0:00:02 > 0:00:04This is the story of a book hidden for centuries
0:00:04 > 0:00:07in the shadows of history.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09Gosh, here it is.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12An unknown jewel of the English canon
0:00:12 > 0:00:15and the first book ever written by a woman -
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Julian of Norwich.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19What a book, what an accomplished and magnificent
0:00:19 > 0:00:21and sophisticated book.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27Revelations of Divine Love, written in 1373,
0:00:27 > 0:00:29dared to present an alternative vision
0:00:29 > 0:00:32of man's relationship with God.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35She is blazing a trail. She's doing something quite unprecedented.
0:00:35 > 0:00:39'A theology fundamentally at odds with the church of her time.'
0:00:39 > 0:00:42You wanted to prevent yourself going to hell.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45'Hidden away for 500 years,
0:00:45 > 0:00:49'the book re-emerged as an iconic text for the women's movement...'
0:00:49 > 0:00:52- Look at this!- May I undo it?- Please!
0:00:52 > 0:00:55'..and is now acknowledged as a classic.'
0:00:57 > 0:01:01It's one of the first great masterpieces of English prose.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05This is the incredible story of the survival of Julian's book.
0:01:05 > 0:01:06We're not going to open it?
0:01:06 > 0:01:09'And the brave women who championed it.'
0:01:09 > 0:01:12We would not have Julian without you and your community.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23Squeeze!
0:01:24 > 0:01:28I'm Dr Janina Ramirez, mother-of-two and Oxford academic
0:01:28 > 0:01:32with a passion for all things medieval.
0:01:32 > 0:01:33Let's get this on.
0:01:35 > 0:01:40So, this is the story, the story of a book -
0:01:40 > 0:01:42The Revelations of Divine Love.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46For me, I first encountered it when I was an undergraduate
0:01:46 > 0:01:50studying Middle English at St Anne's College, Oxford.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53It's captured me ever since.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56'This is an impressive book.
0:01:56 > 0:01:58'It's the expression of a brilliant mind
0:01:58 > 0:02:00'and feels as relevant and fresh today
0:02:00 > 0:02:07'as it did when it was written over 600 years ago in 1373
0:02:07 > 0:02:10'by Julian of Norwich, who was a woman.'
0:02:10 > 0:02:12- Right, all ready for school? BOTH:- Yeah!
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Come on then. Let's get you out to the car.
0:02:15 > 0:02:17'This was a time when most women's lives
0:02:17 > 0:02:19'were confined to the domestic sphere.'
0:02:19 > 0:02:21- Bye!- See you later!
0:02:21 > 0:02:24'Very few women had access to an education.'
0:02:26 > 0:02:29It would be another 500 years before women
0:02:29 > 0:02:31were allowed to study here at Oxford.
0:02:33 > 0:02:34In Medieval England,
0:02:34 > 0:02:38almost all intellectual thought was framed by the church
0:02:38 > 0:02:40and written in Latin by men.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45Women were certainly not encouraged to think or speak about God.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50But, speak or write, Julian did
0:02:50 > 0:02:53in English - the language of ordinary people.
0:02:58 > 0:03:00Her vision of an unconditionally loving God
0:03:00 > 0:03:03was fundamentally at odds with a church
0:03:03 > 0:03:05that believed in eternal damnation.
0:03:07 > 0:03:09In fact, for Julian and those who read her book,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12it was potentially life-threatening.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18I'm starting my exploration of Julian's text
0:03:18 > 0:03:21by reliving a bit of my own history.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25I studied Medieval Literature here at Oxford University.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30My first tutor is now the JRR Tolkien Professor of English,
0:03:30 > 0:03:31Vincent Gillespie.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39So, Vincent, I first fell in love with Julian in your classes
0:03:39 > 0:03:42at the age of 18, learning English Literature with you.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46It's one of the first great masterpieces of English prose
0:03:46 > 0:03:50and the first great masterpiece of English prose written by a woman.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52So, can you read me a little bit of Julian, then?
0:03:52 > 0:03:53Yes, of course.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58- TRANSLATED FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH: - "And these words, Thou shalt not be overcome,
0:03:58 > 0:04:04"was said full sharply and full mightily, forsaken this and comfort
0:04:04 > 0:04:07"against all tribulations that might come.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10"He said not, thou shalt not be tempested.
0:04:10 > 0:04:15"Thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be diseased.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18"But he said, Thou shalt not be overcome."
0:04:19 > 0:04:21We know some big names
0:04:21 > 0:04:24that are coming from around the time of Julian,
0:04:24 > 0:04:25people like Chaucer.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30Does she stand up to being read alongside such a great author?
0:04:30 > 0:04:32That's a big challenge, isn't it? It's a big ask.
0:04:32 > 0:04:36But I think, in terms of the sheer beauty of her prose,
0:04:36 > 0:04:38there's nobody else of that period
0:04:38 > 0:04:40who I think can really challenge her.
0:04:44 > 0:04:46Some scholars have said
0:04:46 > 0:04:48that if Chaucer is the father of English poetry,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51then Julian is the mother of English prose.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56But Chaucer was widely known and read in his own time,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59while Julian and her book, Revelations of Divine Love,
0:04:59 > 0:05:01were cast into oblivion.
0:05:03 > 0:05:09What I find incredible is that this amazing little book survives at all.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12That it does is nothing short of a miracle.
0:05:12 > 0:05:19Almost nothing is known about Julian herself and her text remains unread.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21It was sidelined, repressed,
0:05:21 > 0:05:25vilified and forgotten down the centuries.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29But it was also kept secret, treasured,
0:05:29 > 0:05:33guarded and defended by a series of women.
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Pilgrims, nuns and suffragettes have all played a part.
0:05:42 > 0:05:45The story of the survival of this book is an extraordinary one.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50After all, Julian's text proposes an optimistic theology
0:05:50 > 0:05:53in which God promises her that,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55"All shall be well and all shall be well
0:05:55 > 0:05:59"and all manner of things shall be well".
0:05:59 > 0:06:02To understand why Julian's book was so challenging,
0:06:02 > 0:06:06I'm meeting former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
0:06:07 > 0:06:09If you think, you know, she's the
0:06:09 > 0:06:12first serious woman writer in the English language.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14Certainly the first...
0:06:14 > 0:06:18woman writer to write like that about the things of God.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23So, she's blazing a trail, she's doing something quite unprecedented.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Would you consider Julian to be a radical theologian?
0:06:27 > 0:06:29In a sense, she is a very radical theologian,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32because she thinks things through in first principles.
0:06:32 > 0:06:36It's the time of the burnings of heretics and the Black Death
0:06:36 > 0:06:39and, you know, all those grim aspects of the 14th century.
0:06:41 > 0:06:46And in that world she's not turning away from the reality of suffering,
0:06:46 > 0:06:47not at all.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49And when she writes about the promise
0:06:49 > 0:06:51that all things will be well,
0:06:51 > 0:06:55all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59I don't think the reader feels that it's a bit of...
