Author Guide · Medieval Mysticism
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Some time between 1296 and 1306, the Bishop of Cambrai had a book burned in front of its author at Valenciennes. The author was Marguerite Porete, a woman linked to the Beguines, and the book was The Mirror of Simple Souls, written in Old French rather than Latin. She kept circulating it. In 1308 she was arrested and taken to Paris, and on 1 June 1310 she was executed there for heresy. The book survived without her name, in Latin, Italian and Middle English, until the scholar Romana Guarnieri identified her as its author in 1946. This guide covers her 8 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 8 key texts, translations and studies · c. 1300–2012 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Marguerite Porete wrote one known book, The Mirror of Simple Souls (Le Mirouer des simples ames, c. 1300), a dialogue about the soul’s path to union with God through love. Start with Ellen Babinsky’s English translation (Paulist Press, 1993). Below are the book, its key editions and translations, and three studies of her, in order.
Where to Start with Marguerite Porete
If you want a modern English translation
→ The Mirror of Simple Souls (Babinsky) (1993) — the Classics of Western Spirituality volume.
If you want a second English translation
→ The Mirror of Simple Souls (Notre Dame) (1999) — with a foreword by Kent Emery, Jr..
If you want the story of her trial
→ The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor (2012).
If you want a poet’s reading of her
→ Decreation (2005) — Porete beside Sappho and Simone Weil.
Marguerite Porete’s Book, Its Editions and Key Studies, in Order
The Mirror of Simple Souls (Le Mirouer des simples ames)
A book in prose and verse, written in Old French in the Picard dialect, in which the Soul passes through seven stages towards oneness with God through love, until it is “annihilated”. Its speakers include the allegorical figures Love and Reason. The Bishop of Cambrai condemned it and had it burned between 1296 and 1306; it went on circulating without her name and survives in six versions in four languages, across 13 manuscripts.
The Mirror of Simple Souls, edited by Clare Kirchberger
The fifteenth-century English translation by a translator known only as “M. N.”, who divided the text into chapters and added glosses, edited by Clare Kirchberger from four manuscripts and published by Burns Oates and Washbourne. Porete had not yet been identified as the author.
Le Mirouer des simples ames / Speculum simplicium animarum
The critical edition published by Brepols, with the Middle French text edited by Romana Guarnieri, who had identified Porete as the author in 1946, and the medieval Latin version edited by Paul Verdeyen. Guarnieri had first published the French text, from a manuscript at Chantilly, in 1965.
Marguerite Porete: The Mirror of Simple Souls, translated by Ellen L. Babinsky
A modern English translation by Ellen L. Babinsky, published by Paulist Press in its Classics of Western Spirituality series.
The Soul as Virgin Wife
A study by the scholar of religion Amy Hollywood that reads Porete alongside Mechthild of Magdeburg and Meister Eckhart, published by the University of Notre Dame Press as the first volume of its Studies in Spirituality and Theology.
The Mirror of Simple Souls, translated by Edmund Colledge, J. C. Marler and Judith Grant
An English translation published by the University of Notre Dame Press in its Notre Dame Texts in Medieval Culture series, with essays by Edmund Colledge, J. C. Marler and Judith Grant and a foreword by Kent Emery, Jr.; 298 pages. The French text survives in a fifteenth-century manuscript at Chantilly; medieval translations survive in Latin, Italian and Middle English. The publisher calls the book “one of the few heretical documents to have survived the Middle Ages in its entirety”.
Decreation
A collection by the Canadian poet Anne Carson. Its title comes from her essay “Decreation: How Women Like Sappho, Marguerite Porete, and Simone Weil Tell God”, first published in Common Knowledge in 2002.
The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor
A history of the two trials by the medievalist Sean L. Field, published by the University of Notre Dame Press. It follows Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart, who defended her as an angel of the apocalyptic church of Philadelphia and was tried himself, and the inquisitor William of Paris, confessor to King Philip IV. Field argues that she was prosecuted above all for what she did, going on circulating a condemned book, rather than for its content alone.
In What Order to Read Marguerite Porete
There is only one book to read: The Mirror of Simple Souls. The question is which version. For most readers that means a modern English translation, and Ellen Babinsky’s (1993) and the Notre Dame translation by Colledge, Marler and Grant (1999) are the two main ones. Kirchberger’s 1927 edition gives the fifteenth-century Middle English version, and the 1986 Brepols edition the French and Latin texts for readers of those languages.
Books 5, 7 and 8 are by other writers and are marked as studies. Field’s book tells the story of the trial; Hollywood’s compares her with Mechthild of Magdeburg and Meister Eckhart; Carson’s is a poet’s response. Another study is Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics (1994), edited by Bernard McGinn.
A reading path
1. The Mirror of Simple Souls in Ellen Babinsky’s translation (1993)
2. Sean L. Field’s The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor (2012), for the trial
3. Amy Hollywood’s The Soul as Virgin Wife (1995), for Porete beside Eckhart
4. Anne Carson’s Decreation (2005)
More Studies
Beyond the 8 key texts, translations and studies: 1 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Studies of Porete and her world
1
1 book · 1994
- 1994Meister Eckhart and the Beguine MysticsHadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg and Marguerite Porete; edited by Bernard McGinn; Continuum
The years · 1250–1993
Quick facts about Marguerite Porete
- Known for
- Writing The Mirror of Simple Souls, a book about the soul’s “annihilation” in God through love, for which she was executed for heresy in Paris in 1310.
