Chapter 46
- Kempe makes her way to Leicester (about 70 miles northeast of Hailes Abbey). She makes the journey with Thomas Marchale's protection.
- When Kempe enters the church there, the "fire of love" consumes her. There is much weeping and screaming.
- This time, Kempe runs into some serious trouble. She is called before John Arnesby, Mayor of Leicester, to account for her strange behavior.
- Arnesby has no good opinion of Kempe and sends for the jailer to take her away. But the jailer explains that he has no separate holding cell for women.
- Kempe begs not to be jailed with the men (she fears being raped), so the jailer takes her home to his wife and vouches for her.
- The jailer locks Kempe into a nice room, lets her eat with his own family, and permits her to go to church whenever she wants.
Chapter 47
- Now the Steward of Leicester visits Kempe at the jailer's house and speaks Latin to her. Kempe sensibly tells him to speak English to her.
- The steward has no good opinion of Kempe and questions her, hoping to catch her in heresy—or at least a lie. But it doesn't work, and the steward gets pretty hot. He curses at her and threatens to rape her.
- The steward says that Kempe must tell him whether her talk is divinely inspired or from Satan.
- Now things get really tense.
- The steward "struggles with" Kempe, making lewd "signs" to her.
- Kempe, frightened out of her mind, tells the steward that her speech comes from the Holy Spirit. The steward immediately stops his advances and hands her back to the kind jailer. Whew.
- Now Kempe's friend Thomas Marchale and other fellow pilgrims are thrown in prison because of their acquaintance with Kempe.
- Christ tells Kempe not to worry: they won't be in jail for long. The next day, there are terrible storms. The people in the town say that God is unhappy about the jailed pilgrims.
- The pilgrims are immediately taken out of jail and brought before the mayor to be questioned about Kempe. They say she is a "chaste" woman, and the mayor frees them.
- The storm stops. The pilgrims high-tail it out of Leicester and hole up ten miles from there so that they can still hear news of Kempe, who they fear will be burned.
Chapter 48
- It's Kempe's turn to undergo examination by the Abbot, Dean, and many other Notable Men of Leicester. This happens at All Saints' Church in the High Street, not far from the Guild Hall, where she was already questioned by the mayor.
- The dudes ask Kempe what she believes about the Eucharist (they're checking to see if she is a Lollard). Her answer is a good one.
- The mayor behaves badly, even though he's in a church. Kempe takes his lewd language as an insult against her chastity. She schools him hard and tells him he isn't worthy to be mayor.
- The mayor asks Kempe about her white clothes. Kempe tells him to step off: she'll only speak to religious men about this.
- In the end, the horrid mayor refuses to let Kempe off the hook unless she goes back to the Bishop of Lincoln for a letter saying that she's legit.
- Now Kempe is pleased, since she and the Bishop of Lincoln are BFFs (see Chapter 15). Win.
- Somehow, Kempe leaves the place "in charity" with the mayor—meaning that she bears him no ill will. He pretends to be nice to her in return.
Chapter 49
- So off Kempe pops to Leicester Abbey to pray.
- When the good abbot and his men greet her, Kempe sees them as Christ and his Apostles coming to welcome her. She cries. A lot.
- The abbot and his men give Kempe food and drink and, most importantly, a letter from the abbot to the Bishop of Lincoln summing up Kempe's current difficulties.
- We find out that the Dean of Leicester is willing to vouch for Kempe because he thinks that God loves her. Score one for Kempe.
- Kempe's friend and traveling companion Thomas Marchale (see Chapter 45) sends a man called Patrick to get news about Kempe. (He fears that she has been burned at the stake.)
- Patrick accompanies Kempe to Lincoln. But Kempe forgets her bag and a souvenir from her pilgrimage to the Holy Land back in Leicester, so Patrick goes back to retrieve it.
- Patrick's confronted by the horrid mayor, who wants to put him in prison. Patrick barely escapes, so Kempe's stuff has to stay where it is.
- Kempe tells Patrick that God will reward him for his heroic efforts. He brings her to his own house, reuniting her with Thomas Marchale—who is glad to see she is unburned.
- Kempe makes her way to Lincoln, where she runs into a man she doesn't recognize. He's a bit upset, because he had once been nice to her. Awkward.
- Kempe tells the man that he should do nice things for God's love. She never remembers men's faces, anyway.
- In the end, Kempe gets her letter from the bishop to the Mayor of Leicester. The bishop tells the mayor to step off and leave Kempe alone from now on.
- There are heavy storms in the area, which the people interpret as divine vengeance over the treatment of Kempe. They want her to leave, but she wants her bag back.
- The mayor wants Kempe gone, so he sends her the bag. Patrick accompanies her to York (about 112 miles north of Leicester).
Chapter 50
- In York, Kempe goes to visit an anchoress she had befriended before her trip to Jerusalem.
- But this anchoress heard so many bad things about Kempe that she no longer wants to speak with her.
- Christ warns Kempe that rough times are ahead.
- Kempe says that she is ready and willing to suffer it for his love.
- Kempe tells a cleric that she intends to stay in York for fourteen days. During this time, she finds many friends who welcome her.
- But there's also a lot of slander going around. Kempe gets manhandled by a priest for wearing white clothes. She calls him out for cursing, and they argue.