0:06:59 > 0:07:02empty optimism, it's all going to be all right in the end,
0:07:02 > 0:07:06it's just this steady gaze of God looking at her and saying,
0:07:06 > 0:07:10"Trust me, I will bring it all together."
0:07:10 > 0:07:13And one of the marks of her real genius as a writer
0:07:13 > 0:07:17is that she is able to present that in sequence,
0:07:17 > 0:07:22to sort it out into, not a system, but a kind of story.
0:07:28 > 0:07:31Julian's own story started here in Norwich.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Her book gives few autobiographical details,
0:07:36 > 0:07:40but during her lifetime Norwich was the second city of England.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43A busy, prosperous, mercantile metropolis.
0:07:46 > 0:07:51Today, much of the medieval past is still easily visible
0:07:51 > 0:07:54in the castle, the cathedral, the city wall
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and over 30 medieval churches.
0:08:01 > 0:08:05This modern bridge is named after Julian and the River Wensum
0:08:05 > 0:08:11was actually the secret of Norwich's success during her lifetime.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15The Hundred Years' War was raging on the Continent and the coastal ports
0:08:15 > 0:08:17along the south were vulnerable to attack,
0:08:17 > 0:08:21but Norwich was further upriver, which meant it was safer,
0:08:21 > 0:08:27so people could come in here, trade in goods and ideas.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32Into this cosmopolitan city
0:08:32 > 0:08:35Julian was born in 1343,
0:08:35 > 0:08:39most probably into a reasonably affluent merchant's family.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46You can imagine the vibrancy of the medieval market
0:08:46 > 0:08:48when Julian came here shopping.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52There'd have been lords, artisans, peasants,
0:08:52 > 0:08:55alongside priests and friars
0:08:55 > 0:08:58and then there'd have been all the languages you'd have heard.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01English for the common people, French for the aristocracy,
0:09:01 > 0:09:04Latin for the church, some German,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07some Flemish and perhaps even a spattering of Italian.
0:09:10 > 0:09:13But even though literacy rates were growing at this time,
0:09:13 > 0:09:18probably only 20% of men would be able to read English.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20For women, the rate would be much lower.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27But it would also have been crowded and smelly,
0:09:27 > 0:09:30with slops and offal running in trenches
0:09:30 > 0:09:33down the middle of the street.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37When Julian was just a young girl, six years old,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39plague swept through the city.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43Lying in her bed, she'd have heard the death carts rumbling through the
0:09:43 > 0:09:48alleys and smelt the bodies piling into unmarked pits.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53With accidents and epidemics round every corner, life was tenuous,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56so it was no wonder that people were turning to religion
0:09:56 > 0:09:58for the promise of an eternal life.
0:10:03 > 0:10:07In the 14th century, religious and secular life
0:10:07 > 0:10:09were totally intertwined.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13The church year with its fasts and festivals was as much a part
0:10:13 > 0:10:15of daily life as fetching water from a well.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28We can assume that Julian and her family would have gone regularly
0:10:28 > 0:10:30to church, and for special celebrations,
0:10:30 > 0:10:33they'd have visited the great cathedral.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40It's amazing to think that Julian would have stood here.
0:10:40 > 0:10:42She'd certainly have come to the cathedral
0:10:42 > 0:10:45and would have gone through these doors
0:10:45 > 0:10:47during big celebrations like Easter,
0:10:47 > 0:10:51when all of the city would flock here.
0:10:51 > 0:10:53Little did she know, 700 years later,
0:10:53 > 0:10:56her own statue would be up here.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59She's looking out from the doors of Norwich Cathedral.
0:11:13 > 0:11:15The Church in Julian's time
0:11:15 > 0:11:20was presided over by a feared and unpopular bishop, Henry Despenser,
0:11:20 > 0:11:22known as The Fighting Bishop.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26To find out more about him and his church,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29I'm meeting with the current Bishop of Norwich, Graham James.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33So, tell me a bit more about what the traditional church would have
0:11:33 > 0:11:36been like at the time that Julian lived.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40Well, it would have felt an extremely powerful
0:11:40 > 0:11:42and I think judgmental body.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44I mean, my...
0:11:44 > 0:11:47predecessor then, Henry Despenser,
0:11:47 > 0:11:50saw himself of course as God's servant but also the King's servant.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52He was willing to go into battle,
0:11:52 > 0:11:56he would put down as he did the Peasants' Revolt.
0:11:56 > 0:12:03He would be perfectly content to see Lollards put to death because they
0:12:03 > 0:12:06were protesting against the character of the Church of the time.
0:12:09 > 0:12:11And hell, it was a reality,
0:12:11 > 0:12:14wasn't it, for most people in the medieval period?
0:12:14 > 0:12:18Yes, they feared it, they saw images of it.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22I mean, this cathedral would have been full of paintings of hell,
0:12:22 > 0:12:23every church was.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27You wanted to prevent yourself going to hell
0:12:27 > 0:12:31and hell was a place of terrible and eternal torture,
0:12:31 > 0:12:36and remember these were often people who experienced a great deal
0:12:36 > 0:12:39of pain in their earthly lives,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43so the thought of that pain being intensified forever
0:12:43 > 0:12:45was something you wanted to avoid.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52'It was Bishop Henry Despenser who commissioned this decorative panel
0:12:52 > 0:12:55'to commemorate the suppression of the Peasants' Revolt'.
0:12:57 > 0:12:59I suppose the thing to remember when looking at things like this,
0:12:59 > 0:13:03they're there to help people understand the big themes of Christianity, aren't they?
0:13:03 > 0:13:06Absolutely. These would have been the magazines,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08the newspapers, you know, the websites.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10This is what all this was.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14I think you're so right and again what's remarkable is this dates
0:13:14 > 0:13:16- from Julian's lifetime. - Lifetime, yes.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20So, this is the sort of imagery she would have seen.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22She would have seen it all the time,
0:13:22 > 0:13:24and of course the churches at the time
0:13:24 > 0:13:26were absolutely full of this.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34As a young woman, Julian could be in no doubt that defying the power
0:13:34 > 0:13:37of the Church led to death in this life
0:13:37 > 0:13:40and eternal hellfire in the ever after.
0:13:44 > 0:13:48This thatched building dates back to at least 1420,
0:13:48 > 0:13:50so it gives us some idea of the sort of house
0:13:50 > 0:13:52where Julian could have lived.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57It's now the Britons Arms cafe.
0:13:59 > 0:14:04But where did women fit into this picture of medieval life?
0:14:04 > 0:14:07Well, for most ordinary 14th-century women,
0:14:07 > 0:14:11their lives revolved around the domestic sphere.
0:14:11 > 0:14:13They received very little education
0:14:13 > 0:14:16and most girls were married by the time they were 15.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21We know very little about Julian's early life.
0:14:21 > 0:14:24We can assume that she followed the general custom,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27married and perhaps even had children.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30When she was just 19, the plague came to Norwich again
0:14:30 > 0:14:35and it was in a form that was particularly virulent to children.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39Perhaps she lost a husband and children in this plague?
