The Beguine the angel and the inquisitor

The stark fact is that Marguerite Porete was the first female Christian mystic burned at the stake
after authoring a book— and the book’s survival makes the case absolutely unique. Indeed, the
import of this moment extends beyond a history of misogynistic censorship. Taken from a
northern French perspective, the sentencing of 31 May was, as Henry Charles Lea famously put
it, “the first formal auto de fé of which we have cognizance at Paris.” 6 In the history of book
burning, it is the first known instance of an inquisitorial procedure ending with the burning of both
a book and the accused author. 7 If one thinks in terms of a history of violent intellectual
repression, Marguerite has been described as “the only medieval woman, and possibly the only
author of either sex, who died solely for a written text.” 8 No matter what perspective is applied,
the execution of Marguerite Porete marks a historical watershed. 3

Bishop Guido made a fine distinction here between condemning a book and condemning a
person. Guido condemned and burned Marguerite’s book as “heretical” and containing “errors.”
His threat was that if Marguerite showed herself to be persistent in flouting ecclesiastical
authority he would take the separate step of condemning her in her person as a contumacious
heretic, which would likely result in her death at the hands of the secular authorities. Pg 45
Field, Sean L.. The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor : The Trials of Marguerite Porete and
Guiard of Cressonessart, University of Notre Dame Press, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nyulibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3441090.

This moment has not been fully factored into most accounts of Marguerite’s career. Her later
refusal to cooperate with her inquisitor has become the enduring image with which historians
evoke her resistance to ecclesiastical authority. At this point, however, there can be no question
of her having remained mute. Pg 46

Among the things these passages do not state is exactly how Guido became aware of
Marguerite and her book. There is no evidence that Guido was an active heresy hunter, so
perhaps Marguerite and her book were thrust upon him in some way. Her teachings may have
been denounced by a hostile churchman, for instance. But it is also quite possible that
Marguerite deliberately sought the bishop’s attention, given the evidence (discussed below) for
subsequent actions of exactly this kind. Pg 44

As part of this campaign, it is highly probable that during this period Marguerite made additions
and revisions to her book. Indeed, if one imagines Marguerite recreating from memory the
contents of a burned book, then common sense would suggest that the result would have to
have been something significantly different from the earlier version. But even if— as seems likely
— copies of her first text survived, the process of copying and circulating would tend to produce
additions and changes. Specifically, scholars have generally agreed that at least the final
seventeen chapters of the Mirror, those numbered 123– 39 in the Middle French manuscript,
were probably added on after Marguerite’s first brush with authority. 25 The authorial perspective
and tone of the Mirror change abruptly at this point. Starting with chapter 123, the text employs
less dialogue, shifts dramatically to an authorial first-person voice, and at least initially focuses on
devotional and hagiographic material that seems comparatively uncontroversial. If indeed these
chapters were added after the book’s first condemnation, then this material offers important
evidence for Marguerite’s reaction to adversity. Rather than accept the idea that her book
contained “heresy” and “errors,” she sought to clarify and restate her ideas for the benefit of
those who had not understood her properly the first time. After chapter 122, where the Latin word
Explicit (“The End”) is found in the Middle French manuscript, there is an additional heading (not
a chapter title but a unique, larger section break) that reads, “Here follow some considerations for
those who are in the state of being of forlorn-ness, who ask the way to the land of freedom.”
These seven considerations make up chapters 123– 28, on the apostles, Mary Magdalene, John
the Baptist, the Virgin Mary, her Son, the suffering of Christ, and the Seraphim. Quite in contrast
to most of the Mirror, Marguerite here employs an undisguised first-person voice, while limiting
herself to what is essentially biblical commentary. This little section ends with a summary
recounting the seven considerations and then flows into chapters 130 – 32, where Marguerite
tells of her own spiritual journey through the land of the forlorn and of the considerations she
dwelled on at that point. Again in sharp contrast to the rest of the book, here Marguerite herself
speaks to God, and God to her. At the culmination of the section, Marguerite relates three
paradoxical questions posed to her by God: How would I fare if I knew he could be better
pleased that I should love another better than him? . . . if it could be that he could love another
better than me? . . . if it could be that he would will that someone other would love me better than
he?” She states that as a result of her inability to answer, her will was “martyred,” bringing her
out of her spiritual “childhood.” 26 What is so distinct about these related chapters (123– 32) is
not just the emergence of the authorial voice but its use in addressing directly those who have
not yet reached the state of the free, annihilated soul— that is, those who do not yet understand
her message because they are yet “forlorn.” The author has redirected her attention to those who
might like to understand but have not done so as of yet. This sustained shift in emphasis is the
best argument for seeing these additions as having been made after the book’s initial
condemnation. 27 With these additions, Marguerite attempted to show an imagined audience of
dubious churchmen that she understood the kind of straightforward relation to the saints and the
Scriptures that they might like to see in a devout woman, 28 and she came as close as she ever
did to arguing that her knowledge came at least in part through conversation with God. Thus she
made more clear her credentials as both a textual scholar and a mystic. Pg 48 – 49

