An Executed Mystic Women: Marguerite Porete and her Mystical Thoughts

Öz

Marguerite Porete (d. 1310) is recognized for her book Le Miroir Des Âmes Simples (The Mirror of Simple Souls) and as a mystic woman who was subjected to the Church's inquisition. She was investigated both for her advocacy of divine love and the annihilation of the soul, in her book written in French, and for challenging church authority. She was burned at the stake in Paris in 1310, so she became the first female mystic to be sentenced to death by the Church. What were the dynamics behind Porete's execution? Was her execution as a heretic a reflection of the tension between the Church and mystics, or was it simply an intimidation against women? The study seeks to answer these questions within the framework of the relations between the Church and mystics. It is criticized reductionist approaches that argue that Porete was executed simply because of her views or simply because she was a woman. It is attempted to reveal the factors behind her execution. Also discussed are phenomena prominent in Christian mysticism, such as the union with God and the annihilation of the self. The study aims to shed light on the historical process and dynamics of the relations between the Christian mystical tradition and the Church. In the study, a historical and comparative method is preferred for the Church and mystics, especially for the life of Porete while mystical concepts are discussed with a phenomenological method.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• History of Religions
• Christianity
• Mysticism
• Women
• Marguerite Porete

Etik Beyan

Ethical principles were followed during the preparation of this study.

İdam Edilen Bir Kadın Mistik: Marguerite Porete ve Mistik Düşünceleri

Öz

Marguerite Porete (öl.1310) Le Miroir Des Âmes Simples (Saf Ruhların Aynası) kitabıyla tanınan ve Kilise’nin engizisyonuna uğramış mistik bir kadındır. Fransızca yazdığı eserinde savunduğu ilahî aşk, benliğin yok edilmesi ve kilise otoritesine meydan okuması nedeniyle soruşturmaya uğramış ve 1310 yılında Paris’te kazıkta yakılmış, böylelikle Kilise tarafından idama mahkum edilen ilk kadın mistik olarak tarihe geçmiştir. Porete’nin idamının arkasında hangi dinamikler vardır? Onun bir heretik olarak idamı Kilise-mistikler arasındaki gerilimin bir yansıması mıdır veya sadece kadınlara yönelik bir gözdağı mıdır? Çalışmada bu sorulara, Kilise ve mistikler arasındaki ilişkiler çerçevesinde cevaplar aranmıştır. Porete’nin sadece görüşleri veya kadın olması nedeniyle idam edildiği yönündeki bazı indirgemeci yaklaşımlara eleştiri getirilerek, onun idamının arka planında yatan etmenler tartışılmıştır. Ayrıca Tanrı ile bir olma ve benliğin yok edilmesi gibi Hıristiyan mistisizminde öne çıkan fenomenlere değinilmiştir. Çalışmanın Hıristiyan mistik geleneği ve Kilise arasındaki ilişkilerin tarihsel sürecini ve dinamiklerine ışık tutması amaçlanmaktadır. Çalışmada Porete özelinde Kilise ve mistiklere yönelik tarihsel ve mukayeseli bir yöntem benimsenirken, mistik kavramlar fenomenolojik bir metotla ele alınmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Dinler Tarihi
• Hıristiyanlık
• Mistisizm
• Kadın
• Marguerite Porete

Etik Beyan

Bu çalışmanın hazırlanma sürecinde etik ilkelere uyulmuştur.

