Martyrdom of Sr. Marguerite Porète 1.June 1310
SAINT Marguerite Porète, Martyr 1st June 1310, Paris, France.
Marguerite of Hainault, called la Porète, were in her early thirties when she suffered the rather controversial trial in Paris which ended with her being
marched out with dignitaries and soldiers to the common field of La Greve on Monday the 1st 1310, trussed to a stake, surrounded by kindlingwood, which was then ceremoniously ignited. She was burnt alive.
The Chronicler William of Nangis describes the trial and execution
thusly:
"Around the feast of Pentecost it happened at Paris that a certain pseudo-woman from Hainault, named Marguerite and called "la Porete," produced a certain book in which, according to the judgment of all the theologians who examined it diligently, many errors and heresies were contained; among which errors [were the beliefs], that the soul can be annihilated in love of the Creator without censure of conscience or remorse and that it ought to yield to whatever by nature it strives for and desires. This [belief] manifestly rings forth as heresy. Moreover, she did not want to renounce this little book or the errors that are contained in it, and indeed she even made light of the sentence of excommunication laid on her by the inquisitor of heretical depravity, [who had laid this sentence] because she, although having been lawfully summoned before the bishop, did not want to appear and held out in her hardened malice for a year and more with an obstinate soul. In the end her ideas were exposed in the common field of La Greve through the deliberation of learned men; this was done before the clergy and people who had been gathered specially for this purpose, and she was handed over to the secular court. Firmly receiving her into his power, the provost of Paris had her executed on the next day by fire. She displayed many signs of penitence, both noble and pious, in her death. For this reason the faces of many of those who witnessed it were affectionately moved to compassion for her; indeed, the eyes of many were filled with tears." excerpt from Richard Barton, Assistant Professor of History University of North Carolina at Greensboro
translation from Latin sources which you can find at his website which has a lot more information on the time period and Marguerite Poretè.
The Book in question was in 1945 established to have been The Mirror of Simple Souls by the scholar Romana Guarnieri ; a dialogic treatise which delineates in a clarity unparalelled the ecstatic mysticism of the Beguines, until that time left unidentified and anonymous. Guarneri`s research also brought the public`s attention to the fact that many of the medieval women mystics and poets paralelled, and even excelled in their relationship to their male counterparts. They also represented a challenging hermeneutic almost lost to the modern mind by the orchestrations of the inquisitional processes and their accounts of the Beguines.
Marguerite Porète was a wandering Beguine, she had apparently learned several languages, and were not afraid to share the product of her visions and interior contemplation with members of the clerical professions. Apparently she corresponded with several, who, upon discovering she had either been warned, censured or even explicitly excommunicated and her book and written words put on index and the readers of such subject to the inquisition, turned against her for fear of further suspicion. It is a fact that when these things happened to Marguerite, other Beguines were in fact given leisure and was left alone by both ecclesiastical and secular goverment; so apart from the suggestion in the charge laid against her -
which included (citing Richard Barton`s translation again), according to the Dominican inquisitor, William of Paris:
"You appeared at this trial and were personally commanded by us canonically and legally and on several occasions to swear an oath concerning the whole, pure, and full truth about what was spoken by you and others concerning those things which are known to fall under the jurisdiction of the office of inquisitor (which has been entrusted to me). Yet you refused to swear [the oath]. Even though you were questioned by us many times and in many places about this, you always remained contumacious and rebellious about these matters; because of your obvious and notorious contumacy and rebellion, and with the prompting of counsel offered on this matter by many wise men, we placed a sentence of greater excommunication on both you, as a rebel and obstinate person, and on [your writings]. Even though this sentence was made known to you, you endured it with a pertinacious soul for almost a year and a half after you were notified; [you persisted in this state] despite the fact that we frequently offered you the sacrament of absolution, which would be granted to you according to church practice as soon as you should humbly request it. Until now, however, you have disdained to seek absolution, and you have thus far wanted neither to swear nor respond to us concerning the aforesaid matters. On account of your refusal to do these things, and according to the holy canons, we hold you - as indeed we ought to hold you - both as convicted and confessed and as one lapsed into heresy; that is, we hold you to be a heretic [the scribe used a feminine ending for heretic here]."
Also she had produced a book which upset him mightly, or else, offending the "order of life". The charge and sentence was the following:
"We gave careful consideration to all the above matters, and took counsel with many experts concerning the truth of both sides [of the matter]. Finally, keeping sight of God and the Holy Gospels, and with the counsel and assent of the reverend father and lord, Lord G., by the grace of God Bishop of Paris, we condemn you, Marguerite, not only as one fallen into heresy but also as a relapsed heretic, and we relinquish you to the secular justice, asking it to act as mercifully towards you, excepting death and bodily mutation, as the sanctions canonically permit. Inasmuch as your erroneous and heretical book contains heresy and errors, by the judgment of and advice of the masters in theology residing in Paris, we finally condemn you and now want you to be excommunicated and burned. [And] we command - singly and as a group - all those in the district who possess the said book, under the pain of excommunication, to deliver it without fraud to us or to the prior of the Dominicans of Paris, our agent, before the next feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul."