Her refusal to cooperate had been effective at slowing down the proceedings against her. But
time was now up. If Marguerite had wished to preserve her life a little longer, offering to testify
would now have been the logical course of action. Yet she remained uncooperative to the end.
This fact, perhaps more than any other, gives her story its air of tragic dignity. Pg 154

That is, this was the first time an inquisitor had brought forth multiple convicted heretics for a
public ceremony in the heart of Paris that included sentencing, reconciling of the penitent, and
relaxation to the secular arm for those abandoned by the church.. Pg 155

The sentence addressed her in the second person and recounted how she had refused to swear
the oath and had endured excommunication for a year and a half, continuing in this state up to
the present, “because of which, according to canonical sanction, we consider and must consider
you as convicted and confessed and as lapsed into heresy or as a heretic.” 36 William’s
language here emphasized his own lack of choice in the matter— her own actions had led to an
inevitable result. Pg156

we condemn you by sentence, Marguerite, not only as one lapsed into heresy but as one
relapsed, and we relinquish you to secular justice, asking it that short of death and mutilation of
the body it act mercifully with you, as far as canonical sanctions permit.” 157

“And the said book we condemn by sentence as heretical and erroneous, as containing errors
and heresies by judgment and counsel of the masters of theology residing in Paris, and now we
want it to be exterminated and burned, and strictly order that every and each person having the
said book, under pain of excommunication, is required to turn it over without fraud to us or to the
prior of the Preaching Brothers of Paris, our commissioner, before the next feast of the apostles
Peter and Paul [i.e., 29 June].” 157

The “Continuer of William of Nangis” finally relates, in a unique passage, something of how
Marguerite appeared to onlookers in her final moments: “She showed many signs of penitence at
her end, both noble and devout, by which the hearts of many were piously and tearfully turned to
compassion, as revealed by the eyes of the witnesses who beheld this scene.” 163

Marguerite’s long battles with authority had begun with her book. But for most of the intervening
period it was her actions, not the ideas contained in her writings, that placed her at odds with
bishops and inquisitors. Her defiance had been based on the entirely rational evidence of the
praise given to her book by multiple churchmen, and very likely by the reactions of other “simple
people” and “beghards” who had read or heard her ideas. Some of this defiance and even
rational optimism could have continued right up into spring 1310 and the series of final judgments
against her. But silence is hard to interpret, particularly at a distance of seven hundred years,
and one can only speculate on what meaning she might have assigned to her ordeal as it neared
its end. 164

Marguerite’s story contains its share of contradictions. She was a theologian of nonaction and
nothingness, yet consistently active in seeking approval for these ideas. She gave at least the
appearance of penitence once and may have communicated with her interrogators more than
has generally been realized. She was, I think, a rational actor rather than either a wandering naif
or a would-be martyr seeking literal “annihilation” at the hands of her inquisitor. Yet Marguerite
also exhibited a “persistent complicity in her own demise” that prevents us from treating her as
simply a victim of an intolerant and misogynist age. 64 Her own choices led her to the stake, as
much as did the steps taken by her inquisitor. These contradictions and complexities only add to
the extraordinary nature of her life and death. 165

Jantzen on Margueritte

‘The trial and death of maugueritte porete is a telling example of the effort of ecclesiastical
authorities to control who should count as a mystic… this book did not meet with the approval of her
Bishop or his allies, not least because in it she forthrightly accused the church of hypocrisy, and
spoke in the name of ‘free souls’, simple folk whose Christianity was genuine and who could guide
the church back into the way of truth. 261

‘ it is quite clear from the account of margurites trial and execution that it was her criticism of the
church, and her assertion that simple ‘free’ spirits who are obedient to god have a right (even a
duty) to speak publicly against its spiritual corruption and to show it a better way, that earned her
the contempt and wrath of the ecclesiastical authorities. If this was what her mysticism prompted
her to do, then she should not count as a mystic, and articles from her book should be declared
heretical. 263

‘ there is considerable irony in all this. Marguritte poretes book the mirror of simple souls, its
authorship forgotten, was widely circulated in the fourteenth and fiftheenth centuries, and was
translated into latin and middle English. It was taken as a book of deep and important mysticism, and
received much favourable attention; it was, for instance, republished in englabd by the the downside
Benedictines who clearly would not have done so ha they considered its contents to be heretical.’
264

‘this book, which became an important source of mystical teaching for devout men and women for
centuries, was also used as the basis for condemning other devout men and women as heretics. It is
as clear a confirmation as coul possibly be found of my thesis that who counts as a mystic rests just
as much on issues of power and gender as it does on an individuals experiences or beliefs. Modern
interpretors who lose sight of this are as likely to create ‘mysticism’ out of their own pressupositions
as are the inquisitors who used ad nostrum were likely to create ‘heretics’ after their own fancies’
264

- Jantzem gives a somewhat one dimensions picture of Porete orientated toward the
positioning of her as a victim of misogyny.
- Oscillating image of porete between defiance and victimhood.
- The changes that she made to the book following her first encounter with ecclesiastical
authorities suggests that her mysticism functions as a source of authority and was used as a
shield.