Marginally Important People Born in the 14th Century

History likes to record really important people, but there are loads of totally-deserving marginally important people out there who accomplished possibly-interesting things. And so I will write about them. Today's post will cover two marginally important ladies who were born in the 14th century (despite the really short average life expectancies, they both survived into the 15th century).

This first person was likely the first woman to write a book in the English language, but you probably haven't heard of her. Her name, Julian of Norwich, actually comes from the church she spent most of her time at (the Church of St. Julian in Norwich, if you hadn't already figured that out). She was an anchoress (or hermit, but anchoress does sound nicer, doesn't it?) at St. Julian, and was fairly well known during her life (1342-1416) for her mystic visions and theology.

 St. Julian of Norwich (1342-1416)

Her theology differed quite a bit from the prevailing thought of the time. You might remember that around this time, the Black Plague was ravaging Europe, and a series of violent peasant revolts made people think that life as they knew it was ending. Popular theology said that humanity was being punished by God, but Julian firmly believed that God loved everyone and was looking out for them (I'm not sure exactly what she made of the Black Plague, but I'm sure she had an explanation). She also figured that God should be a mother and a father (leading more modern scholarship to say she was a proto-feminist). Unsurprisingly, her views on God's motherliness were rather controversial, but luckily no one really came after her for it.

Her theology comes after a series of visions she had while she was in her thirties, in which God spoke to her. She later recorded these visions and her interpretations of their meanings in The Long Text and Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love. Thinking about it, Julian is a little bit like Teresa of Avila, she just lived two hundred years earlier. Interestingly (probably because she is English), Julian is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, and the Lutheran Church.

Our next lady of the day comes from roughly the same time period and is quasi-famous for roughly the same things. Her name is Margery Kempe, and she is known for writing the Book of Margery Kempe, which might be the first autobiographical work in the English language. Unlike Julian, Kempe was married and had somewhere along the lines of 14 kids. However, during one of her pregnancies, she had a vision where God insisted she try to give up temptation and lead a better life. She decided to dedicate her life to a spiritual calling and began to go on pilgrimages (this is way more complicated than it sounds, because marriage in the Middle Ages is a tricky thing. If you're a nun or a woman of God, then legally, you should be technically married to the Lord- the law actually says that! However, divorces are rarely allowed back then either, and marriages are almost completely impossible to get out of, so it was less easy for Kempe to go off and become a religious woman than you might think. Instead, she had to negotiate a celibacy arrangement with her husband-no cheating on God is allowed- in order to take vows to go on pilgrimages).

Margery Kempe (1373- c1478)

Unlike Julian, Kempe caught quite a bit of flack for her writings and actions. Some dismissed her as a madwoman, but modern scholarship seems to exonerate her from these claims (I don't really know how they decided that). Either way, she is venerated by the Anglican Church (I'm starting to wonder how many people they venerate, and what exactly comes as a benefit of being venerated).