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Page The History Journal: Ex Post Facto
Yet notions of “femaleness” and its boundaries--conceived by the devout women themselves
and the male clerics with whom they came in contact--played a central role in creating, fostering, and restricting the religious development of the Beguines. Their position as “sisters between” the two sanctioned spheres of home and convent was both the source of their success and the cause of their downfall: they derived power and freedom from their ill-defined gender space, but the ambiguity of their place as women in the Church proved ultimately too
unsettling for the male authorities to tolerate.
A Space Opens: The Medieval Reformation
The origins of the Beguines can be traced to two important medieval religious reform movements: monastic mysticism and the vita apostolica, or “apostolic life.” Monastic mysticism, which combined the practice of ascetic, contemplative devotion with efforts to attain personal union with the divine, found its most influential proponent in a Cistercian
monk, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153). Bernard, echoing the Old Testament book “Song of
Songs,” allegorized the relationship between the individual and God as a spiritual marriage
between a human bride (the soul) and a heavenly Bridegroom (Christ).3 This marital imagery,
which highlighted the intimacy between the believer and Christ and engendered the soul as
female, provided a basis upon which women mystics of the thirteenth century, including Beguines, developed their distinctive form of nuptial spirituality. Another type of monastic mysticism was conceived by Bernard’s friend, William of
St. Thierry (1085-1148), who was known as the “reasonable mystic” and the “learned
Gender, and the Body in Late Medieval Women’s Spirituality: Cases from Germany and the Netherlands.” Journal 0/feminist Studies in Religion 7 [Spring 1991]: 35-52). Allegorical interpretation of the Song of Songs appears to have been introduced by the mystical and severely ascetic Greek father, Origen (185-254), who believed that Solomon’s intention in writing the Song was to instill “into the soul the love of things divine and heavenly, using for his purpose the figure of the Bride and the Bridegroom” (quoted in John Bugge, Virginitas [the Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1975], 76). Origen also held that true Christian gnosis, or spiritual knowledge, was revealed in a manner similar to sexual rapture. In his homily on the Song, he wrote: “How beautiful, how fitting it is to receive a wound from Love! . . . do you lay bare your members and offer yourself to the chosen dart. . . for God is the archer indeed” (quoted in Ibid., 77).
Volume IV, Number 2 Page 27 in
of to
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Page The History Journal: Ex Post Facto
There were limits to the window of freedom, because devout women could receive revelations from God, but were physically restricted to two main spheres: the home and the convent. In both domains they found themselves externally constrained, either by a man-- usually a father, husband, or priest--or a clearly defined religious nile, or both. A woman with a spiritual vocation was subject to strict claustration (enclosure). Although she had taken vows of chastity, the medieval church considered her to be both more susceptible to sexual temptation and more likely to be a source of sexual temptation than a man.9 In addition, her intellectual weakness made her more subject to demonic deception as well as more prone to be an instrument of deception)0 This medieval construction of female gender as morally and intellectually vulnerable held great significance for men in their perceptions of women, but was of lesser importance to women themselves in forming their own identities.
Women with a strong religious calling of any sort were more likely to see themselves as Christians first, and females second.” This tension, between male attitudes towards women and female conceptions of themselves, constituted a major determinant in the course of the Beguine movement.
The decision as to which of the two acceptable spheres women were to inhabit was usually not theirs to make. Young girls were sent to convents if no husband could be found for them, and women who had been married at young ages were not allowed to take a vow of chastity without their husband’s consent.’2 A life dedicated to God almost always meant
9Some of theearliestand most influential polemics depicting women as corruptresses were unleashed by Tertullian (155/160-220), who blamed Eve and the female gender for the Fall of mankind: “The judgment of God upon this sex lives on in this age; therefore, necessarily the guilt should live on also. You are the gateway of the devil; you are the one who unseals the curse of that tree, and you are the first one to turn your back on the divine law; you are the one who persuaded him whom the devil was not capable of corrupting” (quoted in Alcuin Blamires, ed., Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992], 51). ‘°The“weaker mind” idea was emphasized by St. Augustine (354-430), who asserted that there was a “natural order observed among men, that women should serve men, and children their parents, because it is just that the weaker mind should serve the stronger” (quoted in Ibid., 77). “Penelope Johnson, “Muller et Monialis: The Medieval Nun’s Self-Image,” Thought 64 (Sept. 1989): 242. ‘2Both husband and wife were bound by the “marital debt,” according to I Cot. 7:3-5a: “Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer.”
