Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Mirror of Simple Souls·Section II

Section II

This is Section II of a planned five-section project translation of Marguerite Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls. Section II covers Division III, chapters IV through XI — the chapters immediately following the Soul's manumission speech from the Virtues (which closed Section I). Here Marguerite develops the character of the freed Soul: what she no longer regards (shame, worship, poverty, riches, ease, hell, paradise); how she is mortified of all outward desires; how she has nothing of will; the twelve proper names Love gives her; and the first seven of the nine points by which the Soul naughted in life may be recognized.

Five of M.N.'s fifteen signed glosses fall in this section. Each opens with the letter M and closes with N. In Section II, M.N. is most concerned to defend Marguerite against the Free Spirit reading: when Marguerite says the freed Soul "desires not masses nor sermons nor fastings nor orisons," M.N. insists this must be taken spiritually, not literally — the Soul is not abandoning the works, but is no longer attached to them as the source of her righteousness. Whether M.N.'s defensive gloss reflects Marguerite's own intention, or is M.N.'s orthodoxy-saving reframing, is one of the central interpretive questions in modern Porete scholarship.

The same conventions apply as Section I: light modernization (archaic verb endings normalized; thou/thee/thy → you/your; spelling regularized; punctuation supplied), with Marguerite's technical vocabulary preserved — annihilated, Simple, Holy Church the Less/the More, the personified speakers (Love, Reason, the Soul, the Virtues), the phoenix-of-the-Soul-alone-in-love image, and the twelve names litany. M.N.'s glosses are footnoted in place; the formal LLM-as-judge review step is deferred per session-budget, consistent with Section I and Mechthild V-VI-VII.

Division III (continued)

Chapter IV — Of certain things that the Soul takes no account of, and how she is lost in the most-high by plenty of knowing, and becomes naught in her understanding, and whereto she is come thereby

This Soul, says Love, takes no account of shame, nor of worship, nor of poverty, nor of riches, nor of ease, nor of disease, nor of love, nor of hate, nor of hell, nor of paradise.

O Love, for God's sake, says Reason, what is this to say, what you have said?

What is this to say? says Love. They know it, and none other, to whom God has given the understanding. For no scripture teaches it, nor may man's wit comprehend it, nor the travail of creatures, nor merit can reach to it; but it is a gift given of the most-high, in whom this creature is lost by plenty of knowing — and becomes naught in her understanding.

M. These words seem most strange to readers, who say: the Soul is lost in the most-high by plenty of knowing, and becomes naught in her understanding — and not only these words, but also many others written before and after, seem fable or error, or hard to understand. But for the love of God, you readers, judge not too soon. For I am certain that whoever reads over this book by good consideration twice or thrice, and is disposed to the same feelings, shall understand it well enough. And though they be not disposed to those feelings, yet they shall think it is all well said. But whoever takes the naked words of scriptures and leaves the meaning, he may lightly err. N.¹

And this Soul who has become naught — she knows all and she knows nothing, and she wills all and she wills nothing.

Ah, what may this be, Lady Love, says Reason, that this Soul may thus will, as this writing says — when before it has said that she has no will?

O Reason, says Love, it is not her will, this that she wills, but it is the will of God — all that she wills. For this Soul does not take the lead in love by any desire of her own; but Love leads in her, whose will Love has taken, and does his will of her. Now Love works in her without her, so that no unease may dwell with her.

Chapter V — How a Soul that is mortified of all outward desires can no more speak of God; and how it is meant that this Soul has taken leave of the Virtues; and how such souls become free; and what the greatest torment is that a creature may suffer in this life

This Soul, says Love, can no more speak of God; for she is annihilated¹⁰ of all outward desire and of all the affections of the spirit — so that what this Soul does, she does it by usage of good custom, or by the commandments of holy Church, without any desire; for the will is dead which gave her desire.

Ah Love, says Reason, who understands eagerly and leaves the sweetness, what wonder is it that this Soul be deprived of the feelings of grace, of desire, of spirit, since she has taken leave of the Virtues — which Virtues give themselves to all good souls — without which Virtues none may be saved nor come to the life of perfection, and whoever has them may not be deceived? And this Soul has taken leave of them: is she out of her wit, who speaks thus?

