La Porete vis-a-vis La Pucelle

As mentioned in class, like Joan, Marguerite de Porete was a woman in the Middle Ages who was brought to trial for heresy. Specifically, as a mystic, Marguerite de Porete believed and espoused in her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, that one did not necessarily have to go through the theocratic “red tape” so to speak of the Church to have a relationship with God. Clearly, this was related to her role as a mystic, someone who possessed a personal and direct form of communication with God. She essentially placed the development of a personal love of God above that of one guided and limited by the Church and its parameters of ritual. In response, the Church not only burned her book, but also condemned and burned Marguerite on charges of heresy in 1310. Joan and Marguerite’s trials took place for different contextual reasons; Joan can almost be considered a prisoner of war in some aspects, while Marguerite was solely under fire for her arguments laid out in The Mirror of Simple Souls.

However, their trials have interesting parallels. For example, Marguerite apparently refused to answer questions on trial which is reminiscent of Joan’s own authoritative responses that she would either answer later, keep info between her and the King or wait for her voices’ permission. Also Marguerite’s burning is described somewhat similarly as Joan’s, especially in relation to the reaction of the crowd.  A chronicler, William of Nangis, stated in 1310, “She [was] both pious and noble, 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” (The Trail of Marguerite Porete). Additionally, Marguerite experienced a long lead up to her actual burning, as did Joan. For one, Marguerite’s book had been criticized and denounced for years before her trial and according to William of Nangis, she neither renounced her book after being excommunicated nor did “she, although having been lawfully summoned before the bishop...want to appear and held out in her hardened malice for a year and more with an obstinate soul.” Overall, due to the relative rarity of burnings in the Middle Ages, perhaps it is not surprising that Marguerite and Joan’s circumstances are somewhat comparable.

Sources: http://www.uncg.edu/~rebarton/margporete.htm

http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/medieval/julian/Marguerite.htm

Image Source:http://www.albin-michel.fr/images/couv/5/7/5/9782226221575g.jpg

 

The first illustration of Marguerite Porete on a modern copy of her work, The Mirror of Simple Souls,  is interesting when placed beside this Les Vigiles Joan of Arc illustration.