0:14:41 > 0:14:43From her writing,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46it seems likely that Julian was a devout layperson
0:14:46 > 0:14:49who was familiar with death and sorrow.
0:14:51 > 0:14:53I'm making my way up to the attic room,
0:14:53 > 0:14:55which may have been used as a bedroom.
0:14:57 > 0:15:01Julian describes herself as "an unlettered creature",
0:15:01 > 0:15:03but even if she could read English,
0:15:03 > 0:15:08she'd be unlikely to have access to anything more than a prayer book.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12The majority of books were written in Latin and expensive.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15Even the very wealthy probably had 25 books at the most.
0:15:16 > 0:15:20This really is an atmospheric space.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26Look at those amazing medieval beams
0:15:26 > 0:15:29and you can even see the wattle and daub
0:15:29 > 0:15:32that's gone into making the walls.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36There are these incredible Baltic pine floorboards.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39They date to 1402.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42I could really imagine her being in a room like this.
0:15:49 > 0:15:55When Julian was 30 years old, she herself became ill and nearly died.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58For three days she lay prostrate
0:15:58 > 0:16:02and on the fourth day she was given the last rites.
0:16:02 > 0:16:03But she lingered on.
0:16:03 > 0:16:07With paralysis creeping up her body,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11a priest was called and he brought with him a crucifix,
0:16:11 > 0:16:16which he held up before her eyes as the darkness came closer.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26Julian entered into a visionary state,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29where the crucifix became living and real.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32She had a series of mystical revelations,
0:16:32 > 0:16:36in which God spoke directly to her, a simple woman.
0:16:36 > 0:16:41She now had a direct, bodily experience of the divine.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53I'm really excited.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55I'm going behind the scenes at the British Museum
0:16:55 > 0:16:57to a place I haven't been before.
0:16:57 > 0:16:59I'm going to see a crucifix,
0:16:59 > 0:17:03which may have been the type that Julian actually gazed on
0:17:03 > 0:17:05as she thought she was dying.
0:17:11 > 0:17:15Well, we've got a lovely example here
0:17:15 > 0:17:19of a 15th-century figure of Christ.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22The cross has been lost and his arms originally would've come upwards
0:17:22 > 0:17:27at quite a sharp angle and quite a lot of care has been taken
0:17:27 > 0:17:32to paint on these very gory, dripping bits of blood.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35The crucifixion itself wasn't necessarily a bloody act.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Most people that are crucified suffocate
0:17:38 > 0:17:41from the pressure of their bodies pulling down on the cross,
0:17:41 > 0:17:43but in the 15th century,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47there's an increasing elaboration on the blood
0:17:47 > 0:17:49that came out during the crucifixion.
0:17:51 > 0:17:57I can really picture the scene in Julian's sickroom.
0:17:57 > 0:17:59She's ill,
0:17:59 > 0:18:01she thinks she's about to die
0:18:01 > 0:18:05and the priest holds a crucifix up in front of her
0:18:05 > 0:18:10and she sees a vision of pain, of suffering.
0:18:11 > 0:18:17She says, "And in this suddenly I saw the red blood trickle down
0:18:17 > 0:18:24"from under the garland, hot and freshly, plenteously and vividly."
0:18:24 > 0:18:29She is describing this hot blood, this pain
0:18:29 > 0:18:32and it's amazing to be in the presence of an object
0:18:32 > 0:18:34that would've inspired her.
0:18:36 > 0:18:38But Julian didn't die.
0:18:38 > 0:18:44'Over the next day and night, she had 16 visions, or revelations.'
0:18:44 > 0:18:48It's quite moving, seeing that crucifix.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52It actually really helps me to make sense of her revelations.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55It's also amazing to think that after she saw that,
0:18:55 > 0:18:58her life changed completely.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13'As a mystic, Julian now had a direct relationship with God,
0:19:13 > 0:19:15'unmediated by the church.
0:19:15 > 0:19:17'She made a drastic decision.
0:19:17 > 0:19:20'She became an anchoress.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24'An anchoress was a female religious hermit,
0:19:24 > 0:19:26'who devoted her life to God
0:19:26 > 0:19:30'by living as a solitary, walled up in just one small room.'
0:19:34 > 0:19:36Julian spent the rest of her life in a cell
0:19:36 > 0:19:39attached to Saint Julian's church in Norwich.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45'She may even have taken the name of the church.'
0:19:47 > 0:19:50Wow! Look at this place, it's amazing.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54The original church was bombed in the Second World War,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57but has since been restored.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01It's incredible to think that on this spot
0:20:01 > 0:20:06Julian would've taken her anchoritic vows of poverty,
0:20:06 > 0:20:10chastity and stability of abode.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13She was essentially dying to the world,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17and as she'd have sat here during those rites,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20it would be like being a witness at your own funeral.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24It's also incredible to think that, once she went inside this room,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27she wasn't to come out again for the rest of her life.
0:20:39 > 0:20:40And this is it.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44The room where Julian spent the rest of her life.
0:20:44 > 0:20:50It's amazing to think of someone being in one room for 30 years.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52This isn't actually the original,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56but it is built on the foundations of the 14th-century cell
0:20:56 > 0:20:58that Julian stayed in.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01In fact, Julian might even be buried underneath here,
0:21:01 > 0:21:05as a number of anchorites were buried beneath their cells.
0:21:05 > 0:21:07There'd have been three windows,
0:21:07 > 0:21:11the first one here that looked out onto the street
0:21:11 > 0:21:14and here she might have acted almost like an agony aunt,
0:21:14 > 0:21:19providing counsel to the people who passed by on this very busy road
0:21:19 > 0:21:23to the port, and here she could provide counsel to everybody,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26from lords and ladies to prostitutes.
0:21:26 > 0:21:29Then there would've been another window over here
0:21:29 > 0:21:31that looked out to an alcove,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34and here Julian would've had a maid,
0:21:34 > 0:21:38provided her with food and drink and also removed any waste,
0:21:38 > 0:21:41so, all the nitty-gritty of life.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Then there was one more window up here,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46which looked out into the church,
0:21:46 > 0:21:51and from here Julian would be able to watch the service and take part
0:21:51 > 0:21:54in the daily activities of the church.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03God had spoken directly to Julian.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08But the problem was her God was unconditionally loving,
0:22:08 > 0:22:13caring for all humanity with the tender love of a mother
0:22:13 > 0:22:14for her children,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18looking on sinners with pity, not blame.
0:22:18 > 0:22:19In other words,
0:22:19 > 0:22:23Julian's God was fundamentally at odds
0:22:23 > 0:22:26with the views of the church at her time.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32Given how dangerous some of these ideas were,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Julian simply could've kept them to herself,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39but instead she took the extraordinary decision
0:22:39 > 0:22:42to write them down, and to write them down in English,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45so that everybody could understand them.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47This is at a time when heretics
0:22:47 > 0:22:51are being burned for reading the Bible in English.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55I've written books myself and anyone who's tried it
0:22:55 > 0:22:58knows it's an incredibly hard thing to do,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02but imagine if no woman has done it before you,
0:23:02 > 0:23:05if you have to learn to read and write in order to do it
0:23:05 > 0:23:10and if you're tackling ideas that are potentially life-threatening.