Oh, without fail, no, says Love. For this Soul has better than all the Virtues, and more than any other creature; but she has not the usages of them, for she is not with them as she was wont. And, by God's will, says Love, she has been servant long enough; now she shall become free from this time forward.

Eh, Love, says Reason, when was she servant?

When she took the lead in love and in the obedience of you, and of the other Virtues, says Love. Those souls, says Love, that are such, have so long taken the lead in love and in obedience of Virtues that they have become free.

And when do these souls become free? says Reason.

When Love dwells and leads in them, and the Virtues serve them without any compulsion or painfulness in these souls.²

Truly, Love, says Reason, these souls that thus become free have many a day known what compulsion can do. And whoever would ask them: "What is the greatest torment that a creature may suffer?" — they would say: "It is to take the lead in love and in obedience of the Virtues." For it behoves them to give to the Virtues all that the Virtues ask, whatever it cost to nature; and the Virtues ask worship, honor, heart, body, life. This is to say that the Soul who has given them all this, and has nothing left to comfort nature with (so that hardly the righteous shall be saved), would then thus become sorrowful — be in hell and tormented unto the day of Judgment, so that she might thereby be certain to be saved.

This is sooth, says Love. Under such compulsion live they over whom these Virtues have power. But those souls of whom I speak have set the Virtues at point: for they do nothing for them — but the Virtues do all that the souls will, without compulsion or withstanding. For these souls are their mistresses.

Chapter VI — How these free souls have nothing of will, and what their continual usage is

Whoever asks these free souls, sure and peaceable: if they would be in purgatory? — they say No. If they would, while yet living, be certified of their salvation? — they say No. If they would be in paradise? — they say No.

Eh, what would they then?

They have nothing of will, to will this. And if they did will it, they would descend from love; for he that is, has their will — and he knows what is good for them, and that suffices them, without knowing or being certain.

These souls, says Love, live of knowing of love and of hearing. This is the continual usage of these souls, without parting from it; for knowing and love and magnifying dwell in them.

These souls that are such cannot find the good nor the evil, nor have knowing of themselves to make judgment whether they are converted or perverted.

Chapter VII — How Love takes one of these souls for all, the more readily to speak of them; and of certain works of virtue that this Soul has no desire to; and of what the most perfect gift is that God gives to creatures

Of these souls, says Love, we will take one for all, to speak of them the more readily. This Soul desires not contempt, nor poverty, nor tribulation, nor disease, nor masses, nor sermons, nor fastings, nor prayers — and she gives to nature all that nature asks, without any pang of conscience.³

M. This is to say that this Soul is made one with God; and while she stands in that union, she has no will, nor work, nor any desire — she thinks of nothing that is beneath that union.

Also there is another understanding, and it is this. When creatures first give themselves to perfection, they set all their desire and all their purpose in these points aforesaid, and all their labor in fervor of love — in which they work and take the lead. They desire, for God's sake, contempt, poverty, tribulation, disease, masses and sermons, fastings and prayers; and they take from nature all that nature asks, refusing all that is pleasant to the flesh. For by this way and by sharp contrition souls must go, before they come to these divine usages. And when they have tasted of these sweet draughts of heavenly influences, it savors them so well that they attend fully to them. And then Love, of her courtesy, works in these souls, and makes them cease from that first labor — not from the deed, to leave the work undone for evermore, but from that manner of labor in the doing of it.

When Love works in the Soul, and holds in her the sparkles of his bright beams, she understands well, by clarity of that light and by sweetness of that draught she has drunk, that the work of Love is more worth, and draws more to the union in God, than her own work does. Therefore she takes that as most worthy, and sets by it principally — so that all her attendance and all her business, which was before in her other outward works, is now set to follow this; yet she does the other also, as by usage of good custom (as Love says in this book: "by usage of good custom this Soul does these outward works"); but she does it without desire, and without the kind of usage she had before in laboring by outward impulses. Fully she attends, in all that she may, to the usages of Love, which are all divine and upward.

So, whatever this creature does, it is made one with Love — so that it is Love that does it; and thus she suffers Love to work in her. Therefore, this that Love says — these souls desire not masses nor sermons, fastings nor prayers — it should not be taken to mean that they should leave these undone. He were purblind who would take it in this wise. But all such words in this book must be taken spiritually and divinely. For these souls so annihilate themselves, by true meekness, that they make themselves as no one. For sin is no thing — and they hold themselves but sin; therefore in their own beholding they do naught, but God does in them his works.

