In her late thirteenth-century dialogue, the Mirror of Simple Souls, Marguerite Porete reframes the origin and the function of penitential practice by drawing on conceptions that associate Mary Magdalene with original sin and personal salvation. With the cult of the Magdalen flourishing in the Low Countries and across Europe, Porete adopted the saint to concretize her doctrine of the annihilated soul. This article argues that the saintly sinner's conversion is no longer defined through chastity, contrition, and the performance of works of goodness in the Mirror but, rather, through detachment, pure intention, and divine love. Furthermore, an analysis of “the consideration of the Magdalen” reveals that Porete's interpretation of the metaphor of tilling the earth presents a riposte to the exegetical tradition that considered Mary Magdalene a symbol of sin. As such, Porete recasts the contemplative and penitent Magdalen of popular culture into a model of the annihilated soul.
The medieval Church's concern with moral reform contributed to the emergence of a genre of literature in the thirteenth century dedicated to the vices and virtues. Inspired by monastic and scholastic traditions, treatises such as Laurent d'Orléans's Somme le roi encouraged the avoidance of sin and provided the faithful with a moral taxonomy that ultimately ensured their access to heaven. Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls and Meister Eckhart's Discourses of Instruction challenge this virtue-centered approach to salvation. Relying on their shared claim that the fall of the just man is in fact a virtue, this essay argues that their moral theology is grounded not on the a posteriori act of penance needed for salvation, but on the a priori consent of the will. This alternative view of moral life finds support in previous strands of the Christian tradition, and in particular in Peter Abelard's theory of intentionalism.
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