"The widespread view that mystical activity in the Middle Ages was a rarefied enterprise of a privileged spiritual elite has led to the isolation of the medieval mystics into a separate, narrowly defined category. Taking the opposite view, this book shows how individual mystical experiences, such as those recorded by Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, are rooted in, nourished, and framed by the richly distinctive spiritual contexts of the period. Arranged by sections corresponding to historical developments, it explores the primary vernacular texts, their authors, and the contexts that formed the expression and exploration of mystical experiences in medieval England."--Page 4 of cover.