The Book of Margery Kempe Book I, Chapters 66-70 Summary

Chapter 66

Jesus tells Kempe that it's time to start eating meat again. She'd given it up early in her devotional life, before she was able to live chastely with her husband.
Kempe doesn't really like this command. She thinks that the people who hate her will call her a hypocrite if she starts eating meat again.
Jesus tells Kempe not to worry about the haters. She really only has to be concerned with what he says.
Of course, people make fun of Kempe for eating meat again. She decides that she will fast one day in the week to honor the Virgin Mary. She does this for many years.
But Mary tells Kempe that she needs to quit that, since she needs her strength for all her weeping and screaming.
So Kempe stops fasting.

Things get exciting in Bishop's Lynn in this chapter: the Guildhall of the Trinity burns down in a fire.
The Church of St. Margaret is next to burn, and the townspeople who normally hate Kempe for her weeping won't stop her now. They think she might be able to put in a good word with God.
Kempe advises her confessor to take the consecrated host outside the church (in a monstrance, like this one held by Pope Francis I) and walk with it toward the fire.
Kempe follows and prays for a storm of some kind to keep the flames from spreading.
As she sits in St. Margaret's, Kempe sees the flames sparking there. A man comes to tell her that it has started snowing, and the fire is under control.
Still, some people think Kempe's faking her holiness. Really, they are annoyed that she keeps crying and screaming in public places.
Even when she is by herself in the chapel, Kempe has such an intense experience of Christ's suffering and death (and his mother's suffering, too) that she can't control the screaming and crying.
But there are people who get it, and who see that Kempe has been given a great gift from God. One such person is a cleric who sees her weeping and brings her to a tavern for a drink.
There is also a parson who comes to town to preach and witnesses Kempe's cryings for himself. He notices that the people are irritated by her noise, and he warns them to chill out.
Kempe, he says, has a gift. But the friar still thinks that Kempe is evil, despite the good that others see in her.

Kempe is encouraged in her weeping by a Master Constance, a doctor of divinity who comes to Lynn for a meeting of Preaching Friars (that would be the Dominicans).
Master Constance also kindly warns the other friar about Kempe's habits, so that when she begins to cry out during his sermon, he is able to be patient with her.
This other preacher invites Kempe to Norwich. He becomes one of her patrons and supporters.
An Augustinian friar also comes to preach—this time about Christ's suffering—and witnesses Kempe's "fits" in church.
The Augustinian tells those who grumble to chill, since they don't know how Kempe feels when she hears about the Passion.

Hearing about Christ's suffering is the hardest thing for Kempe, because she can actually see it happening before her eyes. Good Friday is the worst time for her because of this.
One Good Friday, Kempe really tears things up with her cryings. But the clerics deal with her well and don't shame her.
Kempe tells of others who put up with her behavior, and she reminds us that the only one who didn't put up with her was the "Grey Friar" (that's a Franciscan), who spoke openly against her.
Kempe speaks of a time when her very favorite religious friend and doctor of divinity, Master Aleyn, was forbidden to speak with her, because they were together too much.
Kempe is inconsolable, since Master Aleyn was always a strong supporter of her way of life.
Kempe's confessor (Robert Spryngolde) warns her not to speak with Master Aleyn, since he was commanded through his vow of obedience not to see her.
Kempe sees Master Aleyn in the street, but they do not greet each other. It's too much for Kempe, who cries out to God that she has been left by all her clerical friends.
Jesus speaks to Kempe and says that he himself will be her friend, and that she will be allowed to speak with Master Aleyn again in the future.
In the meantime, a new priest comes to town and acts as a confessor and confidant to Kempe.

Master Aleyn falls gravely ill, and everyone thinks he will die. Kempe runs to the church to pray that he doesn't die before she gets to speak to him again.
Jesus tells Kempe that he won't die before she gets to chat with him again like in the old days. Master Aleyn recovers and is allowed to speak with Kempe again. She meets him again at a dinner with a newly-minted nun, and there is much rejoicing.