0:23:10 > 0:23:15Julian must have had great courage and determination.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19She says, "But just because I am a woman,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23"why must I not write of the goodness of God?"
0:23:23 > 0:23:24That is what she did.
0:23:24 > 0:23:31Here in this room for 30 years, she interrogated her revelations,
0:23:31 > 0:23:36developed her own profound theology and recorded it all
0:23:36 > 0:23:37in an incredible book.
0:23:41 > 0:23:43"These revelations were shown to a simple,
0:23:43 > 0:23:48"uneducated creature in the year of our Lord 1373,
0:23:48 > 0:23:50"on the eighth day of May."
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Julian's book describes her vision
0:24:00 > 0:24:05where the suffering of Christ on the cross and the suffering of humanity
0:24:05 > 0:24:10are transformed into joy by the unfolding, unconditional,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14maternal love of a God, who is able to make all things well.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21To understand the full implication of Julian's writing,
0:24:21 > 0:24:23I'm meeting with Dr Sarah Salih,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26reader in medieval literature at King's College, London.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32So, we've been on this journey understanding Julian the woman,
0:24:32 > 0:24:34but what's so special about the book,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36The Revelations of Divine Love?
0:24:36 > 0:24:39She's the first woman author we have in the English canon
0:24:39 > 0:24:41and what a book.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45What an accomplished and magnificent and sophisticated book
0:24:45 > 0:24:46that she wrote.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48So it really is a remarkable starting point
0:24:48 > 0:24:51if you're interested in the history of women's writing.
0:24:51 > 0:24:54Julian's seen as a bit of a feminist icon, isn't she?
0:24:54 > 0:24:57We don't even need to make that much of a drama about the fact
0:24:57 > 0:25:00that she's a woman, she's just a brilliant writer, isn't she?
0:25:00 > 0:25:02She is. Absolutely superb.
0:25:02 > 0:25:07The directness of that address, that opening scene on the deathbed,
0:25:07 > 0:25:09it's so vivid, so accessible,
0:25:09 > 0:25:12you're immediately thrown into the turmoil
0:25:12 > 0:25:14and the emotions of the sickroom
0:25:14 > 0:25:17and then you go on this tremendous cosmic journey.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21"He showed a little thing, the size of a hazelnut,
0:25:21 > 0:25:25"lying in the palm of my hand, and it was round as a ball.
0:25:25 > 0:25:30"I looked at it with my mind's eye and thought, what can this be?
0:25:30 > 0:25:31"And the answer came...
0:25:31 > 0:25:33"It is all that is made."
0:25:35 > 0:25:39She makes some quite dramatic statements, doesn't she?
0:25:39 > 0:25:41So, I see no hell.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43Yes, I find that fascinating.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46You know, she starts off worrying about the teaching of holy church,
0:25:46 > 0:25:50which she understands to be that non-Christians are damned
0:25:50 > 0:25:54and she clearly isn't happy with that.
0:25:54 > 0:25:57She is not prepared to accept that at some level,
0:25:57 > 0:25:59but she is very careful to say that nevertheless,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01she doesn't doubt what holy Church teaches.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04She does realise that she's potentially on some,
0:26:04 > 0:26:07some quite controversial ground here.
0:26:07 > 0:26:11"I saw truly that our Lord was never angry, nor never shall be,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13"for he is God.
0:26:13 > 0:26:15"God is the goodness that cannot be angry,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18"for he is nothing but goodness."
0:26:18 > 0:26:21She talks about God as mother, doesn't she?
0:26:21 > 0:26:23She does, she talks about the motherhood of God,
0:26:23 > 0:26:25that Christ in a sense births humanity
0:26:25 > 0:26:27in his suffering on the cross,
0:26:27 > 0:26:30that God is a mother because he nurtures and cares for
0:26:30 > 0:26:31and disciplines the child,
0:26:31 > 0:26:34that Christ is a mother because he feeds the child, you know,
0:26:34 > 0:26:37with his blood and so the Eucharist is...
0:26:37 > 0:26:41is then made equivalent to a mother's breast-feeding her child.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44I think that she's a very radical writer.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47I find her very brave, very inspiring.
0:26:47 > 0:26:48She is, yes.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52There is something remarkably fearless in the way
0:26:52 > 0:26:55in which she pursues her thought.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00I've been reading this book for 20 years and more
0:27:00 > 0:27:03and it's different every time you read it.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06It is the kind of book that lives with you.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12'Julian had done what no woman had done before.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14'She'd written a book in English
0:27:14 > 0:27:16'because she was determined to share her vision
0:27:16 > 0:27:19'of an unconditionally loving God.
0:27:19 > 0:27:23'But because her views challenged the Church of her time,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25'she was understandably cautious.'
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Julian died sometime around 1416,
0:27:30 > 0:27:33at which point only a handful of close friends
0:27:33 > 0:27:35would've known her text.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38But this was a dangerous text to have.
0:27:38 > 0:27:44No hell, a loving God and written in English by a woman.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47It's no wonder that the manuscript disappears.
0:27:52 > 0:27:55Revelations of Divine Love was kept secret.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59The manuscript would most probably have been passed from hand to hand
0:27:59 > 0:28:05by sympathetic individuals, starting in Norwich and spreading slowly.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11'This is where I turn detective,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14'to find out what happened to Julian's manuscript.'
0:28:17 > 0:28:20Julian lived and died in one room in Norwich,
0:28:20 > 0:28:23but her words were on the move.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Pilgrimage was big in the medieval period.
0:28:29 > 0:28:34People would travel across the country by foot, but also by donkey.
0:28:38 > 0:28:43Even women, usually wealthy ones, were able to travel as pilgrims.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49One female pilgrim we know of was Margery Kempe.
0:28:49 > 0:28:54Margery Kempe, a woman from King's Lynn, was an intrepid pilgrim.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57She travelled across England, Europe,
0:28:57 > 0:28:59all the way to the Holy Land.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02She came here to the shrine of Mary in Walsingham.
0:29:02 > 0:29:07But she also visited Julian in her cell, just before Julian died.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12We know that Margery visited Julian,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16because she wrote about it in The Book of Margery Kempe,
0:29:16 > 0:29:20which she dictated to a scribe in 1436.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24This is the first autobiography in English.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29Now, where did Margery get the idea to write a book?
0:29:29 > 0:29:32Perhaps Julian entrusted her manuscript to Margery,
0:29:32 > 0:29:35and Margery, as she travelled the country,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38passed it to people sympathetic to Julian's ideas,
0:29:38 > 0:29:42leaving it in the library of a monastery or private house.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47Julian's book was a dangerous read,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50but it was about to get even more dangerous.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57During the Protestant Reformation,
0:29:57 > 0:30:01the Church of England broke away from the Roman Catholic Church.