Volume IV, Number 2 Page 29 a
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For the Dominicans and Franciscans, the concept of a non-cloistered, unmarried religious woman, even if chaste, was disturbing; they too shared the prevailing conception of the female gender as dangerous and potentially contaminating.’6 St. Francis himself--who had placed his co-worker Clare in a convent--was able to say of his order’s association with her nuns that “Up to now the disease was in our flesh and there was hope of healing, but now it has penetrated our bones and is incurable.”7 Women were also seen as burdensome, both financially and spiritually, and the mendicants resisted any obligations that might keep them from their primary task: preaching. The contemplative monastic orders also expressed a revulsion for women and avoided them as detriments to their moral purity. According to R.W. Southern: No religious body was more thoroughly masculine in its temper and discipline than the Cistercians, none that shunned female contact with greater determination or that raised more formidable barriers against the intrusion of women.’8
Early Cistercian statutes stated that women were to be avoided at all costs, and one specifically stressed that no Cistercian abbot or monk should bless a nun.’9 Pressure from women wishing to join the order finally forced the monks to allow Cistercian nuns, but the monks expressed increasing concern about “disciplining” them and keeping them cloistered, and in 1220, they issued a statute decreeing that no more women were to be accepted into the order.2° Although some groups were initially sympathetic to lay women’s participation, as were the Premonstratensians (founded early-twelfth century), their policies eventually changed in favor of claustration. The Premonstratensians’ found’r, Norbert of Xanten,
‘5Herlihy, 67. ‘6The injunction to protect women from sexual temptation was occasionally taken to extremes. To cite one example: elaborate curtains were erected lest a dying nun see the priest who administered last rites (Rosemary Reuther, ed., Religion and Sexism.’Images of Woman in the Jewish and Christian Traditions [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974], 244). ‘7frances and Joseph Gies, Womenin the Middle Ages (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1978), 88. ‘8Sally Thompson, “The Problem of the Cistercian Nuns in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries,” in Medieval Women,ed. Derek Baker (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1978), 227. ‘9lbid. 20lbid.,238-39.
Volume IV, Number 2 Page 31 The History Students’ Association Presents:
allowed sisters to do charity work “in the world,” but his successor, Hugh of Fosses, stressed
the superiority of the contemplative life for the order as a whole. Premonstratensian nuns, who, according to Carol Neel, were the Beguines’ precursors, managed to carve out an active
niche for themselves contrary to their leader’s desires, but in 1198, women were completely expelled from the order.2’ Such exclusionary policies, based largely on male constructions of
the female gender as dangerous and susceptible to sin, served to enmarginate the great number of women who felt called to imitate Christ. They were therefore forced to authorize themselves, within the nebulous sphere of spirit and prophesy, to communicate with God and speak as His instruments.
