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

Chapter 5. Religious Education and Spiritual Collaboration at the Beguinage of Paris

c h a p t e r 5 religious education and spiritual Collaboration at the Beguinage of Paris robert of sorbon’s exemplum about the beguine who travels to Paris from Cambrai to acquire a copy of the Summa of Vices and Virtues lauds the informal means by which beguines engaged in religious instruction, taking for granted that a beguine might travel from one region to another circulating texts and preaching aids. This association between beguines and religious instruction is echoed—although in a much less positive context—in a report addressed to Pope gregory iX in preparation for the second Council of lyons (1274) written by the Franciscan friar and theologian gilbert of Tournai. in his report, gilbert sourly complained of beguines who possessed vernacular scriptures and read these faulty copies in common.1 several recent studies have shown that beguines were indeed intensely interested in obtaining, composing, and circulating religious texts, particularly in the vernacular. Within the past decade or so, research on the best-known beguine writers—Mechthild of Magdeburg, hadewijch of Brabant , and Marguerite Porete—has drawn attention to the didactic aim each woman had in composing and disseminating her teachings. sara Poor, for instance, has argued that Mechthild of Magdeburg’s use of the vernacular and employment of courtly motifs must be understood as a deliberate strategy to advance her book’s universal message.2 similarly, recent publications on Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of Simple Souls has challenged the standard view of the book as esoteric and elitist, arguing that Marguerite clearly intended her book to be read aloud to mixed audiences of both religious and laypeople.3 it is well known, moreover, that Marguerite deliberately and energetically circulated copies of her book, showing it to clerics, monks, and 104 chapter 5 theologians and reading it to lay audiences, actions for which she eventually paid with her life.4 The role of lay religious women as producers and consumers of religious and devotional texts in the vernacular has long been recognized. indeed, the same factors that contributed to the growth of lay religious communities such as the beguines—including a laicization of medieval piety, increased literacy among the laity, and the embrace of more active expressions of religious devotion—contributed to the proliferation of religious texts in the vernacular .5 Women in particular embraced the vernacular as a vehicle for expressing religious devotion, fusing the language and ethos of courtly love literature with the more traditional monastic themes of bridal mysticism, creating “a hybrid of court and cloister, of bridal mysticism and fine amour.”6 such innovations in language and style allowed writers to blend, challenge, and reinterpret courtly and mystical literary traditions, producing new theological insights and reaching a broader lay public.7 Male writers, too, embraced the vernacular in part as a way to direct or encourage female spirituality. indeed, collaboration and dialogue characterize much of vernacular theology, which reflects “encounters between clergy and laity, men and women, teachers and disciples, patrons and writers.”8 Although sometimes understood as personal, solitary effort, the pursuit of a more perfect Christian life—even one oriented toward mystical experience— necessitated dialogue, models, and texts to read and share. This mission of teaching, learning, and exhortation was furthered within the Paris beguinage, which fostered collaboration between and among lay religious women and their clerical advisors and supporters.9 This chapter explores these themes of collaboration and dialogue as it sketches the spiritual topography of the beguine life. The beguine status accommodated women who wished to pursue lives of religious contemplation and/or action in the world. it suited women eager to receive religious instruction, women who were not cloistered and who conceived their mission as directed toward the exhortation of one another as well as the general laity. As robert of sorbon observed, the beguines’ holiness was enacted publicly and stood as a positive example to others. Adding to this association between beguines and religious exhortation and inspiration, Parisian preachers assumed beguines to be conversant in both courtly and pastoral theological discourses and inclined to impart spiritual teachings in communal prayers, writings, and personal conversations. A forum in which various modes of religious expression intermingled, the beguinage was a space in which clerics might take inspiration from the 105 Religious Education and Spiritual Collaboration beguines’ activities, aspirations, and tastes, testing new ways of speaking about such themes as penance, contemplation, and love. indeed, the spiritual...