The soul of such love, saith Love himself, may say thus to virtues: I take leave of you. To which virtues this soul many a day hath been servant., I assent. This most brief introduction intends to offer no such judgement. O courteous without measure, this ought to seem well to me, saith this soul, when you will meekly suffer. And this soul hath long seen that she is under sin and serveth sin and without comparison, passing all creatures, is naught. O My Lord God, mercy, mercy. He is blessed that often falleth for he is such a one that cometh soothly from thence whither none goeth unless he have the name of righteous. 5 Chapter 2. There she prayeth not,[401] no more than she did ere that she was aught. This fire brenneth of him in him, in all places and in all moments of time, without taking any substance from Will, but of himself. This doth my Beloved, saith this soul that is such, and thus are the spreadings of divine love without any want. The sixth is that a soul seeth not her naught by deepness of meekness, nor God, by highful bounty. [1], Poretes, The Mirror of Simple Souls, at least indirectly, served as a lexicon of words, concepts and spirituality for the early Capuchin friars. And because of this naught, she is fallen into certainty of naught-knowing and into certainty of naught-availing, and into certainty of naught-willing. The sphere and mode of this activity is comparatively insignificant. And then liveth this soul, saith Love, not in the former life of grace, nor in the life of spirit, but gloriously and divinely; for God hath hallowed her in this point by himself, and nothing contrary to goodness may befall her.. The last, it accordeth with the first, for it discordeth not. What shall I answer in anguish of death? After the description of the habits, the point of view of the free soul, her aloneness and peace in God, her independence of judgement born of true dependence on God (Division III), follows the explanation of her attitude towards the pursuit of virtues, and an outline of what freedom from desire and will imply in the spiritual life (Divisions IV and V). And these be the degrees by which men ascend from the valley to the top of the mountain that is so separate that it seeth God only. The Mirror of Simple Souls: The Ethics of Margaret Porette [2013] Jack Marler Download Free PDF Related Papers Annihilation and Deification in Beguine Theology and Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls Juan Miguel Marin And it is of this fauset, without which she drinketh,[122] that a naughted soul is drunk! Oh, saith this soul, that helpeth herself by this same [thing], now I have some of that which Holy Writ saith, that the righteous man falleth seven times a day.[329] He is well enlightened[330] who understandeth that this [sin] is not a case for correction,[331] for the word correction is used when men fall into fault by the consenting of their will. tell me, for love, when shall he help him, unless he help him when he hath most need? . The spelling has been modernised and occasional alterations made in the structure of the sentences, together with various minor omissions and changes, all of which, however regrettable, seemed necessary in order to present the reader with an intelligible version. To all those, saith she, that live by your counsel, that be so bestial and so assed, that I am obliged for their rudeness to make answer [in] my language, that they take not death in that state of life, where I am of him, in him, without craving or begging. The first was a Friar Minor of great name for life of perfection, men called him Frere John of Querayn; he said: We send you this by these letters of love, receive it for courtesy, for Love prayeth it you: to the worship of God and of them that be made free of God, and to the profit of them that be not [so], but, God willing, yet may be. He said soothly,[22] that this book is made by the Holy Ghost. Such power hath the union of the unity of [the] divine indwelling., This soul, saith Love, suffereth the dead to bury the dead, and the marred[203] to work the works of virtues. Gerson, who is the next French author to write on these matters, always fuses the devotional, the ascetic and the mystical, according to the older method, but our author has some instinct at least of the distinction between the species and their right relation to each other. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Now first edited from the ms by Clare Kirchberger ed. This sole power[226] of love, saith Love, giveth her the deepness, the rest, and the stillness, and also it giveth her the flame and the burning of the working of love; witness of Love himself. Then liveth she of divine substance. The reason that Marguerite's name was not attributed to the book for several centuries was due to being sentenced as a heretic at the beginning of the 14th century. It gave her war as long time as she withheld will with her, out of its due place. Of this, saith Love, we will speak in asking a soul. Now these folks have, of all the orders, the most high mention for the spirit, and the most noble complexion[322] by nature, when they are sanguine or choleric; that is, not melancholic nor phlegmatic; for of the gifts of fortune, these be the best to have; yet they hold all to be best, according to their will and their necessity, for themselves and for their even-Christian, without anxiety of conscience. n 4: THE MIRROR OF SIMPLE SOULS Pt^-pL P CL/V4-4-cu4-' 2 5", 2.01,-By an unknown French mystic of the thirteenth century 5 Translated into English by M. N. Meditation of pure love hath but only one purpose, and that is this, that she loveth alway truly, without willing any guerdon. This they believe, and this believing giveth them so little satisfaction in their being, that they hold themselves as caitiffs, and as marred. Of four costs[268] behoveth a bondman to have before he might be free and called a gentleman; and right thus it is in the understanding of this spiritual doing. For the influence of Porete on Bernardino Ochino see for Cargnoni. [3] Poretes influence on Pili comes primarily by way of Cordoni. for as much as she willeth naught., Now is this soul come to knowing of more, truly in this only, that she knoweth not of this naught-in-God, compared with the all-of-him. There the soul is abandoned in God for him, in him, of himself. Such is the nature of thee. IMPRIMATUR: Edm. And she was subject to them all the while that she felt this pain and war within herself. O what do ye then, right sweet soul, tell us? saith Holy-Church-the-little-with-all-his-rude-scripture. If a king give to one of his servants that truly hath served him a great gift, by which the servant were rich all the days of his life after, and never [had] to do