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

Notes

n o t e s introduction epigraph: “en riens que Beguine die, N’entendeiz tuit se bien non: Tot es de religion, Quanque hon trueve en sa vie. sa parole est prophetie; s’ele rit, c’est compaignie; s’el pleure, devocion; s’ele dort, ele est ravie; s’ele songe, c’est vision; s’ele ment, n’en creeiz mie. se Beguine se marie, C’est sa conversacions: ses veulz, sa prophecions, N’est pas a toute sa vie. Cest an pleure et cest an prie, et cest an pannra baron: Or est Marthe, or est Marie, Or se garde, or se marie; Mais n’en dites se bien non: li roix no sofferoit mie.” rutebeuf, “li diz des beguines,” Oeuvres complètes, ed. Michel Zink, vol. 1 (Paris: garnier, 1989), 240. All translations are my own unless otherwise indicated. 1. “domum insuper Parisius honestarum mulierum, quae vocantur beguinae, de suo adquisivit et eisdem assignavit.” As reported in geoffrey of Beaulieu, “Vita ludovici noni,” Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France (henceforth RHF), ed. Martin Bouquet et al., vol. 20 (Paris, 1840), 12. 2. For official, canonical interpretations of the beguine status, see elizabeth Makowski , “A Pernicious Sort of Woman”: Quasi-Religious Women and Canon Lawyers in the Later Middle Ages (Washington, dC: Catholic University of America Press, 2005). 3. On the varied interpretations of the story of Mary and Martha through the Middle Ages, see giles Constable, “The interpretation of Mary and Martha,” in Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 3–141. 4. “et apud nos mulieres aliae, de quibus nescimus, utrum debeamus eas vel saeculares vel moniales appelare, partim enim utuntur ritu saeculari, partim etiam regulari.” gilbert of Tournai, Collectio de Scandalis Ecclesiae, ed. Autbertus stroick, “Collectio de Scandalis Ecclesiae: Nova editio,” Archivium Franciscanum Historicum 24 (1931): 58. 5. Jennifer K. deane, “Beguines reconsidered: historiographical Problems and New directions,” Monastic Matrix (2008), Commentaria 3461. 6. A single article published in 1893 by the French historian léon le grand remains the definitive publication on Parisian beguines. le grand’s article is an institutional history of the royal beguinage, focusing on the establishment, organization, and administration of the community. Thus, le grand’s study examines the Paris beguinage strictly as a royal foundation and reveals very little about the women and their place in urban society. see 176 notes to pages 3–5 léon le grand, “les béguines de Paris,” Mémoires de la société de l’histoire de Paris et de l’Ile-de-France 20 (1893): 295–357. 7. On the attraction Paris held for migrants of all backgrounds, see sharon Farmer, Surviving Poverty in Medieval Paris: Gender, Ideology, and the Daily Lives of the Poor (ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002), 11–38. 8. On Marguerite Porete’s trial and condemnation see now sean l. Field, The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor: The Trials of Marguerite Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart (Notre dame, iN: University of Notre dame Press, 2012). Other useful historical treatments include Paul Verdeyen, “le procès d’inquisition contre Marguerite Porete et guiard de Cressonessart,” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 81 (1986): 47–94; and edmund Colledge, “introductory interpretive essay,” in Margaret Porette, The Mirror of Simple Souls, trans. edmund Colledge, J. C. Marler, and Judith grant (Notre dame, iN: University of Notre dame Press, 1999). But see Field (pp. 3–6) for a summary of the errors that crop up in the many fine studies on Marguerite and her book. 9. For the latin text and english translation, see Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils: Nicaea I–Lateran V (Washington, dC: georgetown University Press, 1990), 1: 374. The translation here is found in Makowski, “A Pernicious Sort of Woman,” 23–24. 10. Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 1: 383–384. On the “abominable sect” mentioned in Ad Nostrum, see robert e. lerner, The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages (1973, repr. Notre dame, iN: University of Notre dame Press, 1991). 11. i suggested some of these links in “What’s in a Name? Clerical representations of Parisian Beguines (1200–1328),” Journal of Medieval History 33, no. 1 (2007): 60–86. sean Field has recently analyzed the trials of Marguerite Porete and guiard of Cressonessart in extraordinary detail, illuminating the multiple interests and concerns that converged at the trials and how they played out at the Council of Vienne. see...