A New Space Opens: Mary d’Oignies’ and Self-Authorization
The diocese of Liege in the Low Countries, the home of the Premonstratensian order and the site of much reform activity, was also the birthplace of the Beguine movement.22 The first woman to be recognized as a Beguine was Mary d’Oignies (1177-1213), whose vita was composed by her most ardent supporter, the Dominican friar Jacques de Vitry (1 l7O124O).23
Although historically unreliable, the vita sheds light on both Mary’s self-perceptions as a
Beguine and Jacques’s attitudes as her confessor and disciple.24
Mary’s authorization to play an active role in the vita apostolica came from her personal contact with the spiritual world. A contemporary of St. Francis, Mary was in many ways his female counterpart. She renounced her wealth, practiced severe asceticism, and was one of the first women to receive the stigmata.25 Originally married, Mary convinced her husband to live with her in chastity, and the couple thereafter worked in a leper hospital. By
2’CarolNeel, “The Origins of the Beguines,” Signs 14 (Winter 1989): 334. 221nthe 10th-twelfth centuries, Liege was called the Athens of the North because of its cathedral school, which attracted Germans, French, English, and Slays (New Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. “Belgium”). 230ne of Jacques’ main objectives in recording Mary’s life was to promote the Beguines as an orthodox alternative to women’s ministries in heretical sects. 24Foran analysis of the historical validity of hagiography, see Donald Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell, Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of Western Christendom, 1000-1700 (Chicago: University f Chicago Press, 1982). 25DennisDevlin, “feminine Lay Piety in the High Middle Ages: The Beguines,” in Medieval Religious Women. Vol. I, Distant Echoes, ed. John A. Nichols and Lillian Thomas Shank (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1984), 191.
Page 32 San Francisco State University the
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she
Jerome, Lamb
But Jacques
be
of
of
of to began
Jacques
of
embarrassment, wrote
he
intense
stirred
for
advice
as
can mind, (347-420),
Reuther that
Francisco
she
that
but
Ages
the
adulatory History and
lecherous.”31
Presents:
becomes
from of
and
denial sensual
gravely
been wonder,
Paschal
whole,
such wine
San
by
noted Authority accounts
hand
“Equality
a
such and
all
Jerome
vita
and
overly
the
has
Middle Beguiries.29 Church
as
the
been
Rosemary
one
little with
which,
ecstasy
of
unacceptable
was a
sanctity, Defamed).
inebriated,
the was
she
fathers
and
Thomas
the
ed.
in
had
correction
Jerome’s in
“roving
the
nothing
however,
Association her
flesh
upon on
turn gender
chastity Jacques’
vita,
Beguines.
were as drink
on
McLaughlin,
once as
in she and, her
Wo,nan
of
cites
her
Dominicans” Jacques
the Sexism,
unconfined “Gender
Church her
was,
the quoted gaze
she
and
sweetness
of
he virgins to
held
mind,
if
female
of
and
to
and she
and when
and
virtue
Commo women
bordered
her.3°
the Beguine wound
in
as
Students’
she
meat Blamires,
the
as Jacques,
vita,
piece lecherous
of
by to
that
female
by
Coakley,
the
preface
lust--by her
frequently
to
time Mary
it
this eat
and Mary
of
the
Mary
of
his Eleanor
and
writes:
that
Religion
in-between,
spirit,
to
almost
large
someone
(John Franciscans
to
the
close
were
In
a
in with
History
piety
about
echoes
with He
opinion
as
esp. prophet
the
Inflamed
the
despising
fleshly pain
added
146.
out the
roving spirit,
his
Virginitas;
works
according (see between
The for
compared the
role
walked”
Read
also
of
cut
which
while tasted
standing
necessity,
earth.
writings
His
evil friendship
and
she
genuine had
Cantimpré.
feel
introduction
and
Theology,”
extolled
a
Bugge,
“natural”
Blamires,
the
remembered
despite he
de
error
woman: and
own
once
from
not
in
as
180.
support
in
in
other.
