Her life was contemporaneous with four other English mystics-Walter Hilton, Richard Rolle, Margery Kempe, and the unknown author of the work known as The Cloude of Unknowyng-all of whom wrote in the vernacular.
It is more likely that they read and wrote in Middle English, their vernacular language, as Julian did. In the 14th century, women in England were generally barred from high-status clerical positions or other authoritative roles such as teaching, and their knowledge of Latin, the lingua franca of the day, would have been limited. It is the first book in English known to have been written by a woman. Revelations of Divine Love is unique, as no other work written by an English anchoress seems to have survived.
