (Coon, 3/29/2016), occurs at the neck. When Margery partakes of this sacrament,

and returns to her seat in the cathedral, she, like other members of the congregation are filled

with the body and blood of Christ, in the chest cavity containing vital organs; they are serving

the same liturgical purpose as within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Thus, physical human

presence and physical participation in the ritual is required for The Church’s longevity, therefore,

the Late Medieval Church is not an anti-body institution.

Lastly, Margery’s interfemale experiences, particularly her relationship with the Virgin

Mary, also indicates that the church was not anti-body. As her relationship with Christ
developed, Margery became well acquainted with the Virgin Mary as well. The pair of women

develop a relationship too, with Margery being the self-assumed unworthy “creature” and the

Virgin Mary being the reassuring, kind matriarch. There comes a point in Margery’s relationship

with Jesus Christ where she feels so unworthy and unassured of the love Christ has for her, so he

employs the help of his mother who brings her “sure tidings” (Kempe, 85), and tells her, “I am

your mother, your lady and your mistress, to teach you in every way how you shall please God

best.” (Kempe, 86). This statement has an air of feminine solidarity in it, because in it, Christ’s

mother exploits the commonality between Margery’s and the Virgin’s natures: they are both

mothers, and they have both experienced childbirth (Long, 3/31/2016). This solidarity created

through a bodily process possible among all women connects Margery to the Virgin and seems

to strip away the stigmas associated with their natures. To each other, they become equally

important women in Christ’s eye, evident by when he tells Margery, “And because you are a

maiden in your soul, I shall take you by the one hand in heaven, and my mother by the other, and

so you shall dance in heaven with the other holy maidens…” (Kempe, 88). Furthermore, the fact

that this interaction that connects them via their experiences with a process so fleshy and

unspiritual occurs shows how little the Late Medieval Church dogma matters in the eyes of Jesus

Christ and his Mother. Thus, the interfemale relationship that Margery has with the Virgin Mary

implies that The Church is antibody, as they are implicitly connected through such a visceral

somatic process.

There are many evidences that suggest that the Late Medieval Church was less focused

on the earthly body, and more focused on spiritual transcendence. However, through the

examination of the experiences of Margery Kempe, one finds that it is not so clear cut. Her

relationship with Jesus Christ is one that is so earthly and carnal, one finds themselves unable to
find a way in which that relationship exudes a modicum of spiritual experience. Additionally, the

interspatial experience that Margery has on her pilgrimages and travels suggest more than

extravagant windows and elevated ceilings, but instead ambulation through the body of Christ,

the ingestion of his body and blood, and the interactions between the members of the

congregation in this anatomical space. Lastly, Margery’s interfemale relationship with the Virgin

Mary connects them through childbirth and motherhood, which strips away the spirituality

associated with the Mother of God and elevates Margery to the same rank as the Virgin in the

eyes of Christ. Thus, The Church is not as anti-body as history suggests.

Word Count: 1743

 Works Cited (in order of use):

Coon, Lynda. “Material Christianity.” University of Arkansas. JB Hunt Room 144, Fayetteville,

AR. 29 March 2016. Lecture.

Long, Mary. “The Pilgrimages of Margery Kempe.” University of Arkansas. JB Hunt Room 144,

Fayetteville, AR. 12 April 2016. Lecture.

Kempe, Margery. The Book of Margery Kempe. Trans. B. A. Windeatt. London: Penguin Books,

1985. Print.

Long, Mary. “The Book and Body of Margery Kempe.” University of Arkasnas. JB Hunt Room

144, Fayetteville, AR. 31 March 2016. Lecture.

Sexton, Kim. “Holy Land Pilgrimage in Later Middle Ages.” University of Arkansas. JB Hunt

Room 144, Fayetteville, AR. 7 April 2016. Lecture.

Sexton, Kim. “Gothic Spaces and the Body in Northern Europe.” University of Arkansas. JB

Hunt Room 144, Fayetteville, AR. 14 April 2016.

Shortell, Ellen M. “Dismembering Saint Quentin: Gothic Architecture and the Display of

Relics.” Gesta, Volume 36, No. 1 (1997): pages 32-47. Web.