Thirteenth-Century
friends
her also
when “femaleness.” Mary,
she
his
her,
admiration
Jacques’
did
seraphim which
weak her
Jacques’
for with
the
for celibacy, vehemence
misogyny,
any
Medieval
her
impunity; for
by Thomas
as
on
is
hoe.28
of
Having
day forced, In
1974]; body on
knife, buried she
acceptability.
the
in
28Quoted
291n
of
30Pefroff,
31That
female
“otherness”--her
love”
mutual 34
with
Women
her
viewed
overcome
student, ground
Jacques’
preclude close
to
to
total
virtue
The
him
He
“tainted”
inspiration champion
femaleness Schuster, generally Woman
his human Holy the
Page The History Journal: Ex Post Facto
The conceptual strategy Jacques employed to differentiate Mary from the “slippery sex” was the key to his support of the Beguines. His emphasis on her exireme piety and abhorrence of the flesh indicate that he had opened up a third gender distinction to contain her and her spiritual sisters: “Holy Female.” Unlike the majority of friars, monks, and clerics, Jacques found a way to cloister the Beguines intellectually, thereby creating a less unsettling category for them. His effort to establish the Beguines as an official order also underscored his need to apply at least some structure to the “between-ness” of their form of piety: the Beguines could find a legitimate place in the Church, but its boundaries had to be clearly defined.
In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council prohibited the establishment of new orders. Nevertheless, Jacques, by virtue of his recent appointment as a bishop, was able to secure verbal approval from Pope Honorius III for “pious women, not only in the diocese of Liege, but also in France and Germany, to live in communal houses and encourage each other to do good by mutual exhortation.”32Although Jacques’ inability to secure the Beguines’ status as an order caused him to lose his original zeal for their cause, in 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a bull, Gloriam virginalem, which formally brought “chaste virgins in Teutonia” under Papal protection.33 With this official sanction, the movement thrived, and within its broad boundaries women from all walks of life found their calling.
The Space Expands: The Mysticism of Hadewijch and Mechthild
The height of the Beguine movement produced two of the greatest mystics of the Middle Ages: Hadewijch of Antwerp (ca. early to mid-thirteenth century) and Mechthild of Magdeburg (1212-1281/1301). These women enlarged the sphere of Beguine piety to include profound experiences of divine union, and the composition of original and theologically complex works of literature. Both women displayed a creativity and freshness of style that reflected their spiritual freedom as Beguines; their sense of self-confidence, divine authority,
32Emest W. McDonnell, The Begitines and Beghards in Medieval Culture (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1969), 133. 331b1d.,229.
Volume IV, Number 2 Page 35 The History Students’ Association Presents:
and personal intimacy with Christ often surpassed that of nuns, yet their contact with the
secular world imbued their works with emotional immediacy. As Caroline Bynum has noted: for the first time in Christian history certain major devotional and theological emphases emanated from women and influenced the basic development of spirituality
Hadewijch, whose works are considered to be the earliest vernacular prose in the Low Countries, wrote thirty-one letters, forty-five poems in stanzas, fourteen visions, and sixteen poems in couplets. She was familiar with the Latin language,rules of rhetoric, numerology, Ptolemaic astronomy, many of the Church fathers, and most of the canonical twelfth-century writers.35 Mechthild of Magdeburg was also an innovator in vernacular literature: she was the
first German mystic on record to have composed her works in the common language, and is considered one of the founders of Die deutsche Mystik, or German Mysticism. Her visions
and dialogues with God were transcribed by her spiritual counselor as The Flowing Light of the Godhead.36
Both Hadewijch and Mechthild saw themselves as vessels of divine inspiration; they received the authority to speak for God from their ecstatic visions and charisma of the spirit.
While they acknowledged the possibility that writing might be an exclusively male prerogative, they turned their apparent “weakness” as females into a strength. Asserting that
God uses the weak to confound the strong,37Mechthild introduced the Flowing Light with the pronouncement:
This book is to be joyfully welcomed, for God Himself speaks in it... The book proclaims Me alone and shows forth My holiness with praise... Ah! Lord God! Who has written this book? I in my weakness have written it, because I dared not hide the gift that is in it.38
Hadewijch also described her spiritual power as being an awesome and almost irresistible force:
34Bynum,Jesus as Mother, 172. 35Petroff 177. 36”Mechthild of Magdeburg, ‘Selections from The flowing Light of the Godheaci “ in Pefroff Visionary Literature, 212-21; also in Egan, An Anthology of Christian Mysticism, 247-56. i Corinthians, 1:27.