0:30:01 > 0:30:05Monastic life was regarded as ungodly and abolished.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10In 1534, Henry VIII, with the help of Thomas Cromwell,
0:30:10 > 0:30:13passed the Act of Supremacy
0:30:13 > 0:30:16and began the Dissolution of the Monasteries,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19also known as the biggest land grab in history.
0:30:21 > 0:30:23Walsingham Abbey was destroyed
0:30:23 > 0:30:26and all its possessions were given to the king.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28In religious institutions across the country,
0:30:28 > 0:30:31this process was also taking place
0:30:31 > 0:30:35and the manuscripts of the great libraries were either destroyed
0:30:35 > 0:30:36or sold off.
0:30:39 > 0:30:41During the Dissolution of the Monasteries
0:30:41 > 0:30:43and the Reformation that followed,
0:30:43 > 0:30:46a great many religious books were lost forever.
0:30:47 > 0:30:51Protestants regarded visionary experiences such as Julian's
0:30:51 > 0:30:55with suspicion and sometimes even denounced them as witchcraft.
0:30:58 > 0:31:01'Julian's manuscript, read by only a few,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04'appeared to be one more casualty of the religious turmoil
0:31:04 > 0:31:07'of the 16th century.
0:31:08 > 0:31:13'But as it turned out, Julian's manuscript had escaped destruction.'
0:31:18 > 0:31:21'We owe the survival of Julian's book
0:31:21 > 0:31:23to nine adventurous young women,
0:31:23 > 0:31:29'who in 1623 left England to set up a monastery in exile in France,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32'as all monastic life was banned in England.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35'They had a copy of Julian's manuscript.
0:31:37 > 0:31:41'Without them, Julian's writings would have been lost forever.'
0:31:41 > 0:31:45I'm driving into the heart of the North Yorkshire moors,
0:31:45 > 0:31:48because there's someone here who can help me pick up the trail
0:31:48 > 0:31:50of Julian's lost manuscript.
0:31:55 > 0:31:57'Stanbrook Abbey in Wass
0:31:57 > 0:32:01'is the new home of the order of Benedictine nuns,
0:32:01 > 0:32:04'first established in France by those nine young English women.'
0:32:06 > 0:32:10This award-winning building is a fitting testimony
0:32:10 > 0:32:11for the indomitable spirit
0:32:11 > 0:32:15of the founding sisters and the generations that followed them.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18I've come to meet Abbess Andrea.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22Hello, welcome to Stanbrook.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27- So lovely to see you.- It's lovely to meet you. Come on in.- Thank you.
0:32:27 > 0:32:28BELL RINGS
0:32:33 > 0:32:35GENTLE ORGAN MUSIC
0:32:35 > 0:32:40# Call out my sisters... #
0:32:42 > 0:32:44THEY SING INDISTINCTLY
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Abbess Andrea and Sister Scholastica
0:33:08 > 0:33:12explained why the nine young women who founded their order
0:33:12 > 0:33:16play such a vital role in the survival of Julian's text.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19So these nine young women, they fascinate me.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23They're obviously coming from a long tradition of educated...
0:33:23 > 0:33:25educated women.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28I mean, they clearly had vocations. It was a spiritual call,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30they were searching for God,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34but it was also an opportunity for them to continue their education,
0:33:34 > 0:33:39continue to read, to write, to study.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42This is what I find fascinating, as a female academic,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45that would've been the life I would've chosen,
0:33:45 > 0:33:47not the rounds of having babies and being, you know,
0:33:47 > 0:33:48responsible for the household.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52For so many of women who went into religious life,
0:33:52 > 0:33:55it was their only opportunity to further their education.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57What sort of activities are they doing?
0:33:57 > 0:33:59And obviously they're writing, aren't they?
0:33:59 > 0:34:01They're engaging with texts.
0:34:01 > 0:34:06They were doing what age-old monasticism has always done,
0:34:06 > 0:34:11you know, they were getting hold of manuscripts and copying them.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15So am I right in thinking that one of the texts the nuns copied
0:34:15 > 0:34:18very early on was Julian's Revelations?
0:34:18 > 0:34:22Yes. Julian must've been there amongst them.
0:34:23 > 0:34:25The nuns were clearly reading Julian,
0:34:25 > 0:34:28because excerpts from her book were being copied out
0:34:28 > 0:34:32'in their personal prayer books in 1649.'
0:34:33 > 0:34:38This whole manuscript is a collection of writings, meditations
0:34:38 > 0:34:40and Julian is part of it,
0:34:40 > 0:34:42so everything that's in here
0:34:42 > 0:34:46reflects what they were reading and using for prayer.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50And what it shows us, then, is that this text, Julian's text,
0:34:50 > 0:34:54is being written, copied and meditated on.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59'But sadly, the order no longer has Julian's original manuscript.'
0:34:59 > 0:35:02But your archives, they're not complete, are they?
0:35:02 > 0:35:06I mean, we lost absolutely everything at the French Revolution.
0:35:06 > 0:35:09- That is just astonishing. - We lost everything.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18To discover what happened to the nuns' copy of Julian's manuscript,
0:35:18 > 0:35:22I need to leave England behind and cross the Channel.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32We know that the nine young women who founded the monastery in France
0:35:32 > 0:35:36had access to Julian's text.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39We don't know if they took a copy of the manuscript with them,
0:35:39 > 0:35:43or if it was smuggled out later, but, somehow,
0:35:43 > 0:35:48those nuns had a copy of the Revelations of Divine Love.
0:35:49 > 0:35:53The young women were from wealthy and high-ranking Catholic families,
0:35:53 > 0:35:55and included Gertrude Moore,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58the great granddaughter of Sir Thomas Moore.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00Possibly, Julian's text had come
0:36:00 > 0:36:03from one of their family's libraries.
0:36:04 > 0:36:08Roman Catholics still valued visionary experiences of the divine,
0:36:08 > 0:36:10like Julian's.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16Gertrude Moore was only 17 and the oldest of the group was just 23.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19'They must have been motivated by religion,
0:36:19 > 0:36:23'but perhaps they were also driven by a sense of adventure.'
0:36:23 > 0:36:26By the desire to travel and explore the world.
0:36:26 > 0:36:29Why would they be any different from young women today?
0:36:31 > 0:36:33'For a woman in the 17th century,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36'life as a nun could give far more freedom and independence
0:36:36 > 0:36:37'than marriage.'
0:36:41 > 0:36:44The young women had arrived here, in Cambrai.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46It's now part of northern France,
0:36:46 > 0:36:50but at the time it was part of the Spanish Netherlands.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55I'm here on the Rue des Anglaises,
0:36:55 > 0:36:59which is actually named after the nine Benedictine nuns
0:36:59 > 0:37:02who set up their convent just down there.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05There, they were ordained, they lived, they worked,
0:37:05 > 0:37:06they studied.
0:37:06 > 0:37:09Their lives would've been very similar, in fact,
0:37:09 > 0:37:11to that of the nuns at Stanbrook Abbey.