- 1250
- Born, mid-13th century; date unknown
- 1300
- Writes The Mirror of Simple Souls, c. 1300
- 1946
- Romana Guarnieri identifies her as the author
- 1993
- Ellen Babinsky’s English translation
- Born
- Mid-13th century; the date is unknown
- Origin
- Said to come from the County of Hainaut, though this is uncertain
- Died
- 1 June 1310, Paris, executed for heresy
- Movement
- Linked to the Beguines, communities of pious laywomen in northwestern Europe; she never called herself one
- Book
- The Mirror of Simple Souls, in Old French, c. 1300
- Condemned
- First by the Bishop of Cambrai (between 1296 and 1306), then by 21 theologians in Paris (1310)
- Rediscovered
- Identified as the author in 1946 by Romana Guarnieri
The red mark is c. 1300, when she wrote The Mirror of Simple Souls, the book that was burned, banned and then copied for centuries without her name.
How Marguerite Porete Wrote: Dialogue, Love and the Annihilated Soul
Porete wrote in prose and verse, and gave voices to allegorical figures such as Love and Reason. She also wrote in Old French rather than Latin, which broke one of the taboos of her time.
Her subject is the Soul’s journey through seven stages, ending in what she calls annihilation: the Soul is emptied of its own will until, as one summary puts it, it vanishes as a separate self, just as a river empties into an ocean. This is where her book meets the idea of non-duality. In Porete’s account the annihilated Soul no longer stands apart from God but is united with God’s will, and Love declares that “Love is God and God is Love”. It is a Christian mysticism of union through love rather than a philosophy of non-duality, but its picture of a self that disappears into the one it loves is why it is read beside Eckhart and other writers on unity.
She also wrote with a boldness that alarmed her judges. The Soul takes leave of the Virtues, and she sets a “Holy Church the Little”, governed by reason, against a “Holy Church the Great”, governed by love. Scholars have noted that Meister Eckhart’s phrase “without a why” runs through her book; the two shared acquaintances, and whether either read the other is still debated. For a modern writer who also wrote about losing the self, see Lisanne’s guide to Simone Weil.
Frequently asked questions about Marguerite Porete’s books
How many books has Marguerite Porete written?
One known book, The Mirror of Simple Souls (Le Mirouer des simples ames), written in Old French around 1300. This page lists that book, four key editions and translations of it, and three studies of her by other writers: 8 in all.
What are Marguerite Porete’s books in order?
The Mirror of Simple Souls (c. 1300), followed on this page by Kirchberger’s edition of the Middle English version (1927), the Brepols French and Latin edition (1986), Babinsky’s translation (1993), Amy Hollywood’s The Soul as Virgin Wife (1995), the Notre Dame translation (1999), Anne Carson’s Decreation (2005) and Sean L. Field’s The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor (2012).
Where should I start with Marguerite Porete?
With Ellen Babinsky’s English translation of The Mirror of Simple Souls (Paulist Press, 1993). The 1999 Notre Dame translation by Colledge, Marler and Grant is the main alternative.
What is Marguerite Porete’s most famous book?
The Mirror of Simple Souls, her only known work: a dialogue in which the Soul passes through seven stages to union with God through love.
Why was Marguerite Porete executed?
Between 1296 and 1306 the Bishop of Cambrai condemned her book as heretical and had it burned in her presence at Valenciennes. She went on circulating it. She was arrested in 1308 and handed to the inquisitor William of Paris, and she refused to swear an oath before him; she was held in prison in Paris for a year and a half. In 1310 a panel of 21 theologians of the University of Paris judged propositions taken from the book heretical. She would not recant, and on 31 May she was declared a relapsed heretic; she was executed at the Place de Grève in Paris on 1 June 1310. A chronicle of the time records that the crowd was moved by her calm. Guiard of Cressonessart, who had defended her, recanted and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Was Marguerite Porete a Beguine?
The inquisition classed her as one, and she is often studied alongside Mechthild of Magdeburg, as in Amy Hollywood’s The Soul as Virgin Wife. But she never called herself a Beguine, and it is not certain that she formally belonged to the movement.
How was she identified as the author?
After her death the book circulated without her name and was at one point attributed to John of Ruusbroec. In 1946 the Italian scholar Romana Guarnieri identified Latin manuscripts in the Vatican as Porete’s lost book. Guarnieri published the French text, from a manuscript at Chantilly, in 1965.
Did Marguerite Porete influence Meister Eckhart?
It is possible but not proven. Their ideas about union with God are close, and Eckhart’s phrase “without a why” recurs in her book. They had acquaintances in common, and scholars still debate whether they met or read each other’s work. Amy Hollywood’s The Soul as Virgin Wife (1995) studies them side by side.
What does “annihilation” mean in The Mirror of Simple Souls?
It is the goal of the seven stages in her book: the Soul gives up its own will so completely that it no longer exists as a separate self apart from God, and remains only in the will of Love.
Was the book read after it was banned?
Yes. It was translated into Latin, Italian and Middle English and circulated without her name; 13 manuscripts survive. Soon after her death the Council of Vienne condemned errors linked to the book in its decree against the so-called Free Spirit heresy, a link later scholarship considers tenuous.
Footnotes
- Marguerite Porete — Wikipedia
- The Mirror of Simple Souls — Wikipedia
- Marguerite Porete — EBSCO Research Starters
- The Mirror of Simple Souls — University of Notre Dame Press
- Review of Sean L. Field, The Beguine, the Angel, and the Inquisitor — Catholic Books Review
- Anne Carson, “Decreation” — Simone Weil bibliography, University of Calgary
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I am God, says Love, for Love is God and God is Love.”
— Marguerite Porete, The Mirror of Simple Souls (c. 1300), in the English translation quoted on Wikipedia
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