Page 36 San Francisco State University With and
anyone Hadewijch Beguine, temporal.
liberating women:
themselves androgynous As transcendence between
which Christ. Volume soul and
writers,
transcend
Hadewijch,
(anima)
this
allowed
died, Since my God
will beyond which created anything Despite great [DJo
38”Mechthild, 39”Hadewijch,
in
Expanding
offering
IV,
a
sanction--even
potential
nature contact
and
Hadewijch, Bride
they
that
be
as had
not
I oneness
Number
as
you interpretation
the
was
of
them
beyond Mechthild
you,
you. female.
He
the undone, female, in
used
who believe
encouragement
the
and
the
misogynist
would
ten
with
the
‘Flowing upon
not
‘Visions,’
of
to
your
earthly .
mystics’
which power
her
the
as
years 2 .
as
first
mysticism,
your given express .
the
that
the
Theirs
compulsion--from
but
shun,
Beguines
the
nuptial
If Bridegroom--as
leader
viewed
nature
The
Light,’ is
two of old, plane
women
you
spiritual
trans’ated
of
you
anything
strength, tradition
me
ideology
God.
His
it
assumption
History
their
the
and
was
I
years
of
would
would
greater
would
imagery
would
have
which prophecy in
nature.39
associated
and
a
placed prophetic
Petroff,
support.
love
by
not
world;
group
which
of
propounded
when that
been 40
be
Journal:
reach
act her
Mother
strength
culminated
be
Bernard
for a
of a
so
23.
themselves--as God
according
you
of
so metaphor
gender-annihilating willingness
so
of
and
the
gender I
you
valiant
the
out
freely
began
Columba In
calling, possessed
noble
spiritual
Beguines,
Himself,
cannot than
“Song
the
Ex human, these
for
must
of
by
in
distinctions
that
to
Post Clairvaux,
with
that
imitation
most
to that
to
a
Hart,” Mechthild
male
of letters,
do
love
surmount to
total the
power,
you
which by masculine
portray
the
Facto wrote
Songs”--the
there
the
people
for
women--in
ascribe
being
a
clerics.
in
Him
absorption
could
women
wholehearted
Him
Ibid.,
secular
she of
who mysticism;
is
would
were
several
which
have,
their
Christ so,
in
best
and
it,
revealed
qualities
not
Christ.
whom
194.
which
had
Like
were
that
I
Biblical
the earthly,
of
world,
Hadewijch
and mystical
bear
should
be
in
Letters
was
as
viewed
all,
it
Mary
role the
you able
no
given
it her God
love Both
permissible
to
of
will
for
based love
was
combined
poem
pains
have
of secular,
leave
to
belief
seek potency
to
that
for union
has
the d’Oignies,
to
Mechthild
be
the
disregard
still
a
of
Page rather
of
human on
Young
in
God.
bride,
with
love
saw and
the
for
the
37
to
an
a to
by
of
her
Her
bride
some
intense
to
leader,
her
able
relative
apogee.
“goats”
a
a
as
to
shown
to but
me
is. of
the
and
day its
as
fully University
as
their
and
androgynous
them
as
were me
is; advice
the
accused
heed
191.
with
let
Christi--or how,
and
to
and
himself period
State
mysticism.42
custom
pressed on
this
years
Being
reached
or
erotic,
who
Ibid.,
describe
custom
politicians
the
and bless,
came gave in
brief paying
Beguines was love
gave
sponsa
a
to
as
why
satisfied
the
he
friars he
several and
he
Human
of gendered
the
accordance
them
frankly
arms,
as
a
Francisco
never
as
only
in
spirituality clear
fervent
taste,
role let
Presents:
Then
face, his
Colledge,”
both
nun, Songs” After
like
turn
clerics
San
in
form,
Hadewijch
her
not
and
Man,
rail, of
failing, outwardly Eric
nor
a
Dominican
enjoyed is
to
felicity, by
asexual could
Beguine
it of
form
glorious
was
looking by
another.
them
immoral
wife
never
entirely
I
ch, “Song in full
outward
to
Association
let
related
So incorporated
in me
both.
with authorities,
time;
its
opprobrium.