0:37:13 > 0:37:15There's very little left of the original monastery,
0:37:15 > 0:37:18but it is marked on a 17th-century map.
0:37:20 > 0:37:21Throughout the century,
0:37:21 > 0:37:24the monastery grew, as more young women from England
0:37:24 > 0:37:26joined the founding nine.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34'In 1670, the man who was chaplain to the English nuns in France,
0:37:34 > 0:37:38Serenus Cressy, published a printed translation of Julian's text,
0:37:38 > 0:37:42based on a handwritten copy made by the nuns.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47He played down Julian's more challenging ideas.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Even so, back in England,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54the book was vilified as the fanatical revelations
0:37:54 > 0:37:57of a distempered brain and dismissed.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04But the English Benedictine nuns in Cambrai
0:38:04 > 0:38:08continued to treasure and defend Julian's writing.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13In fact, when their male superiors in the Benedictine order
0:38:13 > 0:38:16demanded to inspect their library for poisonous material,
0:38:16 > 0:38:20the nuns refused to hand over their books.
0:38:20 > 0:38:23- Lovely to see you. - Nice to meet you.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Fabien Laforge, curator at the municipal library in Cambrai,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33has evidence of just how impressive the nuns' library was.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38So, we've got these wonderful manuscripts.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41Your store of manuscripts is incredible.
0:38:41 > 0:38:45- So, this was in the library of the Cambrai nuns?- Yes.- Brilliant.
0:38:45 > 0:38:46Oh, look at this!
0:38:46 > 0:38:48Oh, wow!
0:38:48 > 0:38:49This is an English manuscript
0:38:49 > 0:38:53and this, er, this book of sovereign medicines.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55This is a compilation.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57You have, the receipt, er...
0:38:57 > 0:38:59- Oh, now that...- to fight the plague.
0:38:59 > 0:39:01- What? The plague?- Yes.
0:39:01 > 0:39:02- Oh, my gosh.- To fight the plague.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06Yes, this is an antidote against the plague.
0:39:06 > 0:39:08- Mm.- I wonder if it works? - I never try it.
0:39:08 > 0:39:12You haven't tried it?! They might have had the answer all along.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16Gosh, look, so you need saffron, shell, egg white,
0:39:16 > 0:39:17oh, this is it, we've got the key,
0:39:17 > 0:39:20now we know what to do next time there's a plague.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22What a practical book.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24And it does make you think, doesn't it,
0:39:24 > 0:39:26if this is coming out of the convent in Cambrai,
0:39:26 > 0:39:29they're really interested in a variety of things?
0:39:31 > 0:39:34Fabien also has an 18th-century catalogue
0:39:34 > 0:39:39of the nuns' books, made 170 years after the order was founded.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43How many manuscripts and books do they list for Cambrai?
0:39:43 > 0:39:45We have 1,000 manuscripts, handwritten manuscripts.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47- Handwritten manuscripts?- Yes.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50Wow, so that again makes me think, this is an active scriptorium,
0:39:50 > 0:39:54this is a busy library where they're copying texts...
0:39:54 > 0:39:55Yes, this is one of the clues.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59Do we have any evidence then for Julian coming out of this catalogue?
0:39:59 > 0:40:02Yes, in the catalogue we have one...
0:40:02 > 0:40:04particular occurrence.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09'The catalogue shows that the nuns had 15 printed copies
0:40:09 > 0:40:14'of Julian's text but the original manuscript is not listed.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16'However, some pages of the catalogue
0:40:16 > 0:40:18'are damaged and unreadable.'
0:40:19 > 0:40:21It lists no manuscripts of Julian?
0:40:21 > 0:40:23No known manuscripts.
0:40:23 > 0:40:29- No known manuscripts. So it still could be found?- Yes!- Oh!
0:40:29 > 0:40:30Got to keep looking for it!
0:40:33 > 0:40:34For six generations,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37the English Benedictine nuns in France
0:40:37 > 0:40:39had preserved Julian's manuscript,
0:40:39 > 0:40:42copying the text and defending their right to read it.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47But the French Revolution was to change all that.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52The revolutionary government abolished the French monarchy
0:40:52 > 0:40:57and declared the church an oppressive institution.
0:40:57 > 0:40:58For nearly two centuries,
0:40:58 > 0:41:02the nuns were left to their prayers and their books
0:41:02 > 0:41:06but in 1793, a group of revolutionary Horse Guards
0:41:06 > 0:41:08turned up here
0:41:08 > 0:41:11and they told the nuns they had just a quarter of an hour
0:41:11 > 0:41:13to get their stuff together and get out.
0:41:13 > 0:41:16They weren't allowed to take boxes or trunks,
0:41:16 > 0:41:21just a small bundle each, and all their books were confiscated.
0:41:26 > 0:41:28The monastery of the English nuns,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32including their library of books and manuscripts,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34was confiscated by the revolutionaries
0:41:34 > 0:41:36and the nuns were imprisoned.
0:41:37 > 0:41:41They shared their prison with 16 French Carmelite nuns
0:41:41 > 0:41:44until, one day, open wagons arrived
0:41:44 > 0:41:48to take the French nuns to trial in Paris.
0:41:51 > 0:41:56I'm here at Place de la Nation in the shadow of Lady Liberty.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02Just over there, one of the busiest guillotines in the city was set up.
0:42:02 > 0:42:06Over 50 people a day were being led to their death.
0:42:07 > 0:42:09On the 17th of July, 1794,
0:42:10 > 0:42:14the 16 Carmelite nuns that were imprisoned with
0:42:14 > 0:42:16the English Benedictines
0:42:16 > 0:42:18went to the guillotine singing.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21The French Carmelite nuns were executed...
0:42:23 > 0:42:26..and the English nuns believed they would go next.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35This is a private graveyard, Picpus Cemetery,
0:42:35 > 0:42:37where the bodies of the French nuns are buried.
0:42:51 > 0:42:52Wow.
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Amazing to think that, tucked behind all those other graves,
0:42:58 > 0:43:03there's this separate section where you've just got two
0:43:03 > 0:43:06great, big squares in the ground,
0:43:06 > 0:43:13designating pits where 1,306 bodies were dumped
0:43:13 > 0:43:16and they're referred to as martyrs' graves.
0:43:17 > 0:43:20Over there, in amongst all the other bones,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22are the bodies of our Carmelite nuns.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30The English nuns expected that they, too, would die.
0:43:31 > 0:43:34But before they faced the guillotine,
0:43:34 > 0:43:38the French Revolution ended and the nuns escaped back to England.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Unable to wear their habits to travel in,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46the only clothes they had to wear were those left behind by
0:43:46 > 0:43:49the murdered French Carmelite nuns.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54The English nuns returned home
0:43:54 > 0:43:57wearing the clothes of their martyred French sisters.
0:44:04 > 0:44:08Back at Stanbrook Abbey, Abbess Andrea and Sister Scholastica
0:44:08 > 0:44:11take me to their private chapel for a rare glimpse
0:44:11 > 0:44:15of their most treasured holy relics.
