Miraculous Translation in The Book of Margery Kempe

During the later Middle Ages, a small number of holy men and women, including St. Dominic, Vincent Ferrer, Colette of Corbie, and Clare of Montefalco are said to have experienced the gift of xenoglossia, miraculously being able to speak (or be understood) in languages previously unknown to the speaker, or a variation of this miracle, the miraculous ability to read or write a foreign language.¹ To this list must be added Margery Kempe, whose Book describes, among a number of miracles, two instances of miraculous translation brought about through her intercessory prayers. These miracles, one spoken and one written, reveal something significant about Margery's relationships with saintly models and clerical guides. An examination of these moments of miraculous translation in the context of hagiographic accounts of xenoglossia will contribute to the ongoing discussion of how Margery models her behavior and text on the expectations and patterns of sacred biographies, particularly those of women visionaries, for whom language miracles serve an important role of asserting their authority as bearers of the divine Word. As both moments of miraculous translation are moments of Margery's being heard and understood by priests, these instances speak to her complicated relationships with clerics. In claiming the apostolic miracle, with its direct access to foreign translation, the self-proclaimed illiterate visionary sidesteps traditional clerical power and learning. At the same time, however, these miracles serve to convince priests to aid and believe her and are part of the important clerical witnessing and supporting of her text.

The first example of miraculous translation is experienced by the priest (often called the "second scribe") to whom Margery appeals to write her book after the death of the first scribe. The priest, who initially could not read the poorly written "neither good English nor German" first draft of the Book, discovers to his surprise, after much prayer (both his own and Margery's), that the text is much easier to read than it was previously. He describes this episode in the two prologues or proems with which he introduces the Book. Although the miraculous quality of this event is not emphasized in the earlier version of the proem, when the proem is rewritten the priest elaborates upon the efficacy of Margery's prayers in bringing about the creation of her text. Indeed, through Margery two miracles of reading are described in the scene: the first a miracle of "inner sight" or comprehension (involving both reading and translation) and the second a miracle of physical sight, when the priest's vision is restored after his eyes have failed him.²

The second example of miraculous translation occurs while Margery is in Rome on pilgrimage. She is forced to find a new confessor because her fellow English pilgrims at the hospice of St. Thomas of Canterbury have abandoned her. When she desires to speak and confess to a German priest who cannot understand English, Margery is not deterred. After thirteen days of prayer, the priest is able to understand Margery's English (and she can understand him), although he can understand no one else's English. Margery refers to, and indeed elaborates upon, this miracle several times in the account of her Roman pilgrimage. It is quite an important miracle for her, as she describes it in more detail than any other miraculous event in the Book.

These two experiences of extraordinary linguistic achievement in Margery's text are modeled closely upon the miracle of the "gift of tongues" experienced by a relatively small number of prominent holy men and women in the later Middle Ages. The medieval manifestations of the gift arise from the description of Pentecost in the New Testament. Acts 2.4-8 describes the gift bestowed upon the apostles as being that of recognizable human language:³ "Et repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto et coeperunt loqui aliis linguis prout Spiritus Sanctus dabat eloqui illis erant autem in Hierusalem habitantes Iudaei viri religiosi ex omni na-tione quae sub caelo sunt facta autem hac voce convenit multitudo et mente confusa est quoniam audiebat unusquisque lingua sua illos lo-quentes...