Beguines
the
career translated
raptures
colony;
clothing
of
in
was
neither his physically
the
bidding,
took
chalice,
first and
Hadewij her
denounce
belongs
which
of and
from
their
yet
approve,
felt
Church
the
official the
to
me,
Students’
and
Beguine,’
Beguine 196. of
humanity.
to
for
eviction
form
[God’s]
barriers, them
from
wholly
verses
drew
Sacrament,
sexual,
leave:
her
my
beautiful,
identity
seifflood
her
herself Young let the
do
Ibid.,
throughout
characteristics
to a
members
Body
History
of
the in
in
who to of
drink
himself
Eucharist: and the
with
to
Mechthild and
gender
that
his
Occasionally, of
to upon
my
out
of
The mock,
harassment
the
made
us
it
activities
dogged
came
love
ready
came sense
all
heart me
spiritually
of
desirable
‘Letters
anyone
the
a
‘Visions,’
he
was
shape
like.43 he
them
invisible was
my
the
gave
works
took assuming forced
as
and their
by
gave
she
let
of wonderful,
the most speculated
he
that 177.
vision that always
the
courtly
they
he
By
in
was
who
experiences.
him;
the
as
of
against
before
have
With mystics, when Man,
humbly me then before
After desire to transported.4’
With
Stand
do others:
40”Hadewijch, 41Hadewijch, 421bid.,
38
undaunted
the
“Pharisees,”
Christ--offered
or
language
Pressing emotional
Hadewijch’s
F attributes. of
assimilate
freedom
Hadewijch
scholars
charges zeal
and Mechthild,
Page heresy.44 the mouthpiece, The to male-dominated their of attitudes were traditional Beguines’ hampered convent-like of
The
spiritual Volume
the
in-between opportunities
Space
Space
powerful
usually
point
I have preserved, now misled In
By
Despite 44Bynum, 43Hadewijch, 45”Mechthild,
right toward
IV,
was
the
their
monasticism. destinies
around
Like
Is
Narrows:
I done
and of
setting
Number
end,
not
am
to women
me warned
Distended:
pens
at
imperceptibility,
spontaneity. Jesus
the
for
Church.
their
autonomy
appealed Hadewijch,
troubled:
Heifta,
when
for but
allowed however,
1300, ‘Letters Flowing
religiously
in
inherent
called
and as
Thou
own
rather
had
the
2
about
Institutionalization Mother,
trouble
the
In
a As original to
last
taken
directly
femaleness,
a
The to Light,”
The
center
and
Thyself Must
many
Mechthild’s
Beguine a
thrown
beguinage,
threat
the In
Mechthild
this Young
leave
years
inclined 237.
freedom
“Heresy” the
History overcame
its
Mechthild’s sphere
minds, in
I
of
areas
to
book
toll,
walk
of commandest Church’s Petroff,
without
Beguine,’ to
of
German way
Him
persecution,
the
the
they
women
where
in
and
of
Journal: of
resolve
and
uncomforted
appear
stood
of
me:
for
flames.
thirteenth
of 23.
northern
movement.
self-determination
were
the
in permission life
Marguerite
efforts told
piety.
protection:
retreat
they
I Ibid.,
seeking
betook
buckled;
movement
firm
me had
to
not
Ex
by
Then
a
followed
Europe,
have 191.
to
to
century.
become
to able
few
Although
Post
in for
many
write!”45
to institutionalize
Perhaps
myself
conventual
I
from
at
internalized live Beguines her
to
Thy
Porete
did
Facto
no
the
withstand
Beguines
virtually
a
that
the for
what
position
longer
their
to
Glory?
