Margery Of Kempe's Model Of An Ideal Medieval Women

The anonymous author, who wrote The Good Wife’s Guide, completed this guide in order to advise his soon to be wife on proper behavior, publicly and privately. I will be writing about chastity, obedience, and appropriate attire of three medieval women. These women in question are Margery Kempe, Joan of Arc, and Beatrice of Planissoles, in which I will come to a conclusion on who deviated the furthest from the authors model of an ideal medieval woman. I will argue that Margery of Kempe deviated the furthest from the author’s model of an ideal medieval woman. First, one needs to see what the anonymous author stated about women being chaste, devoted, and obedient to their husbands. This is imperative if one intends to understand these women’s

Her first action that betrayed the rules of The Good Wife’s Book, is disobedience towards her husband and public humiliation. In Margery’s Book, it states, “She slandered her husband, her friends and her own self.” Margery’s greatest deviation is her vow of chastity, which is sacred in the eyes of the author of The Good Wife’s Guide. In Margery’s Book it states, “She went to the man aforesaid, so that he could have his lust […]. This creature was so labored and vexed all night, […]. She lay by her husband, and to commune with him was so abominable to her that she could not endure it, […].” This is the greatest form of unacceptable behavior by the author of The Good Wife’s Guide, and he takes this type of act seriously. The anonymous author praising a woman who did not break her chastity states, “O woman full of faith and great loyalty, who so greatly feared God and the sin of violating marriage that she preferred to die rather than let her body be touched basely!” One can see that the mere intention of having an affair is completely against the authors guidelines for the ideal woman. This is why I believe Margery deviates the furthest because she is the only woman to have an extramarital affair, even if the physical act never took place. The intention is the same as the action in the author’s eyes.

Joan of Arc is the purest woman when compared to Beatrice of Planissoles

However, I did not pick her because her heretical actions did not exceed that of Margery of Kemp. Beatrice’s one fatal mistake is the intention of being with another man while married. In the Inquisition Records, it states, “After having so often shared his heretical discourses with me in various times and places and invited me to leave with him, […].” However, Beatrice soon regrets her decisions when she realizes the priest’s anterior motives. Beatrice states, “I see now that your invitations to go to the good Christians were intended only to possess me and know me carnally. If I had not been afraid that my husband would believe that I did something dishonorable with you, I would immediately put you in the dungeon.” She also had sexual relations with a priest constantly out of wedlock, after the previous incident, for over a year. The issue of relations without marriage is unclear in The Good Wife’s Guide, but according to the author’s stance on chastity, I would assume that she fails his representation of an ideal woman. I say this because the author would not accept this as an act of an ideal medieval woman. The author believes that women should be upstanding citizens that dress, act, and behave in a proper manner that does not shame their husband, family, or name. This sexual relationship would shame her family name and rid Beatrice of any righteousness.