Also these souls have no proper will nor desire. They have wholly planted it in God, so that they may will nothing nor desire — but God wills in them, and makes them do his will. Thus they do nothing as in their own sight and judgment; but God does all that is good. And she gives to nature all her asking, without grudging of conscience. Now God forbid that any be so fleshly as to think this should mean to give to nature any lust that draws to fleshly sin — for God knows well that it is not so meant; for sin must be had in conscience, will a man or no, whether in the time or after. This every creature may well know that has any wit and discretion. For this I say of truth: that these souls (such as this book devises) are so mortified from such wretchedness, and so illumined with grace, and so arrayed with the love of God, that it quenches all fleshly sin in them, and drives down mightily all bodily and spiritual temptations. Thus Love — that is, God the Holy Ghost — works graciously in these persons, in whom he holds his school, and arrays them so with fair flowers of his high nobility, that no spots nor blemishes may abide in them. N.⁴

She has no care for anything that she lacks, except at the time when she is in want; this burden of heaviness may no one lose, except he be innocent before God.

I, says Reason, what is this to say?

I answered you here before, says Love, and still I tell you that all the masters of natural wit, nor all the masters of scriptures, nor all those who take the lead in love and in obedience of Virtues, understand it not — be right sure of this, says Love. But those only, without more, whom fine Love so leads — whoever found such souls, they could tell you the truth, if they would. But I am not in pledge that men may understand it, except only those whom fine Love leads. This gift is given, says Love, sometimes in a moment of time. Whoever has it, let him keep it; for it is the most perfect gift that God gives to creatures. This is a scholar of divinity: she sits in the valley of meekness, and in the plain of truth, and in the mountain of love; there she rests.

Chapter VIII — Of the proper names of this Soul, and how the true contemplative should have no desire

Ah Love, says Reason, name this Soul by her right name; give to the actives some knowing.

And Love names her by thus many names:

1The Most Marvelous;

2The Unknown;

3The Most Innocent of the Daughters of Jerusalem;

4She on whom all Holy Church is founded;

5The Enlightened of Knowing;

6The Worshipped of Love;

7The Union of Hearing;

8The Naught in all things, for meekness;

9The Peaceable in divine being, by divine will, by nothing willing of will;

10The Fulfilled;

11And She who is called without fail by the divine goodness of the work of the Trinity;

12*Forgetful* — *Forgetful* is her name.
**M.** *Forgetful* is her name; for it is her manner much to comprehend, and soon to forget. She comprehends much when she beholds God — how worthy and glorious he is, and how powerful he is in all his works. She sees well, then, that God by his high majesty is in all; furthermore she sees how good and merciful, benign and meek, he is in all things. And in this beholding, full often Love comes to her with his ravishing darts, and wounds her so sweetly that she forgets all that before she saw and knew. Also she comprehends much, what time she is made one with God; then, in a moment of time, she forgets herself and all other things that were before thought. Thus she comprehends much, and soon forgets. **N.**⁵ These twelve names Love gives her. *Now truly, this is right,* says Pure Courtesy, *that these be her right names.* *Ah Love,* says Reason, *you have named this Soul by many names, so that the actives may have some knowing — at the least by hearing the right noble names by which you have named her. Now I pray you, for the contemplatives,* says Reason, *who always desire to increase in knowledge of the divine bounty.* *They will be ill-constrained, Reason,* says Love, *to that which you say.* **M.** As one might say: the true contemplatives should have no desire, but plant it all in the divine will of God, and knit their wills wholly in him to his will, and have no proper will nor desire — but will perfectly the divine will of God. For by right, the contemplatives should pass the state of scholars, as masters of divinity be passed schools. **N.**⁶

Chapter IX — Of the first point that is spoken of before: of the Soul in life annihilated; how none may find her, and how this is worthy; and of true meekness

Ah Lady Love, says Reason, expound now the nine points, by your courtesy, to the desirous contemplatives who are and dwell ever in desire of love — those nine points you rehearsed here before, of her whom fine Love asks, in whom Love dwells and is set in life annihilated, by which the Soul is molten in pure Love.

