Sean L. Field
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501736193
- eISBN:
- 9781501736209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501736193.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
In 1308 two women faced ecclesiastical questioning in Paris. The first, Marguerite Porete, was from Hainaut. Her offense was possessing or recopying her book, which had been condemned already in ...
More
In 1308 two women faced ecclesiastical questioning in Paris. The first, Marguerite Porete, was from Hainaut. Her offense was possessing or recopying her book, which had been condemned already in Cambrai. She remained imprisoned in Paris for a year and a half, refusing to swear an oath and respond to questions posed by her inquisitor, William of Paris. The other woman, Margueronne of Bellevillette, was arrested in Champagne as part of the group around bishop Guichard of Troyes that was accused of having used sorcery to murder Queen Jeanne of Navarre. These two women were caught up on the edges of larger ecclesiastical processes against the Order of the Temple and Bishop Guichard, entangled Philip IV’s relentless drive to consolidate political and religious power. Marguerite Porete was ultimately burned at the stake, while Margueronne of Bellevillette was locked away and seemingly forgotten once her usefulness as a witness against Guichard of Troyes had expired.Less
In 1308 two women faced ecclesiastical questioning in Paris. The first, Marguerite Porete, was from Hainaut. Her offense was possessing or recopying her book, which had been condemned already in Cambrai. She remained imprisoned in Paris for a year and a half, refusing to swear an oath and respond to questions posed by her inquisitor, William of Paris. The other woman, Margueronne of Bellevillette, was arrested in Champagne as part of the group around bishop Guichard of Troyes that was accused of having used sorcery to murder Queen Jeanne of Navarre. These two women were caught up on the edges of larger ecclesiastical processes against the Order of the Temple and Bishop Guichard, entangled Philip IV’s relentless drive to consolidate political and religious power. Marguerite Porete was ultimately burned at the stake, while Margueronne of Bellevillette was locked away and seemingly forgotten once her usefulness as a witness against Guichard of Troyes had expired.
Wolfgang Riehle
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801451096
- eISBN:
- 9780801470936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801451096.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter examines Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls and how it was received in England. The Mirror of Simple Souls is a Middle English translation of the mystical text Le mirouer des ...
More
This chapter examines Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls and how it was received in England. The Mirror of Simple Souls is a Middle English translation of the mystical text Le mirouer des simples âmes anienties et qui seulement demourent en vouloir et desir d'amour, which was condemned by twenty-one reputable theologians as heretical. The author, Marguerite Porete, was sentenced to death in 1310. This chapter first considers the characteristics of The Mirror of Simple Souls and the reception of the Mirouer des simples âmes through the Middle English translation. It then discusses the significance of The Mirror of Simple Souls in the history of English mysticism and Marguerite Porete's influence on the history of European spirituality. It also assesses the relation of The Mirouer/The Mirror to contemporary court culture and the feminist discourse.Less
This chapter examines Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls and how it was received in England. The Mirror of Simple Souls is a Middle English translation of the mystical text Le mirouer des simples âmes anienties et qui seulement demourent en vouloir et desir d'amour, which was condemned by twenty-one reputable theologians as heretical. The author, Marguerite Porete, was sentenced to death in 1310. This chapter first considers the characteristics of The Mirror of Simple Souls and the reception of the Mirouer des simples âmes through the Middle English translation. It then discusses the significance of The Mirror of Simple Souls in the history of English mysticism and Marguerite Porete's influence on the history of European spirituality. It also assesses the relation of The Mirouer/The Mirror to contemporary court culture and the feminist discourse.
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226243115
- eISBN:
- 9780226243184
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226243184.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature
This chapter explores how Marguerite de Navarre depicted literacy as reformation and translation in her book Heptaméron. It suggests that de Navarre appropriated both oral and written materials to ...
More
This chapter explores how Marguerite de Navarre depicted literacy as reformation and translation in her book Heptaméron. It suggests that de Navarre appropriated both oral and written materials to construct an imperialist ideological project of her own and she was able to open and mystify lines of communication among women across generational and class lines. This chapter argues that de Navarre's decision to recreate Marguerite Porete's literary and historical example for new political and theological uses is crucial to her revisionary project of imperial mapping.Less
This chapter explores how Marguerite de Navarre depicted literacy as reformation and translation in her book Heptaméron. It suggests that de Navarre appropriated both oral and written materials to construct an imperialist ideological project of her own and she was able to open and mystify lines of communication among women across generational and class lines. This chapter argues that de Navarre's decision to recreate Marguerite Porete's literary and historical example for new political and theological uses is crucial to her revisionary project of imperial mapping.