Kaynakça

1. Apel, Willi. Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
2. Beattie, Tina. “Porete, a Forgotten Female Voice”. The Guardian (07 Haziran 2010), blm. Religion. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/jun/07/marguerite-porete-mirror-simple-souls
3. Biller, Peter. The Waldenses, 1170-1530: Between a Religious Order and a Church. Aldershot: Routledge, 2001.
4. Birch, Dinah (ed.). “The Oxford Companion to English Literature”. Autobiyography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 24 Eylül 2009.
5. Canaslan, Eylem. “Felsefi Teolojinin Unutulmuş İsmi: Marguerite Porete”. Fe Dergi 13/1 (2021), 155-164. https://doi.org/10.46655/federgi.946998
6. Colver, Randy. Heroes and Heretics in the Early Church. Fairburne: Colver Publishing, 2009.
7. Cosman, Madeleine Pelner - Jones, Linda Gale. Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, 3-Volume Set. Infobase Publishing, 2009.
8. Cottrell, Robert D. “Marguerite Porete’s Heretical Discourse; or, Deviating from the Model”. Modern Language Studies 21/1 (1991), 16-21. https://doi.org/10.2307/3195114

9. Crawford, Charles. A Mirror for Simple Souls. London: Gill and Macmillan, New edition., 1981.
10. Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua to Marguerite Porete. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
11. Edwards, M. J. Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009.
12. Ellwood, Robert S. - Gregory D. Alles (ed.). The Encyclopedia of World Religions. New York: Facts on File, Revised edition., 2006.
13. Field, Sean. “Debating the Historical Marguerite Porete”. A Companion to Marguerite Porete and the Mirror of Simple Souls. ed. Robert Stauffer - Wendy R. Terry. 9-38. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Illustrated edition., 2017.
14. _______. The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor: The Trials of Marguerite Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart. Notre Dame/Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012.
15. Flinn, Frank K. Encyclopedia of Catholicism. New York: Facts on File, 2007.
16. Foligno, Angela of. Complete Works. çev. Paul Lachance. New York: Paulist Press, 1993.
17. Frohlich RSCJ, Mary. “Authority”. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. ed. Amy Hollywood - Patricia Z. Beckman. 305-315. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
18. Géraud, Hercule. Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis de 1113-1300, avec les continuations de cette Chronique de 1300-1368. Paris: J. Renouard, 1843.
19. Gündüz, Şinasi. “Dinlerde Ayrılık ve Çatışma: Ortodoksi-Heresi Kavgası”. Journal of Istanbul University Faculty of Theology 9 (2012).
20. Harrington, Joel F. Dangerous Mystic: Meister Eckhart’s Path to the God Within. New York: Penguin Press, 2018.
21. Hartog, Paul A. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Early Christian Contexts: Reconsidering the Bauer Thesis. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015.
22. Hollywood, Amy M. The Soul as Virgin Wife: Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and Meister Eckhart. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995.
23. Hornbeck II, J. Patrick. “Heresy”. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism. ed. Julia A. Lamm. 89-103. West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 1st edition., 2013.
24. Howells, Edward. “Early Modern Reformations”. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. ed. Amy Hollywood - Patricia Z. Beckman. 114-137. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1st edition., 2012.
25. Kangas, David. “Dangerous Joy: Marguerite Porete’s Good-bye to the Virtues”. The Journal of Religion 91/3 (2011), 299-319. https://doi.org/10.1086/659656
26. Kirchberger, Clare. The Mirror of Simple Souls. çev. M. N. London: Burns, Oates & Co., 1927.
27. Kutluer, İlhan. “Mistisizm”. Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. 30/188-190. İstanbul: TDV Yayınları, 2005.
28. Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. 3 Cilt. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016.
29. Lerner, Robert E. The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
30. _______. The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages. California: University of California Press, 1972. Lüdemann, Gerd. Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
31. Martin, Sean. The Cathars: The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages. London: Pocket Essentials, 2014.