The first point, Love, says Reason, is this that you have said: that none may find her.

It is truth, says Love. This is that this Soul knows of herself but one thing: that she is the root of all evils and the abundance of all sins, without number, without weight, and without measure; and sin is naught, and less than naught; and a hundred horrible faults are under less than naught. And by this understanding she is made naught in regard to that which is of her nature. Then may not this Soul here be found; for this Soul is so annihilated by meekness that it seems to her that there is no creature who ever sinned that is so worthy to have torment and confusion without end as she — by her own true judgment, if God would take vengeance of one of a thousand of her faults. This meekness is true meekness, and the profit, in a Soul annihilated; and no other but this.

Chapter X — Of the second point: that this Soul saves herself by faith without works; and how this is understood

The second point is: that this Soul saves herself by faith without works.

Ah Love, says Reason, what is this to say?

It is, says Love, that such a Soul annihilated has so great inward knowing by the virtue of faith, that she is thus called in her inwardness to sustain that which faith has ministered to her — of the might of the Father, of the wisdom of the Son, and of the goodness of the Holy Ghost — so that nothing wrought may dwell in her thought, but passes swiftly. For the other calling has taken the house of this annihilated Soul. This Soul can no more work. Oh, truly, she has enough of faith without work, to believe that God is good without comprehending. Thus she saves herself by faith without work; for faith surmounts all works, by the witness of Love herself.

M. Holy writ says: Justus ex fide vivit — that is to say, the righteous man lives by faith; and so do these souls. But this — that they "save themselves by faith without works" and that "they can no more work" — it is not meant that they cease from all good works for evermore, and never do any work, but sit in sloth and idleness of soul and of body; for those who take it so misunderstand it. But it is thus: that God is inhabited in them, and works in them; and these souls suffer him to work his divine works in them. What this work is, and how it is, Love shows it in this book. And whatever the bodies of these souls do of outward deeds, the souls that are thus high-set take not so great regard to those works that they should save themselves thereby; but only they trust to the goodness of God — and so they save themselves by faith, and believe not nor trust not in their own works, but in all in God's goodness. N.⁷

Chapter XI — How this Soul is alone in love, and how she does naught for God, nor she leaves naught for God, and how these three points are meant⁹

The third point, says Love, is this: that she is alone in love. This is that she has no comfort nor affection nor hope in any creature that is made in heaven or in earth, but only in the goodness of God. This Soul, says Love, begs⁸ not of creatures. This is the phoenix that is alone in love — so that of him she remembers.

The fourth point is this: that this Soul does naught for God.

Ah, for God, says Reason, what is this to say?

This is, says Love, that God makes no "to do" about his work — and this Soul then has not "to do" about that with which God has not "to do." Nor of herself does she take account; but God considers her, and him she loves so much that herself she cannot love.

This Soul, says Love, has so great faith in God that she has no dread to be poor — for in as much as her love is rich; for faith teaches her that just as she hopes of God, just such shall she find him. And thus does she hope.

The fifth point is this: that this Soul leaves not anything she would do for God's sake.

Ah Love, says Reason, what is this to say?

This is, says Love, that this Soul may not do anything but the will of God, nor may she will anything else. And for this she leaves naught for God; for she has not in her inward thought anything that is against God — and for this cause she leaves naught for God.

The sixth point: that none may teach her.

Now for God, says Reason, Lady Soul, say what this is.

This is to say, says Love, that this Soul is of such great knowing that, though she had all the knowing of all the creatures that ever have been and ever shall be, she would think it naught in regard to that which she loves — which was never known nor never shall be known. She loves more that which is in God, which was never given nor never shall be given, than she does that which she has, and which she shall have. For though she had all the knowing that all the creatures have that are and shall be — "it is naught," says this Soul, "as compared to that which is, which may not be said."

The seventh point, says Love, is this: that men may not rob her. Oh — what might they rob her of? For though she were robbed of worship, honor, friends, heart, body, and life, yet would they not rob her of anything; if God dwell with her, then may no creature rob her of aught, by no strength that they have.