0:44:15 > 0:44:16SHE GASPS
0:44:16 > 0:44:20This is the reliquary of the Carmelite martyrs.
0:44:20 > 0:44:24It's the relics that survived, that came back.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27It's actually some of the clothes that our community wore
0:44:27 > 0:44:29- when they came back from prison. - Really?
0:44:29 > 0:44:33Which... They realised that the Carmelites had been guillotined,
0:44:33 > 0:44:37they realised they were martyrs and they realised just how valuable
0:44:37 > 0:44:41those clothes were and, later, this beautiful reliquary was made.
0:44:41 > 0:44:43This is the actual story.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46You can see the Carmelites getting into the open wagons
0:44:46 > 0:44:49- and you can see us looking out the window.- Oh, yes, there you are!
0:44:49 > 0:44:51- Goodness!- So we were looking down onto the sisters
0:44:51 > 0:44:53as they got into the open wagons
0:44:53 > 0:44:56- that were going to take them to the guillotine.- The guillotine.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00And the central picture, obviously, is the guillotine.
0:45:01 > 0:45:03Obviously, this is the shrine.
0:45:03 > 0:45:05Inside, we have the relics.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07We're not going to open it?
0:45:13 > 0:45:15- SHE GASPS - Those are the seals that were put on
0:45:15 > 0:45:18when it was actually authenticated as being the real relics.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22There inside, you can see a little bit of a shoe -
0:45:22 > 0:45:23I think it was like an espadrille -
0:45:23 > 0:45:26and there's some little bits of the material that you can see.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29- You can still see the pattern on the material.- Look at that!
0:45:29 > 0:45:30You can see the colours. Red and...
0:45:30 > 0:45:32There's a flower there in red and pink!
0:45:32 > 0:45:35- It's been preserved so well, hasn't it?- I can't believe it!
0:45:35 > 0:45:37That's what the Carmelites wore until
0:45:37 > 0:45:39they went off to the guillotine.
0:45:39 > 0:45:43That's what our community wore in 1795 when they came back.
0:45:43 > 0:45:45Wonderful!
0:45:45 > 0:45:48'The nuns were lucky to escape with their lives.'
0:45:49 > 0:45:51For six generations,
0:45:51 > 0:45:54they had protected and kept alive Julian's book,
0:45:54 > 0:45:59but now their original manuscript and all their copies were lost...
0:46:00 > 0:46:01..or were they?
0:46:05 > 0:46:07Perhaps somewhere on the Continent,
0:46:07 > 0:46:11a copy of Julian's manuscript made by the English Benedictine nuns
0:46:11 > 0:46:13was waiting to be discovered.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25For nearly 500 years,
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Revelations Of Divine Love had been suppressed
0:46:28 > 0:46:30because it was written by a woman
0:46:30 > 0:46:34and because it challenged the orthodox views of the Church of
0:46:34 > 0:46:37Julian's own time and of the centuries that followed.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40But at the beginning of the 20th century,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43a tide was rising in the sea of history.
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Throughout the country, women's voices were pressing to be heard.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Women were beginning to experience greater freedom
0:46:53 > 0:46:57and to demand access to power and education.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00Oxford University had opened its doors to women,
0:47:00 > 0:47:03despite the fact that this was widely condemned
0:47:03 > 0:47:06as unchristian and dangerous.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09In 1903, Emmeline Pankhurst
0:47:09 > 0:47:12founded the Women's Social and Political Union
0:47:12 > 0:47:16and their members were the first to be known as the suffragettes.
0:47:16 > 0:47:18For the first time in history,
0:47:18 > 0:47:22women were actively campaigning for equality with men.
0:47:23 > 0:47:28By now, a woman from a wealthy family had the freedom to study,
0:47:28 > 0:47:30to write and to travel.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40In 1901, a middle-aged, single woman got off the train from Edinburgh
0:47:40 > 0:47:42and was heading for the British Museum.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48Grace Warrick had come to London on a mission.
0:47:49 > 0:47:54She planned to publish a modern translation of Julian's text.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57Hi there. British Library, please.
0:48:00 > 0:48:04Grace Warrick was from a staunchly Presbyterian Scottish ship-owning
0:48:04 > 0:48:08family but we really don't know much more about her.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11How a Scottish Presbyterian came across the writings
0:48:11 > 0:48:16of an obscure 14th-century English mystic is a complete mystery.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21Grace is the most unlikely of heroines,
0:48:21 > 0:48:25but it turns out she was the right woman at the right time.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30The woman Julian's text had been waiting for.
0:48:33 > 0:48:36She wanted Julian's voice to sing out to the world.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46Grace owned a rare printed copy of Revelations Of Divine Love,
0:48:46 > 0:48:51but this was a 17th-century male interpretation of Julian.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55Grace was looking for Julian's original manuscript
0:48:55 > 0:48:58and she had an idea of where to find it.
0:49:00 > 0:49:02I'm following in Grace's footsteps
0:49:02 > 0:49:05and I've come here to the British Library
0:49:05 > 0:49:08to see if I can find Julian's manuscript.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14At the Reading Room of the British Library,
0:49:14 > 0:49:16then part of the British Museum,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19Grace probably went through the 18th-century catalogue
0:49:19 > 0:49:22of the Hans Sloane collection.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29Hans Sloane was an extremely wealthy doctor
0:49:29 > 0:49:32who, at his death in 1753,
0:49:32 > 0:49:36bequeathed his collection of 71,000 objects to the nation.
0:49:38 > 0:49:40This formed the basis of the British Museum
0:49:40 > 0:49:44and included some 50,000 books, manuscripts and prints.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49The manuscripts were listed by number.
0:49:49 > 0:49:51No-one knows how a copy of Julian's manuscript
0:49:51 > 0:49:54came into the Sloane collection
0:49:54 > 0:49:58but filed in the 18th-century catalogue, under the heading
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Magic And Witchcraft, was the manuscript Grace was after.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06MS Sloane 2499.
0:50:07 > 0:50:14Entitled only "Revelations to one who could not read a letter, 1373".
0:50:20 > 0:50:21Gosh.
0:50:21 > 0:50:22Here it is.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25MS Sloane 2499.
0:50:29 > 0:50:34This is probably as close as I will ever get to the original manuscript
0:50:34 > 0:50:36of Julian's Revelations Of Divine Love.
0:50:51 > 0:50:57This is a 17th-century copy of a now lost medieval manuscript.
0:50:57 > 0:51:02It was made by one of the English Benedictine nuns in France.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06It's written in an East Anglian dialect
0:51:06 > 0:51:10and is believed to be the nearest we can get to Julian's original text.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16You can almost hear that East Anglian voice coming through.
0:51:16 > 0:51:24Here's that famous line, "Sin is behovable but all shall be well,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28"all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."
0:51:34 > 0:51:39This is the actual manuscript that Grace copied out by hand
0:51:39 > 0:51:42in the Reading Room at the British Museum
0:51:42 > 0:51:44and it took her just one month.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48I'm surprised at the condition of this.