It was not the end of it: True, she was burned. The books were confiscated everywhere they could find it, with all the other books they were spooked by - but they multiplied, translated into several other languages, including Latin. The book in fact, became many a noble and many a cleric`s "guilty secret". Soon it was forgotten who had written it and why it was forbidden, because she had not signed her name to it, it was only known she had written it. Eventually only the book renaimed, its author left anonymous and faceless, like the author of the Cloud of Unknowing.
An excerpt from the 122nd chapter of The Mirror of Simple Souls:
from The Song of the Soul...
I used to be enclosed in the servitude of captivity,
When desire imprisoned me in the will of affection.
There the light of ardor from divine love found me,
Who quickly killed my desire, my will and affection,
which impeded in me the ent erprise of the fullness of divine love.
Now has Divine Light delivered me from captivity,
and joined me by gentility to the divine will of Love,
there where the Trinity gives me the delight of His love.
This gift no human understands, As long as he serves any Virtue whatever,
or any feeling from nature, through practice of reason.
O my Lover, what will Beguines say and religious types,
when they hear the excellence of your divine song?
Beguines say I err, priests, clerics, and Preachers,
Augustinians, Carmelites, and the Friars Minor,
bBecause I wrote about the being of the one purified by love.
I do not make Reason safe for them, who makes them say this to me.
Desire, Will, and Fear surely take fr om them the understanding,
the out-flowing, and the union of the highest Light
of the ardor of divine love.
Truth declares to my heart
that I am loved by One alone,
and she says that it is without return
that He has given me Hi s love.
This gift kills my thought
by the delight of His love,
which delight lifts me and transforms me throughout union
Into eternal joy of the being of divine Love.
And Divine Love tells me that she has entered within me,
a nd so she can do whatever she wills,
such strength she has given me,
from One Lover whom I possess in love
to whom I am betrothed,
who wills that He loves,
and for this I will love Him.
I have said that I will love Him.
I lie, for I am not.
it is He alone who loves me:
He is, and I am not;
and nothing more is necessary to me
than what he wills,
and that He is worthy.
He is fullness,
and by this am I impregnated.
This is the divine seed and Loyal Love.
As you can see her tone is familiar, this annihilation is what almost all the medieval mystics and their descendants, in Dionysius the Areopagite, in Meister Eckhart and also to a certain degree, Jacob Boehme just to mention some - but like with Al-Hallaj, martyred
Sufi saint, the intensity of some words which needs be intense, simple and remain mysterious to all without experience, it couldnt be tolerated by her contemporaries. Similar to Hadjewich of Antwerp`s poetic renditions of visions, many characters in the cast of the exchanges are feminine - like Love Divine. Now, God is Love and the Lover is God, but only by sustaining, receiving, lifting up the Love of God; Valentinus the Gnostic, in fact, Paul the Apostle - also, maintains, John the Apostle, with him - that God is Love. How can that be? What does it mean? The explanation and the meaning is not got at by exegesis or theological deliberation - it is not words and letters, sentences, paragraphs that in their arrangement may make such accessible.. it is experience and experience alone. I would like to commemorate Sister Marguerite of Porète, for her refusing to yield, refusing to be silenced and for letting the essence of her heart and greatest things she was given, which could be shared with other souls - without regard for her own safety - thanking her as I thank the evangelists themselves, for speaking about Jesus, as I thank the hierophants of the Church, for speaking about the Life of the Spirit, for the wandering apostolate for the songs about the journey and the return home, for human regeneration and the finding of the peal of great price. I have so much less to praise and thank or even remember certain doctors of theology and law for.
Websites:
On Marguerite Porete:
Marguerite Porete:Gathering the Ashes of the Pearl of God.
Excerpts from The Mirror of Simple Souls Ch.119-122
Ganesha-Gate: Marguerite Porete, 1280-1310. The Mirror of Simple Souls
(excerpts from three chapters with commentary (hinduist perspective))
A poem about Marguerite Porete
Spiegel der einfachen seelen - Requiem für Marguerite Porete, a dramatical requiem play in German.
On the Beguines:
The Beguines
Sisters Between: Gender and Medieval Beguins by Abby Stoner
Books:
Marguerite Porete: Mirror of Simple Souls, Classics of Western Spirituality,
Paulist Press - tr. Ellen L.Babinsky.
Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls
by Joanne Maguire Robinson.