Effective Devotion In The Book Of Margery Kempe

Affective devotion often focused on, or was expressed through the physical. Explain the significance of tears for affective pious practices.

“This creature had contrition and great compunction with plenteous tears and many violent sobbings for her sins…beholding her own wickedness, she might but sorrow and weep and ever pray for mercy and forgiveness…” – The Book of Margery Kempe

In the European Middle Ages, weeping such as this one from the Book of Margery Kempe became a significant feature of religious expression. Violent and uncontrollable episodes of weeping characterised the spiritual lives of mystic and spiritual figures such as Margery Kempe, who was known for crying and praying for hours at a time. Weeping was a symbolic, physical performance of affective devotion. So called ‘affective devotion’ was a …show more content…
At the time, the sincerity of female tears had come under question and accounts of crying became quite conscious of this. Accounts of mystics’ lives and the like, were important for communicating messages to their audiences about the chosen figure. For example, Margery Kempe’s book described all her crying episodes as gifts from God that she is unable to control. The Sarum Missal is a votive mass for tears that prayed "All powerful and merciful God, who brought forth a spring of living water from the earth for thirsting people, draw forth tears of compunction from the hardness of our hearts, so that we might be able to grieve for our sins and merit receiving their remission from your pity.” The sinful hearts of humanity are unable to achieve the sincerity and purity need to weep for their sins. Tears were sent from God as gifts to individuals to allow them to respond to him appropriately. The language of these accounts were chosen to show the power of God and the irrepressibility of tears, and hence the great sincerity and truth, that is inherent in their