Chapter 26
- And so Kempe finally sets out on her journey for Jerusalem. First, she clears her family debts before leaving with the inheritance from her father, as per the agreement with her husband.
- It isn't long before Kempe's constant weeping and speaking of the love of God completely annoy the company with which she is traveling. They mock her and treat her badly. Kempe is devastated, because she really wants them to like her.
- Finally, Kempe's traveling companions tell her that they are taking her maidservant and parting ways.
- Kempe takes up with another party but finds herself treated even worse by them. They cut up her gown to make her look like a fool and seat her by herself at dinner.
- Kempe has a bad time of it, but in the end, she still prays for the safety of the group when it looks like they might be compromised.
- In the end, she safely completes part of her journey (to Constance, on the Rhine River in Germany), though she's miserable.
Chapter 27
- Kempe finds a sympathetic English friar who is legate to the pope to undertake her cause in Constance. He listens to her life story and promises to help her.
- The friar is a very prominent figure, so the wretched company with which Kempe is traveling naturally wants to invite him to dinner.
- The friar asks Kempe to act just in the way she normally does during dinner so that he can see for himself how she is being treated.
- When the friar gets there, he sees how things are. He brings it up during dinner, and the company complains to him of Kempe's tears and refusal to eat meat. Can't he fix her, they wonder?
- The friar flatly refuses to order Kempe to stop her behavior, since her tears are gifts of the Holy Spirit, and those who can abstain from meat should.
- But the friar does tell Kempe to stop talking about God until she gets into more appreciative company.
- The wicked company of people is outraged by the friar's words, and they kick Kempe out of their group. They keep her maidservant and some of her money, however.
- But the English friar treats Kempe well and arranges everything for her travel on to Bologna and Venice.
- Kempe prays for good help on her journey, and when she leaves the church, an old man named William Wever offers his company to her. Remember Christ's promise that a broken-backed old man would help her?
- Wever is afraid that they will be mugged on the journey. Kempe keeps in mind the biblical story of the woman taken in adultery (John 8:1-11) and prays to God to be protected from enemies.
- But Kempe and Wever make it to Bologna without any unpleasantness, and Kempe finds good company there.
- Until, that is, Kempe meets up with her old, wicked companions she had left in Constance. They are amazed that she got to Bologna before them, and they want her to rejoin the company.
- For some reason, Kempe does. Her companions tell her that she can't talk about God anymore—she can only party with them. She agrees.
- The group makes it to Venice. They hang out there for thirteen weeks waiting for a ship to take them to Jaffa.
- But of course, Kempe can't keep her promise not to speak of God. Pretty soon, she's exiled to her room for six weeks, during which time she nearly dies. But then she doesn't.
- Once again, Kempe's companions isolate her and take away her maidservant.
Chapter 28
- Kempe's "companions" arrange, as a group, everything they need for the passage from Venice to Jerusalem—but they do nothing for her.
- Kempe's feelings are hurt, but she pulls herself together and makes the arrangements on her own. Then she goes back to the group and tells them that she did it all for herself.
- But God speaks to Kempe's mind and tells her not to take passage in the same ship as her company. He gives her the name of a better, safer ship to take.
- And for some reason, Kempe tells her company about the message from God. They can't stand her, but they're also superstitious, so they change ships as well and follow Kempe.
- Do they treat her better after that? Of course not. Kempe tells us about the abuses she suffers at the hands of her fellow travelers, including the outrageous behavior of a priest.
- But when she gets to Jerusalem, Kempe apologizes for her annoying behavior and freely forgives all the jerks she's been traveling with. We are impressed.
- As Kempe approaches Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, she is overcome with emotion to be in the place where Jesus lived and died.
- Kempe tells us that she nearly "falls off her ass." We kid you not.
- While in Jerusalem, Kempe's tears increase, and a new dimension is added to her expressions: screaming (which she calls "crying" or "crying out").
- It happens a lot, and pretty much everywhere Kempe goes, because she is feeling great sorrow at the suffering and death of Christ.
- People are overwhelmed by Kempe's loud and frightening behavior, and they say terrible things about her. She understands and tries to control it, but she can't.
- Kempe digresses a little to tell us that her "cryings" continue when she gets back to England and become a huge problem for her.
