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233 A P P E N D I X B Translations of Other Contemporary Sources This appendix presents English translations of the relevant passages from the four contemporary chronicles that relate direct information about the trials of Marguerite Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart, plus one brief mention in the writings of a contemporary master of theology. Not all of these sources are of equal importance, but all are worth taking into account. I regret that I have had to rely entirely on published editions, specified below. I Continuer of William of Nangis. William of Nangis was the most important historical writer in the later thirteenth century at the abbey of Saint-Denis, which was in turn the most important center of historical writing about the French crown. His Latin Chronicon “furnishes the single most important extant text for the last two decades of the thirteenth century,”1 and after his death in 1300 other monks continued the year-by-year chronicle. Though we do not know the name of the monk who entered the continuation for 1310, he was obviously a wellinformed observer. For instance, he must have known Peter of SaintDenis , one of the masters of theology who condemned the extracts from Marguerite’s book. My translation is based on Hercule Géraud, ed., Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis, de 1113 à 1300, avec les continuations de cette chronique, de 1300 à 1368, new ed. (Paris: Renouard , 1843), 1:379–80. Around the feast of Pentecost2 it happened at Paris that a certain pseudowoman [pseudo-mulier] from Hainaut, named Marguerite called “Porete,” had published a certain book in which, according to the judgment of all the theologians who diligently examined it, many errors and heresies were contained—among others, “that the soul annihilated in love of the Creator, without blame of conscience or remorse, can and ought to concede to nature whatever it seeks and desires,” which manifestly rings of heresy. While she did not want to abjure this little book [libellum] or the errors contained in it, but rather for a year or more stubbornly had endured the sentence of excommunication that the inquisitor of heretical depravity set upon her—because she did not want to appear in his presence [although] she had been sufficiently warned— finally, hardened in her wickedness, at the Place de Grève in the presence of the clergy and people specially assembled for this purpose , with the counsel of learned men, she was brought forth and handed over to the secular court. The provost of Paris, taking her into his power immediately, in the same place caused her to be destroyed by fire the next day. She showed, however, many signs of penitence at her end, both noble and devout, by which the hearts of many were piously and tearfully turned to compassion, as revealed by the eyes of the witnesses who beheld this scene. On the same day, in the same place, a man some time ago converted to the faith from Judaism was cremated in the temporal fire, passing over to eternity, when again, like a dog returning to his vomit, in contempt of the blessed Virgin, he was trying to spit on images of her. Then, in addition, [there was] a pseudoperson [pseudo-quidam] by the name of Guiard of Cressonessart, who—calling himself the Angel of Philadelphia, sent directly by God to comfort those adhering to Christ—was saying that he was not required by the order of the pope to take off the leather belt with which he was girded, nor the habit in which he was dressed; indeed he would sin 234 THE BEGUINE, THE ANGEL, AND THE INQUISITOR by [following] the papal command. At last, in fear of the fire, taking off his habit and belt and finally recognizing his error, he was sentenced to be belted with perpetual imprisonment. II Continuer of Gerard of Frachet. Gerard was a Dominican, whose Latin chronicle from the beginning of the world up to 1268 is not noted for its originality. After his death, however, his chronicle was continued by monks of Saint-Denis. Gabrielle Spiegel writes of the continuation from 1300 to 1340 that it “functions as an intermediary between the continuations of Guillaume de Nangis’s Chronicon, which it revises, abridges, and develops, and the Grandes Chroniques, for which it serves in part as the Latin base.”3 Thus the text below is obviously heavily dependent on the “Continuer of William of Nangis,” but the small differences are...

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