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Appendix A
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A P P E N D I X A Translations of the Trial Documents This appendix offers English translations of the documents in Paris, Archives nationales de France, carton J428, nos. 15 to 19bis. They are presented in chronological order according to the dates on which the documents were originally issued. All of these Latin documents have been previously edited, most more than once. Paul Verdeyen’s edition is the most recent and complete, so my translation takes his work as a starting point. Because Verdeyen’s edition is not without problems, however, I have consulted the original documents and noted places where they differ from Verdeyen’s readings. The only other recent edition is Robert E. Lerner’s presentation of all the documents relevant to Guiard of Cressonessart . In the notes I indicate errors in Verdeyen’s edition (though excluding most cases that are simply misspellings, since these do not affect translation), and where there are meaningful discrepancies between Verdeyen’s and Lerner’s readings of these documents I give the correct manuscript reading. For the documents concerning Marguerite Porete, Verdeyen corrected many of the errors in the earlier transcriptions published by Henry Charles Lea and Charles-Victor Langlois (the latter also partially edited one document concerning Guiard). I do not note those earlier errors, except in several instances where misreadings by Lea and Langlois have caused lasting confusion. Just before this book went to press, Elizabeth A.R. Brown generously shared with me her own transcription of these documents and critiqued my translations, which are much stronger as a result. 209 The canon lawyers and theologians who appear in the documents that follow are not identified in the notes because they have been treated elsewhere in this book. The men listed at the beginning of document VII, however, are briefly noted. Words within square brackets are editorial insertions, generally intended to clarify the referent of a pronoun or to more clearly identify a person. Nos. 15 and 16 are in the hand of Jacques of Vertus. Nos. 17 and 18 are in a second hand, similar to and contemporary with that of nos. 15 and 16. Nos. 19 and 19bis are then in a third similar and contemporary hand. I AN J428 no. 16. Masters of theology and canon law meet in the Dominican house in Paris in March 1310. Five canonists then issue their decision, dated 3 April, that Guiard of Cressonessart is a contumacious heretic. Three earlier documents must once have existed: (1) a record of the March meeting prepared by Evens Phili; (2) the canonists’ sealed decision of 3 April (referred to by Evens Phili); (3) the original document , notarized by Evens Phili, that integrated the decision of 3 April into an account of the March meeting (presumably prepared shortly after 3 April). The text of this third document is preserved within the notarized copy as we now have it, which was prepared 4 October 1310 by Jacques of Vertus and bears his notarial sign. In the translation below, the later text added by Jacques of Vertus in October is given in small capitals; the description of the March meeting is indented; and the embedded decision of April 3 is further indented and in reduced type. Editions: Verdeyen, “Procès d’inquisition,” 56–58, and Lerner, “Angel of Philadelphia,” 361–62. Parchment. Pencil rulings. 480 x 366 mm. Folded in 8. On dorse (bottom right): Instrumentum factum super examinatione Margarete Porete culpabili de heresi (Instrument prepared concerning the examination of Marguerite Porete, guilty of heresy). Reverse : 1309 16. 210 THE BEGUINE, THE ANGEL, AND THE INQUISITOR IN THE NAME OF CHRIST AMEN. THIS IS THE COPY OR TRANSCRIPT OF A CERTAIN PUBLIC INSTRUMENT, THE CONTENTS OF WHICH FOLLOW WORD FOR WORD IN THIS FORM: In the name of the Lord, amen. Whereas a certain beguinus named Guiard of Cressonessart, of the Diocese of Beauvais, came forth publicly and notoriously in defense and aid of Marguerite, called “Porete,” of Hainaut—who was suspected for various and probable causes of the stain of heretical depravity, and because of this was arrested1 by the religious man Brother William of Paris of the order of Preachers, appointed by apostolic authority as inquisitor of this same depravity in the Kingdom of France—for this and other reasons [Guiard] was suspected of the crime of heresy. The said inquisitor, not wanting to proceed impetuously or without deliberation against the said Guiard for this said crime, but rather in good time with...