I was recently researching the rise of witch-hunts in the late Middle Ages, including the tendency for women saints to be suddenly considered as witches. Since Julian of Norwich was a woman saint of the that era, it is interesting to note a sort of carefulness that comes through in her revelations in
A Revelation of Love. She makes some unusual assertions in this book, such as the Trinity and Mother and Father, and that both men and women are brides of God. The introduction states that the first thought is uniquely Julian; as of the second, I am going to show my ignorance by saying that I do not know if it has been expressed before. But in the paranoid times of the late fourteenth century, new statements regarding Christianity should be safeguarded by other proofs of faith, so as to not be persecuted as a heretic.
Julian must have been aware of her times. For me, the feeling that she was careful in phrasing her revelations comes from the feeling that when readers come away from
A Revelation of Love, they have an overall sensation that it is a book of praise. This distances her from being thought of as a subject of inquiry.
Three writing decisions that might have helped in cementing her status as a devout Christian:
- the language—she presents herself as intellectual and logical
- the praises of God throughout the text—the reader is constantly reminded of her reverence of God.
- ending with the note that her book is to be read by servants of God, and not “heretics”—therefore she literally allies herself with servants of God and differentiates herself from heretics.
Also, since
The Broadview provides only excerpts, I am not sure if she omitted some of her thoughts. The introduction states that she was “unable to embrace the idea of eternal damnation,” which would have been contrary to the teaching of the Church. As is, even though some of her written ideas might be unusual, they do not set her apart as a person who did not completely accept all the teachings of the Church.
**All citations come from
T
he Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Volume 1, the Medieval Period. Ed. Joseph Black,
et al. Vol. 1. Toronto:
Broadview Press, 2006.
1 comment:
I think you're quite right that Julian is everywhere careful to manage her writing so that it avoids the suggestion of heresy.
Two brief footnotes: as well-regarded as Julian may have been by such visitors as Margery Kempe, she was never officially canonized; so while she might be described as 'saintly,' she was not recognized as a 'saint' proper.
And the imagery of both men and women as Christ's spouse is a familiar one, though more often expressed in generalized terms (e.g., the Church as a whole as the 'Bride of Christ') as opposed to the direct imagining of individual men and women as wedded to Christ with real elaboration of the spousal metaphor.
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