The Mirror of Simple Souls

A mystical treatise in Old French, written before 1306 by Marguerite Porete, a beguine from Hainaut. It takes the form of a dialogue, mainly between Love, Reason and the Soul, with other allegorical figures. Its subject is how a soul can be 'annihilated': emptied of its own will until only God's will acts in it. Such a soul, Love explains, takes leave of the virtues. It no longer seeks God through works, prayers or the Church's means, because the virtues now serve it rather than it serving them. Reason is repeatedly scandalised and finally silenced. The book sets out seven stages of the soul, from keeping the commandments to a glory that comes only after death, and distinguishes Holy Church the Little, guided by Reason, from Holy Church the Great, ruled by Love. The book was condemned and burned, and Porete was burned in Paris in 1310. It circulated anonymously until her authorship was identified in 1946.

It is a daring work of women's mystical theology about selfhood, will and freedom, and the fate of its author shows how such ideas were policed in the Middle Ages.