0:51:48 > 0:51:50It's really hard to read.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53The paper's incredibly stained,
0:51:53 > 0:51:56the ink is biting through from the other side,
0:51:56 > 0:51:59so it's hard to make out the individual words.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04I'm amazed that Grace was able to transcribe from this.
0:52:06 > 0:52:07She then went back up to Edinburgh
0:52:07 > 0:52:10and translated it into modern English.
0:52:10 > 0:52:12She managed to persuade Methuen
0:52:12 > 0:52:17to publish it and Grace's translation was hugely popular.
0:52:17 > 0:52:21It's been reprinted multiple times and, thanks to her,
0:52:21 > 0:52:24the Revelations Of Divine Love have never since been out of print.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30Because Grace played such an important role in the contemporary
0:52:30 > 0:52:32recognition of Julian's writing,
0:52:32 > 0:52:37I went to meet her great-nephew, John Warrick, and his wife, Lucy.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42Do you have any memories of her? Do you actually remember her?
0:52:42 > 0:52:46I must have been just four and we were taken to see Aunt Grace and her
0:52:46 > 0:52:49elder sister, Robina, Aunt Bina.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52- Aunt Bina!- And I just can remember
0:52:52 > 0:52:55these two old ladies sitting, one on
0:52:55 > 0:52:57each side of the fire in the house,
0:52:57 > 0:53:02a very nice atmosphere of warmth and kindness.
0:53:02 > 0:53:07John's grandfather was a Wee Free Presbyterian.
0:53:07 > 0:53:08You know, everything very, very fierce,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12nobody was allowed to read any books except the Bible and
0:53:12 > 0:53:15The Pilgrim's Progress on a Sunday, that kind of thing,
0:53:15 > 0:53:17and there she was,
0:53:17 > 0:53:22plunging into this late medieval Catholic world and producing this
0:53:22 > 0:53:27brilliant translation and notes and introduction and book and everything
0:53:27 > 0:53:28about somebody you would think
0:53:28 > 0:53:32very alien to the atmosphere in which she was living.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36She has no training in medieval languages and yet she wants to
0:53:36 > 0:53:39go into these mystical texts, these medieval texts.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41It's perfectly possible that in a school room
0:53:41 > 0:53:42she would have read Chaucer.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44The move into Julian's kind of English
0:53:44 > 0:53:47wouldn't have been that difficult.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51'I've brought a special surprise to show John and Lucy.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55'Grace's handwritten copy of Sloane 2499.'
0:53:56 > 0:54:00Stanbrook Abbey have very kindly let us have a look at some of
0:54:00 > 0:54:02the materials they've got from Grace.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05- Look at this!- May I undo it?
0:54:05 > 0:54:06Please!
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Left to the Abbey by Grace.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15This is it. An amazing discovery!
0:54:16 > 0:54:20These are all the notes she made originally
0:54:20 > 0:54:23while she was translating Julian.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27This is what was coming off her pen
0:54:27 > 0:54:30as she was looking at the original manuscript.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32- This is really good. - Absolutely fascinating.
0:54:32 > 0:54:33Isn't this wonderful?
0:54:33 > 0:54:35- Fascinating.- And here she says,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39"This manuscript is said to be in a 17th-century handwriting,"
0:54:39 > 0:54:43but that it's coming from the 14th-century text.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45"Here beginneth the first revelation
0:54:45 > 0:54:50"of the precious crowning of Christ in the first chapter
0:54:50 > 0:54:53"and how God fulfilleth the heart with most joy."
0:54:53 > 0:54:56It's just... I think it's just so wonderful to rediscover her
0:54:56 > 0:54:59through these texts all this time later
0:54:59 > 0:55:03and the more detective work we've done, the more is coming to light.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09There are currently over 20 modern English translations
0:55:09 > 0:55:11of Julian's text available,
0:55:11 > 0:55:15mostly based, like Grace's, on the Sloane manuscript.
0:55:17 > 0:55:20But maybe the story of the book is,
0:55:20 > 0:55:22to use Julian's own words,
0:55:22 > 0:55:23not yet performed.
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Manuscripts turn up all the time
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and that's the great excitement of being a medievalist
0:55:30 > 0:55:33is that, all of a sudden, your knowledge about a text
0:55:33 > 0:55:36can be transformed by a new manuscript that comes to light.
0:55:36 > 0:55:39Maybe somewhere in a monastic library or
0:55:39 > 0:55:41a municipal library in France,
0:55:41 > 0:55:44there is resting an early copy of the long text of Julian.
0:55:45 > 0:55:50But thanks to Grace Warrick, Julian now has the reputation she deserves.
0:55:53 > 0:55:58This stained glass window was made in 2002 for the Chapel Royal
0:55:58 > 0:56:02at St James's Palace, the Queen's private chapel.
0:56:02 > 0:56:06Julian is now acknowledged by both Catholics and Anglicans
0:56:06 > 0:56:09and her writing is respected worldwide,
0:56:09 > 0:56:12translated into every major European language,
0:56:12 > 0:56:14even Finnish and Catalan.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21People travel from all over the world to visit her cell in Norwich.
0:56:21 > 0:56:24Today, St Julian's church is hosting a group of pilgrims
0:56:24 > 0:56:26from North Carolina.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29Welcome. Welcome properly.
0:56:29 > 0:56:32So, you've come to see the cell of Julian.
0:56:32 > 0:56:34- It's my second time.- Really?- Yes.
0:56:34 > 0:56:36This is my first visit to Julian's shrine.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39- Is it? - It's beautiful, it's peaceful.
0:56:39 > 0:56:40So, coming to Julian's cell, then,
0:56:40 > 0:56:42it's helping you to tap into the history
0:56:42 > 0:56:45but also her own spiritual view.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50Her spiritual view and her view that women did have a place back then
0:56:50 > 0:56:56because we think of them as a minor historical footnote and
0:56:56 > 0:56:58this is... You know, you could be influential then,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00you could make a difference.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05This has been the most incredible journey,
0:57:05 > 0:57:07trying to make sense of a text
0:57:07 > 0:57:11that's had a really profound effect on me.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15I think for any woman who wants to share their ideas,
0:57:15 > 0:57:20Julian is the starting point, the inspiration.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24It's been emotional, exciting, at times excruciating,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27trying to access this woman
0:57:27 > 0:57:31who still seems out of reach across the centuries.
0:57:50 > 0:57:53So I've come back to where it all began -
0:57:53 > 0:57:56the cell that Julian spent her life in
0:57:56 > 0:57:58and wrote her revolutionary text in.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05She describes seeing the whole universe in a simple hazelnut and,
0:58:05 > 0:58:08as I reflect on my experiences,
0:58:08 > 0:58:12I also feel like they've reached a sense of completion.
0:58:12 > 0:58:15Julian couldn't leave this cell,
0:58:15 > 0:58:17but I can.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20My journey is now complete.