32. McGinn, Bernard. “‘Evil-sounding, rash, and suspect of heresy’: Tensions between Mysticism and Magisterium in the History of the Church”. The Catholic Historical Review 90/2 (2004), 193-212.
33. McGinn, Bernard. The Flowering of Mysticism: Men and Women in the New Mysticism: 1200-1350. New York: PublishDrive, 1998.
34. Newman, Barbara. “Annihilation and Authorship: Three Women Mystics of the 1290s”. Speculum 91/3 (2016), 591-630. https://doi.org/10.1086/686939
35. Pangle, Hayley. “Christian Mysticism as a Threat to Papal Traditions”. Grand Valley Journal of History 1/1 (29 Şubat 2012), 1-7.
36. Parrinder, Geoffrey. Mysticism in the World’s Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, First Edition., 1976.
37. Porete, Margaret. The Mirror of Simple Souls. ed. J. C. Marler - Judith Grant. Notre Dame/Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, First Edition., 1999.
38. _______. Le Miroir des âmes simples et anéanties et qui seulement demeurent en vouloir et désir d’amour. ed. Albin Michel. Paris: Albin Michel, 1984.
39. _______. The Mirror of Simple Souls. çev. Robert E. Lerner. New York: Paulist Press, 1993.
40. _______. The Mirror of Simple Souls (Babinsky’s Translate). ed. John Van Engen, - Edward English. çev. Ellen Babinsky. New York: Paulist Press, First Paperback Edition., 1993.
41. Robinson, Joanne Maguire. “Marguerite’s Mystical Annihilation”. A Companion to Marguerite Porete and the Mirror of Simple Souls. ed. Robert Stauffer - Wendy R. Terry. 38-59. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Illustrated edition., 2017.
42. _______. Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001.
43. Romana, Guarnieri - Paul Verdeyen (ed.). Le Mirouer des simples âmes/ Speculum simplicium animarum. Turnhout: Brepols, 1986.
44. Sargent, Michael G. “The Annihilation of Marguerite Porete”. Viator 28 (1997), 253-280. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301079
45. Scarborough, Elizabeth. “Critical Approaches to Marguerite Porete”. A Companion to Marguerite Porete and the Mirror of Simple Souls. ed. Robert Stauffer - Wendy R. Terry. 295-323. Leiden/Boston: Brill, Illustrated edition., 2017.
46. Schlager, Patricius. “William of Nangis”. The Catholic Encyclopedia (First Edition). ed. Charles Herbermann. 15/634. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.
47. _______. “William of Nangis”. Catholic Encyclopedia. 1912. Erişim 07 Ekim 2024. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15634b.htm
48. Simons, Walter. Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 12-1565. Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.
49. _______. “Staining the Speech of Things Divine: The Uses of Literacy in Medieval Beguine Communities”. The Voice of Silence: Women’s Literacy in a Men’s Church. ed. Thérèse de Hemptinne - María Eugenia Góngora,. 85-110. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2004.
50. Strayer, Joseph R. The Reign of Philip the Fair. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 0 edition., 1980.
51. Temiztürk, Halil. Bir Mistik Rahibe Bingenli Hildegard. Eskiyeni Yayınları, 2019.
52. _______. Hıristiyan Mistisizmine Giriş. Eskiyeni Yayınları, 2021.
53. _______. “Kutsallık ve Heretiklik Arasında Bağımsız Mistik Kadınlar: Beguineler”. Mevzu – Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi 8 (2022), 43-69. https://doi.org/10.56720/mevzu.1118404
54. _______. “Orta Çağ’da Kilise ve Hıristiyan Mistikler Arasındaki Ortodoksi ve Heresi Tartışmasının Temel Nedenleri”. Ortaçağ Araştırmaları Dergisi 5/1 (2022), 73-83. https://doi.org/10.48120/oad.1076258
55. Verdeyen, Paul. Le procès d’inquisition contre Marguerite Porete et Guiard de Cressonessart (1309-1310), ts.
56. Visconti, Joseph. The Waldensian Way to God. Maitland: Xulon Press, 2003.
57. Wainewright, John. “William of Paris”. The Catholic Encyclopedia (First Edition). ed. Charles Herbermann. 15/636-637. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.
58. Watt, Diana. “Margery Kempe”. Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms. ed. Margaretta Jolly. 1/523-524. London: Routledge, 2001.
59. Weber, Alison. “Gender”. The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. ed. Amy Hollywood - Patricia Z. Beckman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
60. Willis, Geoffrey G. Saint Augustine and the Donatist Controversy. Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2005.