Translator's footnotes (project translation)

¹ The third of M.N.'s fifteen signed glosses (the first two were in Section I). M.N. here is heading off the first objection that a reader will have to the Mirror: the paradoxical claim that the Soul is "lost in the most-high by plenty of knowing, and becomes naught in her understanding." M.N.'s defense is hermeneutical, not doctrinal: the reader who takes the "naked words" without grasping the meaning will err.

² M.N.'s rendering preserves Marguerite's Old French opposition between taking the lead in love (the Soul's own initiative) and Love leading in the Soul (Love's initiative from within). The Middle English idiom "to take the lead" survives in Kirchberger; modernized minimally. The reversal — Love leads in her — is Marguerite's signature inversion.

³ The most theologically explosive sentence in this section: this Soul desires not masses, nor sermons, nor fastings, nor prayers, and she gives to nature all that nature asks, without grudging of conscience. This is the kind of language the Council of Vienne would target in Ad nostrum (1311–1312) as Free Spirit antinomianism. M.N.'s long gloss immediately following (footnote 4) is his sustained defense of an orthodox reading. Whether Marguerite herself meant it as M.N. reads it is one of the central interpretive questions in modern Porete scholarship.

⁴ The fourth of M.N.'s fifteen signed glosses, and the longest. It is M.N.'s sustained orthodox reframing of the explosive sentence flagged above (footnote 3). M.N. insists that "desire not masses nor sermons nor fastings nor prayers" must be taken spiritually, not literally: the Soul does not abandon the works, but is no longer attached to them as the source of her righteousness — the works are now done by Love through her, not by her by counsel of Reason; and the phrase "she gives to nature all that nature asks" must absolutely not be read as antinomian license, since "sin must be had in conscience." Marguerite died at the stake because the Inquisitors did not read her this way.

⁵ The fifth of M.N.'s fifteen signed glosses. M.N. unpacks the twelfth and most striking of the twelve names Love gives the Soul: Forgetful. The Soul forgets not by deficiency but by superfluity — she comprehends so much, in the moment of union, that the comprehension overwhelms memory itself. Forgetful is her name; for it is her manner much to comprehend, and soon to forget.

⁶ The sixth of M.N.'s fifteen signed glosses. A short gloss, distinguishing the contemplatives' state from the scholars': just as a master of divinity has passed beyond the schools, so the true contemplatives have passed beyond all proper will and desire.

⁷ The seventh of M.N.'s fifteen signed glosses. Citing Habakkuk 2:4 (the Pauline locus, Romans 1:17 / Galatians 3:11 / Hebrews 10:38: Justus ex fide vivit), M.N. blocks the antinomian reading of "saves herself by faith without works." His insistence: the souls are not idle; God works in them; the outward deeds continue, but the souls do not credit those deeds for their salvation — only the goodness of God. This is M.N.'s most explicitly Pauline gloss in the section.

⁸ M.N.'s rendering: beggeth. Marguerite's Old French is ne pourchasse pas — she does not pursue, seek, beg, court. The phoenix image immediately following (the Soul alone in love, with the Beloved alone in her memory) is one of Marguerite's signature bird-and-flame icons; she returns to it across the Mirror.

⁹ Chapter-numbering note. M.N./Kirchberger's print has the sixth and seventh points (none may teach her; men may not rob her) in their own Ch XII; the present translation combines them here with the third / fourth / fifth points (M.N.'s Ch XI) for narrative continuity. Section III's chapter numbering proceeds from this merge: Section III's translation Ch XII = source Ch XIII (the eighth point), and Section III's translation Ch XIV = source Ch XIV (the ninth point). No source chapter is omitted; the apparent "skip" between translation Ch XII and Ch XIV in Section III is the downstream effect of the merge here.

¹⁰ Annihilated (project-wide). M.N.'s Middle English uses naughted / naught as the anchor word for Marguerite's annéantie / annéantissement — the Soul reduced to nothing. The present project translation modernizes naughted throughout to annihilated, following the convention of modern scholarly editions (Babinsky 1993; Colledge-Marler-Grant 1999), while preserving M.N.'s naught where it stands independently as a noun ("she goes to naught"). The convention is consistent across Sections II–XV of the project translation. M.N.'s own anchor word naughted and Kirchberger's preservation of it are both faithfully attested in the source — readers consulting Kirchberger 1927 will find naughted / naught throughout.

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