Nobility and Annihilation in Marguerite Porete's Mirror of Simple Souls

An in-depth examination of the work of this important medieval woman mystic. This first book-length study of Marguerite Porete's important mystical text, The Mirror of Simple Souls, examines Porete's esoteric and optimistic doctrine of annihilation-the complete transformative union of the soul into God-in its philosophical and historical contexts. Porete was burned at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1310. Her theological treatise survived the flames, but it circulated anonymously or under mal