Marguerite Porete (Lat. Margareta Porete; of Hainaut)
c. 1250 - 1310 · Christian Mysticism · Prominent
Marguerite Porete was a beguine in Hainaut, living under vows outside any convent. She went to the stake in Paris on 1 June 1310 rather than withdraw The Mirror of Simple Souls, a dialogue in which Love, Reason and the Soul argue until Reason is killed off. She charts seven states by which a soul is stripped of any will of its own, and says such a soul takes leave of the Virtues and owes nothing to anyone. The book then passed six centuries unsigned as safe devotional reading.
Signature
The position Porete is most identified with in the Profiler:
- The Divine
- leans Indescribable
- Highest Good
- Union with God
Positions on the 7 axes the sources answer
- The Divine
- leans Indescribable (78 on a 0–100 scale from Describable to Indescribable)
- Meaning
- leans Inherent (85 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Nature of Reality
- strongly leans Unity (8 on a 0–100 scale from Unity to Multiplicity)
- Ground of Being
- strongly leans Transcendence (96 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Ethics
- strongly leans Means (96 on a 0–100 scale from Ends to Means)
- Ignorance
- mildly leans Bondage (38 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- leans Certain (79 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
13 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Porete refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Trinitarian Monotheism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Highest Good
- Union with God
What is the highest good? - Good and Evil
- Good Real, Evil Privative
What is the fundamental nature of good and evil? - Knowledge
- Grounded in God
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Ethics Basis
- Divine Command
What is the ultimate basis of ethics? - Agency
- Libertarian Free Will / Divine Providence
What is the nature of human agency and freedom? - Authority
- Charismatic Authority
What is the legitimate source of authority? - Paradox
- Apophatic Pointer
What is the status of paradox? - Death
- Union with the One
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Redeemably Corrupted
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- The Divine
What is your primary bond and loyalty?