Misunderstood - Marguerite Porete

D. 1310

Sometimes people want to misunderstand you, and no amount of explanation will sway them. That seems to have been the case for Marguerite Porete, who was a writer in Belgium in the early 1300s. Her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls, is a mystical masterpiece, exploring the love between a “simple soul” and God. It has the feel of the biblical Song of Songs, employing poetic dialogue between a divine lover and the beloved. Written in Old French rather than church Latin, it borrows heavily from the style of court romances. Maybe that was the problem.

From the start, church leaders didn’t like it. A local bishop condemned the book, publicly burning it and threatening to excommunicate anyone who read it. In response, Marguerite had the work vetted by three theologians. That didn’t improve matters.

The religious elite may have been troubled by the free spirit of her work, by her possible connection with a fringe group, or by the fact that The Mirror of Simple Souls was immensely popular. When they called Marguerite to defend it, she refused to answer questions under oath (perhaps fearing they’d trick her into a perjury charge), and this landed her in a Paris prison.

One difficulty was that this book superseded rationality. In Marguerite’s view, the reality of God’s love goes far beyond any explanation of it. “Truth declares to my heart that I am loved by One alone,” she wrote. “. . . It is without return that He has given me His love. This gift kills my thought by the delight of His love, which delight lifts me and transforms me.” For Marguerite Porete, part of the soul’s surrender to God was to stop thinking so much.

In 1310 a church court ruled that fifteen passages of her book were heretical. Since she refused to recant, Marguerite was burned at the stake. Ironically, the book gained popularity after her death, though her name was no longer associated with it. Until the early twentieth century, it was considered an anonymous work.

Sometimes people want to misunderstand you, even when you’re onto something great. Don’t be discouraged. Keep drawing close to God, letting your soul find intimacy with him, no matter what others say.

Love flashes like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it.

Song Of Songs 8:6-7