the strict
the
age
vita
pious
prayer.
it
continued life most two
of
from
provided
group
apostolica.
should
very
lived
indistinguishable
sixty-two,
the the
was
laywomen Though
as
great
outspoken
childhood .
harassment
Beguines, .
few
communally
God’s
typical
of .
not
to
mystics, “Lord,
a
statutes,
This
constraining
hast
broad
assert
she
be
narrowed
intended
of
I
Page
of
the
fled greatly
of
many
range
these
from
with
their
in
fear
and
the
39
to
a The History Students’ Association Presents:
was Marguerite Porete, a French mystic who was burned as a heretic in 1310. In her 60,000-
word treatise Mirror of Simple Souls WhoAre Annihilated and Who Only Remain in the Wilt
and Desire for Love, Marguerite employed imagery similar to that of Hadewijch and
Mechthild to describe seven stages in the soul’s ascent to complete union with God.46 Like
the other mystics, she claimed authority using the very basis on which others would deny it to her--her female “weakness”:
God has nowhere to put his goodness, if not in me.. . no place to put himself entire, if not in me. And by this means I am the exemplar of salvation, and what is more, I am the salvation itself of every creature, and the glory of God. for I am the sum of all evils. For if of my own nature I contain what is
evil, then I am all evil. . . . Now if I am all evil, and he is all goodness, and one must give alms to the poorest being, or else one takes away what is hers by right, and God can do no wrong, for otherwise he would undo himself--then I . am his goodness because of my neediness. .
Marguerite was more pointedly anti-clerical than her predecessors, however. She claimed to have knowledge of an invisible, ideal church in the spiritual world made up of “free and
simple souls” who were called to judge the “little church” established on Earth.48 Moreover,
she spoke in her own voice, not that of God, and castigated all those in the ecclesiastical hierarchy who failed to heed her unique insights:
Theologians and other clerks, you won’t understand this book--however bright your wits--if you do not meet it humbly, and in this way Love and faith make you surmount Reason: they are the mistresses of Reason’s house.49
But even more audacious than Marguerite’s writings was her insistence upon wandering,
preaching, and disseminating material from her book, which eventually strained to the breaking point the authorities’ waning tolerance for an uncloistered woman. Marguerite was called before the inquisitors on suspicion of promoting the heresy of
the free Spirit.50 This was the belief that it is possible for a human being to attain spiritual
46AlthoughMarguerite’s book was condemned, it was later translated into Latin, Italian, and Middle English--probably because until the 1970s, the Mirror was thought to be either anonymous or the work d another, more respectable mystic (Petroff, 2$ 1). 47Quotedin Bynum, Holy Feast, 277. 48Petroff 282.
Page 40 San Francisco State University perfection heresy groups--its may Nevertheless, free to heretical Beghards. Church Marguerite to stricture pronounced The
God at apparently assumption Eighteen-seventy thirteenth Jews confused
Volume Kieckhefer, investigators, 1979],
the her
the
friar
then
than and
Spirit 2-5.)
stake beliefs,
theological
Although Although
of to Marguerite 49Quoted
she 50The
structure. with Muslims), century
beliefs, against
IV,
in
most
commit
enter Repression
in
the
heresy
Porete. Not
charge very in
of disturbed
a who the
probably
the inquisitors
Number
she
Marguerite
“relapsed
Free an 1310. (New
mystics, two
a to in
only present
the
she cannot
cloister, purpose
Marguerite
independent, was Marguerite
regents eradicate
any and Gerda
Of
of with
was later York:
Spirit and
autonomy
sent
her
called were
particular the
the
2 refeffed
sin
would technically institutions
heretic” probably
she
Lemer, life,
all Heresy Oxford
case
was
Roman like
the
the of
with
inquisitors
frightened being
The
the Beguines
was
a
the
and
went to Albigensian
Mirror had
Mechthild
then
second
thrown
public,
have in The University here impunity.