- In Jerusalem, Kempe's crying actually exhausts her physically. When she comes to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christ was crucified, she can't contain her response.
- Kempe explains that she is actually seeing Christ in front of her, suffering in real time. This causes her to scream, fall, and writhe on the ground.
- Kempe also sees Christ in other people who are suffering: children and dogs being beaten in the street, people with wounds, and so on.
- Kempe's been pretty good about taking criticism for her weeping, but now she gets a little mad.
- People have compassion when someone is mourning a lost love or friend, she says. If they wouldn't stop a grieving friend from crying and yelling, why do they bother her?
- Kempe feels she has much more reason for sorrow, since she can see her Savior being torn to bits before her eyes.
- Kempe thinks that people have their priorities wrong, and she takes the opportunity to wag her finger at them.
Chapter 29
- More weeping in the Holy Land.
- When Kempe approaches the sepulcher of Christ, she falls down. She also has a revelation of Mary's sorrow at the death of her son and feels her pain.
- Kempe visits Calvary and sees the Stone of Anointing, where she continues to weep. And not just weep: she screams out "amazingly." Kempe is still re-living Christ's experiences in these places—and she is having deep conversations with God all the while.
- Kempe tells us that the subjects of these conversations were so high and divine that she can't even describe the content of them to us. She just doesn't have the words to translate the emotions.
- The Franciscan friars are leading Kempe's group around Jerusalem and take them along the Via Dolorosa to experience the steps of Jesus's passion and death.
- Kempe visits the Franciscan convent on Mount Zion, which was supposed to house the place where Jesus and his disciples ate the Last Supper.
- Kempe especially wants to take Communion in this place, because this is where Jesus instituted the sacrament itself. Of course, there's a lot of weeping and screaming.
- Kempe also visits the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. She chats with both Mary and Jesus here.
- Jesus tells Kempe that she doesn't have to travel to Rome or Santiago de Compostela to clear away her sins (he's already forgiven her), but he wants her to, anyway.
- Mary once again tells Kempe not to be ashamed of weeping. Everybody cries with grief, she says. Even herself and Mary Magdalene.
- The chapter ends with Kempe visiting Bethlehem, the place of Jesus's birth. She weeps more.
- Kempe's traveling companions are so, so done with her. They make her eat by herself, but the Franciscan friars/tour guides take pity on her and let her join their table.
- One of the friars asks her traveling companions if Kempe is the holy Englishwoman they'd all heard about.
- This encourages Kempe, because Jesus had promised her that the whole world would marvel at her.
Chapter 30
- Kempe has to deal with more bullying nonsense in this chapter. This time, her companions don't want her to accompany them on a side-trip to the Jordan River.
- Kempe's feelings are hurt—and she super wants to go. So she puts on her big girl pants and decides not to ask their permission for once. She goes and burns up in the heat.
- Kempe travels also to Mt. Quarentyne, where it is believed that Christ fasted for forty days and was tempted by Satan.
- Naturally, Kempe's traveling companions won't help her up the mountain, so she pays a "Saracen man" (i.e. a Muslim man) to help her reach the top.
- The Muslim man is good-looking and nice, so Kempe wins. She travels to St. John the Baptist's birthplace, Bethany (home of Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus).
- Kempe visits the Chapel of the Apparition at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (on a second visit), and lots of other places.
- Kempe tells us that she gets on well with the Franciscans at the Holy Sepulchre and with the Muslim escorts throughout the city. Only her English companions loathe her.
- Finally, Christ speaks to Kempe and tells her it's time to hit the road. She's bound for Rome and then home again to England.
- Once Kempe gets to Venice again, her English companions flatly refuse to travel with her. She's on her own.
- But do you remember Kempe's confessor's prophecy back in England? That she would meet a broken-backed man to help her? Well, that happens now.
- His name is Richard, and like William Wever on the way out, he's afraid that he's too frail to protect Kempe from thieves and rapists. Kempe tells him it's all good, and they set out.
- Soon, Kempe and Richard meet up with some Franciscan friars and a woman, and they make up a party to Rome.
- The woman traveling with the group has a picture of Christ with her, and when they stop, she takes it out for people to venerate. Kempe loves them all the more for their devotion. She weeps.
- Kempe soon realizes that the Franciscans and Italians really get her. Whenever she weeps out of devotion, they sense she is holy and take care of her.