The Beguines of Medieval Paris: Gender, Patronage, and Spiritual Authority

Chapter 6. “There Are Among Us Women Called Beguines”

c h a p t e r 6 “There Are Among Us Women Called Beguines” robert of sorbon deployed the image of the beguine in support of his pastoral agenda, presenting beguines as worthy models for university clerics by emphasizing their zeal for souls, active lay ministry, and humility. According to robert, it was the beguine’s actions (namely, exhortation of her fellow Christians) and humility (specifically acceptance of the skepticism and ridicule with which her actions were met) that defined her. Yet, while setting up the beguine as a model for university clerics, robert referred to the actions possible of real, flesh-and-blood women with whom he, his colleagues, and students at the University of Paris had contact. such emphasis on deeds and demeanor subjected lay religious women—in all their visibility and vulnerability—to intense scrutiny and skepticism. Offering the beguine as a cleric’s model, counterpart, or superior (whether consciously or unconsciously) could have negative consequences for the women with whom Parisian clerics interacted as some began to suspect that lay religious women internalized discourses lauding female spiritual authority. Among the men preaching to audiences of beguines were some who expressed doubt that all of the women who took the name “beguine” and who wore the beguine habit lived up to the positive attributes associated with the name. A few preachers even contended that some women took up the name so that they might pass themselves off as holy women, when in reality they lived wicked, dissolute lives. Moreover, as women who could claim religious authority based on the idea that they had special access to god, beguines were frequently accused of spiritual pride. Adding to this growing cloud of suspicion over lay religious women, the notion of a lay apostolate became 127 “There Are Among Us Women Called Beguines” increasingly suspect over the course of the thirteenth century, even if this apostolate was carried out privately.1 enduring fears of heretical groups and their alleged tolerance (or even encouragement) of female preachers—as well the ongoing conflict between secular and mendicant clerics at the University of Paris—made preaching authority one of the most hotly debated issues in medieval Paris.2 As several scholars have noted, Parisian theologians defended the clergy’s exclusive control over preaching by debating the right of women to give religious instruction.3 Thus, while robert of sorbon extolled the beguine for her zeal for souls, some of his contemporaries were suspicious of women’s involvement in religious instruction, preferring to relegate beguines to a more passive role as the quintessential recipients of pastoral care. By the late thirteenth century, some of the very same features of the beguine life praised by robert and certain of his contemporaries were also points of major contention among intellectuals in medieval Paris. it was within this context that the beguine Marguerite Porete (d. 1310), who had actively disseminated her spiritual writings to bishops, theologians, other beguines, and members of the laity, was sentenced to burn at the stake as a “relapsed heretic” for writing and circulating a book that, according to the judgment of twenty-one theologians from the University of Paris, contained doctrinal errors.4 While Marguerite was active in northern France, her inquisitorial process— directed by a dominican who served as both confessor to the French king and papal inquisitor of France—took place in Paris and included consultations by university theologians and canon lawyers. Marguerite’s trial must have been the talk of Paris, and her actions widely (if not accurately) discussed. her actions and ideas, moreover, came to be associated with the beguine status in general when church leaders, including six of the twentyone Parisian theologians called upon to judge her book, met at the Council of Vienne (1311–1312) the year after her execution. examining how Marguerite Porete’s career intertwined with clerical representations of Parisian beguines illuminates questions about what it meant to be labeled a beguine and the wider consequences of the term. What did it Mean to Be Called a Beguine? in many ways, by identifying as a beguine a woman seemed to make a claim to lead a religious, even saintly, life. such claims, not surprisingly, were regarded with mistrust. Moreover, some clerics expressed discomfort with the fact that 128 chapter 6 it was not quite clear who counted as a beguine and who did not. The existence of beguinages in northern european...