She was a Beguine — one of those independent women who lived religious lives outside the convent walls. She wrote in French, not Latin, so that ordinary people could read her words. And what words they were: a dialogue between Love, Reason, and the Soul, describing a path that bypassed the Church entirely.
Her book was called "The Mirror of Simple Souls." The Church burned it. She kept copying it and giving it away. They warned her: stop, or face the consequences. She would not stop.
"The Soul that is annihilated
Has no more need of sermons or sacraments.
She has no more need of anything that Holy Church can give.
For she has become what she sought.
She does not seek God — she is where God is."
This was her crime: teaching that the soul, in its highest state, transcends all external religion. She did not condemn the Church — she simply said it was scaffolding, and scaffolding can be removed when the building stands. The builders were not pleased.
For eighteen months they held her in prison, waiting for her to recant. She refused to speak at all. Not in defense, not in recantation, simply silence. Some said she was proud. Others said she had nothing to add — her book said everything.
"The Annihilated Soul takes leave of the Virtues,
And no longer serves them.
Not because she despises them,
But because she has moved beyond the need for them.
The Virtues were teachers; she has graduated.
Now she is governed only by Love."
On June 1, 1310, they burned Marguerite Porete in the Place de Grève in Paris. Witnesses said she faced the flames with calm dignity, her eyes fixed on something beyond the crowd, beyond the fire, beyond the world.
Her book survived. Copies circulated anonymously for centuries, attributed to various authors. When scholars finally identified her as the author, they recognized her as one of the most original mystics of the medieval period — a woman who paid with her life for the truth she would not silence.
Teaching 31
The annihilated soul has passed beyond the need for external religion — not by rejecting it, but by becoming what it points to. The scaffolding can be removed when the building stands. This teaching will always be dangerous to institutions. Speak it anyway.