service more, why should a wise man marvel at this, or why should he blame the king for his gift, and the freedom of the gift?, Nay, saith Courtesy, a wise man marvelleth not of thing that is done, that pertaineth to be done, but alloweth it and praiseth it and loveth it; and if he marvel, he showeth in that, that he doeth that which he ought not to do. I know nothing better than this, that if God would take justice for one of my sins without mercy, I should have torment and pain without end, according to his power. I know, saith this soul, that if ever I had anything to give, I would not give him so small a portion;[141] I that am naught and he is all. And solely the nature of my wickedness hath arrayed me also of this gift. He writes on the doctrine of the union of the soul with God. And when they have tasted of these sweet draughts of heavenly influences, it savoureth them so well that they attend fully thereto. Thus a heretic may not reach him in no wise. These be they who are servants and merchants and seekers; but they be more wise than they that be perished. Thus this soul seeth herself without her sight. [373] Nevertheless I will be still, for this that ye allow[374] it me and I shall say verses of song by leave of fine love, concerning the high ascent, and the precious entry, and the worthy dwelling of mankind, bought and wrought of the sweet humanity of Gods Son our Saviour, which the Deity sitteth in, in high possession in heaven, there above, on the right side of God the Father, for us to marvel. Many verse Mirrors of the World, and other didactic poems, are found in the French literature of the time, but no vernacular prose treatises of this dimension, still less of this nature, religious and mystical, are known to have existed. 1451) died as vicar of Mount Grace, Charterhouse, in 1528. She marvelleth, saith Love, at the work of the far night. Now have we will coming out of his bounty and out of his might, for to be more free, as he hath will of his might and of his proper freedom. Then thus, my Beloved, you have suffered all that you have suffered in your sweet humanity for me, as much as if none had sinned but I alone! have appeared, nor has any trace been found of the thirteenth-century French original of which the Mirror is a translation. Fauset = the tap of the cask, hence the Fountain. Cancel anytime. And every degree hath in it its proper time of abiding.[362]. And she will not have her will, for she is naught and hath no will. Alas, saith Reason, shall we now be put out of her house because that she is come to lordship?, Nay, saith Love, ye shall dwell as of her household all three, but it shall be at her gate, for her gate shall have three porters, so that if any will in her house do aught that is against love, that each of you defend[228] it. They are less explanatory and practical than the M.N. Now soothly this is right, saith Pure Courtesy, that these be her right names., Ah, Love, saith Reason, you have named this soul by many names, so that the Actives may have some knowing, at the least by hearing of the right noble names [by which] you have named her. M. O these words seem full strange to the readers, that say the soul is lost in the Right High by plenty of knowing, and becometh naught in her understanding. This to be in us, is very Being. And I see that I know myself, and that taketh from me also the knowing of myself, for otherwise might I no knowing have of myself., This is sooth, saith Love, what you say, Lady Soul. His glorious body that is in heaven and knit to the divine person of the Son, cometh not down into the host, but the host turneth into him, as it is aforesaid. And they live on the chaff of rye and of rough barley, that have maintained[371] usages of outward wills, which be of human natures. If I believed them, in such dread I should abandon this work, by their counsel. It is impossible to estimate the influence of the Mirror on that susceptible Flemish-Franco borderland in that age of spiritual fervour, the early fourteenth century. Available formats PDF Please select a format to save. Then hath this soul in her, saith the Holy Ghost, the treasures fulfilled of the Trinity and enclosed within her., Now since it is thus, saith Holy Church to the Holy Ghost, it behoveth the Trinity to dwell and live in her., This is right, saith the Holy Ghost, for as much as she is dead to the world, and the world dead to her, that the Trinity [should] inhabit her.. Why, saith Love, marvelleth Holy Church, though the virtues serve the high heavenly souls, and why should they not? (10) The fulfilled. The originality of the form and the boldness of the outlook combine to distinguish the Mirror from the Latin treatises on the spiritual life, current in the religious world of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries. I would only venture to add that, whereas the Areopagite represents the Darkness as a necessary mode of knowing God, to be attained by an elevation of the mind, laborious at times, the author of the Mirror regards the darkness as being of a temporary nature, arising when the spiritual life is well advanced, and being intermittent in its first approaches. And who is then mother of virtues? saith this soul. And she hath so abashed us, saith Holy Church, that we dare not be against her!, Oh, Holy Church, saith the Holy Ghost, will you wit what this soul wot and what she willeth? Ah, soul! saith Love, how you are encumbered by your self!, Yea, soothly, saith this soul, my body is in feebleness and my soul in dread, and often I have heaviness, saith she, will I or nill I of these two natures, that the far-off freedom I may not have.. God himself offers her that she should take what she desires and have her own will. This calleth her alone, this maketh her a lone soul, and the all, sole, alone[ness] of his own being giveth her that point, that is the most noble being that any creature may have, in this life of perfection. Then is she not whole, for she is not naked. Lady, what would your thought [think] of them for this?. Ah, ah, Lord God, saith this soul, what shall the soul do that this believeth of him?, She shall do naught, saith God, but I shall do my work in her without her. If you know perfectly your naught,[155] you shall do naught. He left, besides this work and his translation of the. And so she liveth in God, and there may not the vices find her. And her questions be out of all creatures knowledge, where creatures may have no knowing thereof., What marvel is it, saith this soul, if they wit it not; why should any wit it, but he of whom I am, that in me is the same [one], and he is the secret of love that is between [us] made, where my love is enclosed, without me? 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