Dr%20Laura%20Varnam: List of publications

This article argues that Margery Kempe is presented as an exemplary parishioner and a supporter of her parish church in The Book of Margery Kempe. It begins by demonstrating that St Margaret’s church and King’s Lynn are placed at the centre of the Book’s mapping of Christian holy places and then analyses the two miracles that take place at St Margaret’s (the stone and beam in chapter 9 and the fire in chapter 67) as evidence of the church’s sanctity and its importance in Margery Kempe’s spiritual life. The article examines three interrelated characteristics of the church (the material, sacred, and communal) in relation to Margery’s identity as a lay woman and in the context of Middle English pastoral care literature. The article concludes that Margery’s role in the miracles and her behaviour in St Margaret’s church demonstrate that the Book presents an ideal church supported by an exemplary parishioner as an inspiration to its readers.

In his influential treatise on poetics, the Poetria Nova (c. 1200), Geoffrey of Vinsauf famously used the metaphor of the architect as a didactic exemplum for the poet.<br/> Geoffrey’s use of the metaphor of the master builder is a cornerstone of late medieval architectural representation and the connection that he sets up between material and poetic composition forms part of the intellectual background to the early fourteenth-century penitential handbook Handlyng Synne by Robert Mannyng (c. 1283–c. 1338) that will be the subject of this article. <br/>In this article, I will show how Robert Mannyng also exploits the didactic potential of architectural construction in his attempt to teach the reader how to ‘handle sin’; rather than constructing a house, Mannyng builds an archetypal parish church and churchyard to frame and locate his pastoral guidance.