Sean L. Field
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501736193
- eISBN:
- 9781501736209
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501736193.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
After 1314 new scandals at the Capetian court focused on women as dangers, including Philip IV’s attack on his own daughters-in-law but also charges of sorcery against the royal cousin Mahaut of ...
More
After 1314 new scandals at the Capetian court focused on women as dangers, including Philip IV’s attack on his own daughters-in-law but also charges of sorcery against the royal cousin Mahaut of Artois. Most dramatically, Margueronne of Bellevillette emerged from prison with new self-accusations of sorcery and poisoning. After the death of the last Capetian king in 1328, chroniclers worked to re-imagine earlier female figures either as holy voices or dark forces. In the case of Isabelle of France, such chroniclers created the false impression that she had been a nun of Longchamp. Elizabeth of Spalbeek was given a more positive spin in a new French translation of William of Nangis’s earlier account. And Paupertas of Metz’s story was shortened in such a way as to make her into a more diabolical figure, while Marguerite Porete was represented in ways that made her seem like a more obvious threat to the kingdom.Less
After 1314 new scandals at the Capetian court focused on women as dangers, including Philip IV’s attack on his own daughters-in-law but also charges of sorcery against the royal cousin Mahaut of Artois. Most dramatically, Margueronne of Bellevillette emerged from prison with new self-accusations of sorcery and poisoning. After the death of the last Capetian king in 1328, chroniclers worked to re-imagine earlier female figures either as holy voices or dark forces. In the case of Isabelle of France, such chroniclers created the false impression that she had been a nun of Longchamp. Elizabeth of Spalbeek was given a more positive spin in a new French translation of William of Nangis’s earlier account. And Paupertas of Metz’s story was shortened in such a way as to make her into a more diabolical figure, while Marguerite Porete was represented in ways that made her seem like a more obvious threat to the kingdom.
Peter King
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198827030
- eISBN:
- 9780191866005
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198827030.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This paper argues that Marguerite Porete asked Godfrey of Fontaines to endorse her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, because they shared three views in common. The first view is that the will is only ...
More
This paper argues that Marguerite Porete asked Godfrey of Fontaines to endorse her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, because they shared three views in common. The first view is that the will is only contingently connected to the intellect and can be detached from it. The second view is that the traditional moral virtues are neither necessary nor sufficient for right action. The third view is that love has the power to literally transform one’s self. The first is unique to Godfrey, the second part of a shift in the medieval understanding of the role of virtue in ethical theory, and the third in many respects is a commonplace. Marguerite’s choice of Godfrey to sanction her treatise was therefore well motivated on doctrinal, not merely political, grounds.Less
This paper argues that Marguerite Porete asked Godfrey of Fontaines to endorse her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, because they shared three views in common. The first view is that the will is only contingently connected to the intellect and can be detached from it. The second view is that the traditional moral virtues are neither necessary nor sufficient for right action. The third view is that love has the power to literally transform one’s self. The first is unique to Godfrey, the second part of a shift in the medieval understanding of the role of virtue in ethical theory, and the third in many respects is a commonplace. Marguerite’s choice of Godfrey to sanction her treatise was therefore well motivated on doctrinal, not merely political, grounds.
Amy Hollywood
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226351
- eISBN:
- 9780823236718
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226351.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
A number of literary and cultural scholars have recently turned to texts by or about women to uncover possible homoeroticism within the metaphoric structures of women's ...
More
A number of literary and cultural scholars have recently turned to texts by or about women to uncover possible homoeroticism within the metaphoric structures of women's own writings or in the practices ascribed to women or female characters within male- and female-authored literary and religious documents. Karma Lochrie, for example, looks to a number of medieval devotional texts and images in which Christ's bloody side wound becomes a locus of desire. Lochrie argues that the complex interplay of gender and sexuality in medieval texts and images effectively queers simple identifications of sex, gender, and/or sexuality. Caroline Walker Bynum insists on the feminization of Christ, providing a locus for female identification with the divine as well as protecting the divine-human relationship from even metaphorical sexualization. This chapter explores the fascinatingly fluid, culturally transgressive erotic subjectivities emerging in the recorded visions of female medieval mystics Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch, and Marguerite Porete, who represent themselves, respectively, as a bride of Christ, a knight errant in love, and a female Soul seeking erotic union with a feminized divinity.Less
A number of literary and cultural scholars have recently turned to texts by or about women to uncover possible homoeroticism within the metaphoric structures of women's own writings or in the practices ascribed to women or female characters within male- and female-authored literary and religious documents. Karma Lochrie, for example, looks to a number of medieval devotional texts and images in which Christ's bloody side wound becomes a locus of desire. Lochrie argues that the complex interplay of gender and sexuality in medieval texts and images effectively queers simple identifications of sex, gender, and/or sexuality. Caroline Walker Bynum insists on the feminization of Christ, providing a locus for female identification with the divine as well as protecting the divine-human relationship from even metaphorical sexualization. This chapter explores the fascinatingly fluid, culturally transgressive erotic subjectivities emerging in the recorded visions of female medieval mystics Mechthild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch, and Marguerite Porete, who represent themselves, respectively, as a bride of Christ, a knight errant in love, and a female Soul seeking erotic union with a feminized divinity.