History authorities of
not due
importance
University
“freedom”--they Inquisition of be
that Medieval
a
been
further women.
extracted the Creation
heretic, are considered
a
to
attracted
the
time to
and
more
follower once
and
into Spanish the
the heresy
warned
Journal: three
of Press,
inquisitors
their Dominicans, Germany
active
before
many
in (founded
prison,
Also
Magdeburg, an
concerned
but
than
of of
was
parts
Both Inquisition
her an in 1993), noted
individual
of
Paris, Feminist
little
much had Southern
several known “Inquisition”
persona.
the warnings the
the
the
description
of
Ix
were [Philadelphia:
attitudes where in 81.
she
scholars,
the
because
equation
inquisitors
content free
who whose
Post
notice. 1542
less
with (founded Consciousness:
also
with
been
Mirror as
times
has France.
she
Spirit
In
declared to
numerous Facto
she
libertinism order
the worked
attained
mindful
Robert in combat whom
of
submissive
of
stubbornly
of
all
in
had in
about University
Her
out the
and
in had
its unregulated
Marguerite’s This the
the 1478
of
the
received,
them
of formal
perceived Protestantism).
she Lerner’s been whom
told
inquisitors’
against
union
active
male From
such loosely
of her to
context
or
libertine
is root
heretical.
of the authorized
and antinomianism,
to refused sense,
book’s
a compared, counterparts, the
of
approved Pennsylvania
recant.
and the life,
state, organized out
status
view:
gender-specific
content
and
book
the
threat Middle
sense. should apostate
unfortunate
was eyes
to (See
her
purported
sent in
soul
he
She
testify.
Page
of
was Holding the group
burned
to Ages
or
of
of Richard not
What
them former
both
with Press,
was
early she
the the the the
it.
her
41 be to d to of
to
a
a
of
and
free
of
Spirit”
only
from
They
should leading
wore
University
error.”
the
the
her laywomen
vows
Beguine.
authority
were
University
Dominicans’
quibusdam
“free
of
to
mysticism
no
susceptible
outcry
into
Beguines
Dame:
de
pious
gender-specific
definition
the
essence. Church,
which women
they
pious”
State
Beguines
and
for
meant
took
the
[in
the
Heresy
radical
(Notre
public woman’s
Cum
people
these
of
a divine
between
“truly
the
contributed pious”
space
a
who
Ages
The
weak,
reinforce
arrest
theology,
Clement’s
clarify
the
After
Francisco
Beguines
to
decree,
both
simple
to
words,
Presents:
toward
her
“truly
and
Middle
San
the
certainly
V’s
sacraments
discuss
distinctions
of
Beguines” that
constituted
served Later
to
“in-between”
Europe.53
and
her]
decree’s
“leading
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42
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to
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male-
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43 of
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access
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scholars
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to fleshly
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surprising
put
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morally is at
need 19th such missionaries,
gained
Beguines’ however, authority.
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gender and
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History
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God,
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themselves, the
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women
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able
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of
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women, may
religious
of
evidenced
intellectually
to
delicate
corollary--perhaps
to which
of
usurpation
idea
their as
decried role
opposite. the
gender-focused
a
as
femaleness,
through
Beguines
a
by ideological
vessels
of
with
disturbed
men
the
and devoid following
religion,
As
and
history,
who
The
polar
In and
so
Such
gender
from
44
encouraged
its
“female”--were
course
outpouring
considered
“Christian”
be
consciousness.
their Christ
mysticism,
asceticism,
identities
authorization,
the
the
which
weakness Christian
overarching
maleness
time,
example,
the into
femaleness
children.
were
was
Christian
investigate
Page The History Journal: Ix Post Facto social, or political. An analysis of attitudes towards “femaleness” and its boundaries sheds a great deal of light on the conditions which enable or deny women the fullest opportunities for participation in their society.
Volume IV, Number 2 Page 45 to
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