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Marguerite Porete and the Annihilation of an Identity in Medieval and Modern Representations – a Reassessment

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Marguerite Porete and the Annihilation of an Identity in Medieval and Modern Representations – a Reassessment CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by Sydney eScholarship “The World on the End of a Reed”: Marguerite Porete and the annihilation of an identity in medieval and modern representations – a reassessment. Francesca Caroline Bussey A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy December 2007 School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry Department of History University of Sydney Abstract This thesis presents a new assessment of the identity and historical significance of Marguerite Porete, burned for heresy in Paris in 1310, and reconnects her to a vigorous, lay, discourse community that threatened the authority of the later medieval church. The thesis argues that a bilateral annihilation of Porete as an historical subject has been brought about by medieval and modern representations, and that this has served to obscure the presence of a subaltern religious discourse in the period. The historiography of Porete has followed distinctive stages of development that reflect, and are affected by, concurrent advances in the study of medieval female religious participation. This interplay has led to the development of a particularly influential hermeneutics that serves to exclude Porete from her contemporaries. Analysis of documentation issuing from Porete‟s condemnation has similarly been influenced by hermeneutic issues that manipulate the ways in which Porete is perceived as an identity. This thesis challenges dominant representations of Porete in the scholarship and argues that Porete‟s identity and discourse reflect a particularly vigorous, fluid and cross-discoursed lay engagement with religiosity that has roots in the precocious socio-religious environment of the Southern Low Countries. Central to the aims of this thesis is the question “how did Porete „fit‟ the religious landscape of her period?” A seeming obstacle to this pursuit are claims from within the scholarship that Porete did not „fit‟ at all, but was, rather, as an aberration amidst other female mystics of the period. Clear links, however, have suggested a wider discourse community and some have identified her, in conjunction with those that condemned her in Paris, as a beguine. Yet this affiliation is refuted by Porete within her book and the term, as an indicator of identity, is highly problematic. This thesis explores the historiographical issues that cloud Porete‟s case and offers a reassessment of the possibilities her reconnection to the major religious currents of her day presents. It will be argued that her condemnation represents a major historical development wherein the boundaries of institutionally accepted discourse were hardened at the very moment when the possibilities for religious discourse were at their peak. Porete will thus be reassessed as a major figure in an alternative religious discourse that represents the excluded voice of lay engagement in the later Middle Ages. This is to certify that this thesis comprises only my original work, except where due acknowledgement is made. The thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, inclusive of appendix and bibliography. Acknowledgements This thesis was born from the excitement of undergraduate classes taught by Dr. John O Ward at the University Sydney in the 1990s. Under the tutelage of Dr. Ward, a highly influential and gifted teacher, I formed part of a dedicated group of devotees who spurned other areas of study (despite the impracticality of this) and pursued topics as heady as „witchcraft‟, „heresy‟ and „magic‟ within the medieval period. I was fortunate to find Dr. Ward amenable to supervising this thesis and even more fortunate to have him continue to supervise after retirement from Sydney University‟s History Department. I thank him for his inspiration, advice, assistance and criticism in the development of this thesis. I hope the completion of this work will give him more time to pretend to be retired. I would like to thank my husband Tom Garrish and my daughter Ada Margaretha for the depth of emotional and practical support they have provided during the writing of this thesis. It is not possible to describe how crucial this has been nor how deeply I appreciate their sacrifices and emotional sustenance. Ada learned not only how to walk throughout the duration, but also how to make tea. Tom married me, knowing full well he was also marrying an incomplete thesis. For both these things, and for very much more, I give much thanks. This thesis is dedicated to them both. I also express my gratitude to financial assistance awarded by the Commonwealth government in the shape of an Australian Postgraduate Award, without which this thesis would not have been possible. I thank also staff of the University of Sydney‟s History Department for their patience and encouragement in the completion of this thesis. I have also been fortunate, to have been the recipient of advice and encouragement from scholars and colleagues at a number of conferences, particularly at ANZAMEMS II and III and at the „Millennium of Christianity‟ conference hosted by the University of Melbourne‟s History Department in 2000 at which early versions of portions of this thesis were delivered. Finally, there are a number of people whom I would like to thank for their moral support, encouragement and friendship over the past years: to my father and mother Victor and Marjorie Bussey, and the extended Bussey family, who have been a great emotional and, at times, financial support; to my brother Marcus Bussey, who read and commented most fruitfully on portions of this thesis; to the Garrish family, who endured me „nipping out‟ for a spot of research mid-wedding preparations; to my father-in-law, Stephen Garrish, who guided in matters of punctuation and grammar; and to my friends and colleagues who have listened, advised and commiserated on both an experience and a topic not always familiar to them (though they generally, if not always, claimed to find it interesting). Contents Page Introduction .............................................................................................................................p. 1 Chapter One: Hermeneutics of Exclusion and the Phenomenon of Female Mysticism in the Later Middle Ages.....................................................................................................................p.20 Whose Women‟s Movement and Which? Rendering Women Visible The Authenticity Debate: Geneses The Challenge Delete the Subject? A Mystical Amalgam Chapter Two: Marguerite Porete in the Scholarship: dominant historical reconstructions....p.84 Option One: the heretic beguine o Reflected Glory: sensations, scandals and pseudomulieres Option Two: the anomalous beguine mystic o Leaning towards rehabilitation: the much-maligned mystic o The lost milieu Option Three: the beguine evangelist The Case for a Reassessment Chapter Three: Hermeneutics of Hostility and the Trial of Marguerite Porete.....................p.141 From imprisonment to immolation: the narrative of the trial The trouble with the trial The trouble with the trial records The production of a widespread transgression Chapter Four: An Alternative Construction of the Historical Subject...................................p.194 Behind The Mirror: Porete in situ The education of an annihilated soul Beguine-educated or mendicant magpie? In whose company: an audience for The Mirror A collision of communities Conjectures on Porete: collisions and collusions Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................p.249 Appendix: Summary of the documents of condemnation ..................................................p.254 Bibliography ...........................................................................................................................p.258 Introduction The World on the End of a Reed: Marguerite Porete †1310 Around the feast of Pentecost it happened in Paris that a certain pseudo-woman of Hainaut, named Marguerite, called Porrette [Poirette, Poreite], had published a certain book in which, by the judgment of all the theologians who had diligently examined it, were contained many errors and heresies, and among those that the soul annihilated in love can for love of the creator, behave without reprehension of conscience or remorse and concede to nature whatever it demands and desires, which smacks manifestly of heresy. While she did not wish to abjure this little book or the errors contained therein, as a consequence of which [quinimo] she lay under sentence of excommunication by the inquisitor for heretical depravity since she had not wished to appear before him although sufficiently warned, for a year or more she remained of pertinacious mind, finally hardened in her wickedness, at last in public in the Place de Grève, before the clergy and people specially called for this, on the advice of learned men she was exposed and handed over to the secular court. The provost of Paris accepting her at once into his power, the next day she was extinguished in the fire. Guillaume de Nangis, The Grand Chronicles of France1 I was so foolish …[to]… undertake something which one could neither do, nor think, nor say, any more than someone could desire to enclose the sea in his eye, or carry the world on the end of a reed, or illumine the sun with a lantern or a torch. I was more foolish than the one who would want to do the other, when I undertook a thing which one cannot say, when
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