Sean L. Field
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781501736193
- eISBN:
- 9781501736209
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501736193.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
Courting Sanctity traces the shifting relationship between holy women and the French royal court across the long thirteenth century. It argues that during the reign of Louis IX (r. 1226-70) holy ...
More
Courting Sanctity traces the shifting relationship between holy women and the French royal court across the long thirteenth century. It argues that during the reign of Louis IX (r. 1226-70) holy women were central to the rise of the Capetian self-presentation as uniquely favored by God, that such women’s influence was questioned and reshaped under Philip III (r. 1270-85), and that would-be holy women were increasingly assumed to pose physical, spiritual, and political threats by the death of Philip IV (r. 1285-1314). Six holy women lie at the heart of the analysis. The saintly reputations of Isabelle of France and Douceline of Digne helped to crystalize the Capetians’ claims of divine favor by 1260. In the 1270s, the French court faced a crisis that centered on the testimony of Elizabeth of Spalbeek, a visionary holy woman from the Low Countries. After 1300, the arrests of Paupertas of Metz, Margueronne of Bellevillette, and Marguerite Porete formed key links in the chain of attacks launched by Philip IV against supposed spiritual dangers threatening the most Christian kingdom of France.Less
Courting Sanctity traces the shifting relationship between holy women and the French royal court across the long thirteenth century. It argues that during the reign of Louis IX (r. 1226-70) holy women were central to the rise of the Capetian self-presentation as uniquely favored by God, that such women’s influence was questioned and reshaped under Philip III (r. 1270-85), and that would-be holy women were increasingly assumed to pose physical, spiritual, and political threats by the death of Philip IV (r. 1285-1314). Six holy women lie at the heart of the analysis. The saintly reputations of Isabelle of France and Douceline of Digne helped to crystalize the Capetians’ claims of divine favor by 1260. In the 1270s, the French court faced a crisis that centered on the testimony of Elizabeth of Spalbeek, a visionary holy woman from the Low Countries. After 1300, the arrests of Paupertas of Metz, Margueronne of Bellevillette, and Marguerite Porete formed key links in the chain of attacks launched by Philip IV against supposed spiritual dangers threatening the most Christian kingdom of France.
Christina Van Dyke
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190226411
- eISBN:
- 9780190226442
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190226411.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
Self-knowledge is a persistent—and paradoxical—theme in medieval mysticism; union with God is often taken to involve a loss of self as distinct from the divine. Yet an examination of Christian ...
More
Self-knowledge is a persistent—and paradoxical—theme in medieval mysticism; union with God is often taken to involve a loss of self as distinct from the divine. Yet an examination of Christian contemplatives in the Latin West between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries who work not just within the apophatic tradition (which emphasizes the need to move past self-knowledge to self-abnegation) but also within the affective tradition (which portrays union with the divine as involving self-fulfillment) demonstrates that self-knowledge in medieval mysticism was not seen merely as something to be overcome or transcended. Instead, self-knowledge is viewed (particularly in the works of medieval women contemplatives) as an important means of overcoming alienation from embodied human existence.Less
Self-knowledge is a persistent—and paradoxical—theme in medieval mysticism; union with God is often taken to involve a loss of self as distinct from the divine. Yet an examination of Christian contemplatives in the Latin West between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries who work not just within the apophatic tradition (which emphasizes the need to move past self-knowledge to self-abnegation) but also within the affective tradition (which portrays union with the divine as involving self-fulfillment) demonstrates that self-knowledge in medieval mysticism was not seen merely as something to be overcome or transcended. Instead, self-knowledge is viewed (particularly in the works of medieval women contemplatives) as an important means of overcoming alienation from embodied human existence.
