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The Mirror Of Simple Souls
''The Mirror of Simple Souls'' is an early 14th-century work of Christian mysticism by Marguerite Porete dealing with the workings of Divine Love. Written originally in Old French at a time when Latin was the prescribed language for religious literature, it explores in poetry and prose the seven stages of 'annihilation' the Soul goes through on its path to Oneness with God through love. Enormously popular when written, it fell foul of the Church authorities, who, detecting elements of the antinomian Heresy of the Free Spirit in its vision, denounced it as "full of errors and heresies", burnt existing copies, banned its circulation, and executed Porete herself. In spite of this, the work was translated into several different languages around Europe, including English, albeit not with Porete's name attached. In fact Porete was not identified as the author until 1946. Since then it has been seen increasingly as one of the seminal works of Medieval spiritual literature and Porete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marguerite Porete
Marguerite Porete (; 13th century1 June 1310) was a French-speaking mystic and the author of ''The Mirror of Simple Souls'', a work of Christian mysticism dealing with the workings of agape (divine love). She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after a lengthy trial, refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant her views. Today, Porete's work has been of interest to a diverse number of scholars. Those interested in medieval mysticism, and more specifically beguine mystical writing, cite ''The Mirror of Simple Souls'' in their studies.Babinksky 1993, p. 5 The book is also seen as a primary text regarding the medieval Heresy of the Free Spirit. Study of Eckhart has shown a similarity between his and Porete's ideas about union with God. Porete has also been of interest to those studying medieval women's writing. Life Porete's life is recorded only in the accounts of her trial for heresy, at which she was condemned to be burnt at the stake. This inform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bodleian
The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms. In 2000, a number of libraries within the University of Oxford were brought together for administrative purposes under the aegis of what was initially known as Oxford University Library Services (OULS), and since 2010 as the Bodleian Libraries, of which the Bodleian Library is the largest compo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medieval French Literature
Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, Medieval literature written in Oïl languages (particularly Old French and early Middle French) during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century. The material and cultural conditions in France and associated territories around the year 1100 unleashed what the scholar Charles Homer Haskins termed the " Renaissance of the 12th century" and, for over the next hundred years, writers, " jongleurs", "clercs" and poets produced a profusion of remarkable creative works in all genres. Although the dynastic struggles of the Hundred Years' War and the Black Death pandemic of the fourteenth century in many ways curtailed this creative production, the fifteenth century laid the groundwork for the French Renaissance. Language Up to roughly 1340, the Romance languages spoken in the Middle Ages in the northern half of what is today France are collectively known as "ancien français" ("Old French") ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visionary Literature
A dream vision or ''visio'' is a literary device in which a dream or vision is recounted as having revealed knowledge or a truth that is not available to the dreamer or visionary in a normal waking state. While dreams occur frequently throughout the history of literature, visionary literature as a genre began to flourish suddenly, and is especially characteristic in early medieval Europe. In both its ancient and medieval form, the dream vision is often felt to be of divine origin. The genre reemerged in the era of Romanticism, when dreams were regarded as creative gateways to imaginative possibilities beyond rational calculation. This genre typically follows a structure whereby a narrator recounts their experience of falling asleep, dreaming, and waking, with the story often an allegory. The dream, which forms the subject of the poem, is prompted by events in their waking life that are referred to early in the poem. The ‘vision’ addresses these waking concerns through the poss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heilwige Bloemardinne
Heilwige Bloemardinne (1265? – 23 August 1335) was a Christian mystic who lived in Brussels and was loosely associated with the Brethren of the Free Spirit. She was also known as Heilwijch Blomart. She was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, Wilhelm Bloemart, one of the most consistently powerful figures in the municipal government of Brussels. She is differentiated from earlier teachers such as Aleydis (executed, Cambrai, 1236) or Marguerite Porete (executed, Paris, 1310) by the support she enjoyed from the secular authorities which made her untouchable by the Inquisition. Some idea of her prestige is given by the fact that, on her death, the silver chair upon which she sat when instructing disciples was given to the Duchess of Brabant. This chair was popularly believed to possess miraculous powers derived from its association with her. According to Professor Cohn she was popularly revered as a living saint. She is known to have written a book because John of Ruysbroeck al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master Eckhart claimed original name Johannes Eckhart, was a German Catholic theology, theologian, philosopher and German mysticism, mystic, born near Gotha (town), Gotha in the Thuringia, Landgraviate of Thuringia (now central Germany) in the Holy Roman Empire. Eckhart came into prominence during the Avignon Papacy at a time of increased tensions between monastic orders, diocesan clergy, the Franciscan Order, and Eckhart's Dominican Order of Preachers. In later life, he was accused of heresy and brought up before the local Franciscan-led Inquisition, and trie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brethren Of The Free Spirit
The Brethren of the Free Spirit were adherents of a loose set of beliefs deemed heretical by the Catholic Church but held (or at least believed to be held) by some Christians, especially in the Low Countries, Germany, France, Bohemia, and Northern Italy between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The movement was first identified in the late thirteenth century. It was not a single movement or school of thought, and it caused great unease among Church leaders at the time. Adherents were also called Free Spirits. The set of errors condemned in the decree ''Ad nostrum'' at the Council of Vienne (1311–12) has often been used by historians to typify the group's core beliefs, though there was wide variation over how the heresy was defined during the era, and there is substantial debate over how far the individuals and groups accused of holding the beliefs (including Marguerite Porete, the Beguines, the Beghards, and Meister Eckhart) actually held the views attributed to them. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Speculum Literature
The medieval genre of speculum literature, popular from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries, was inspired by the urge to encompass encyclopedic knowledge within a single work. However, some of these works have a restricted scope and function as instructional manuals. In this sense the encyclopedia and the speculum are similar, but they are not the same genre. ''Specula'' as a genre ''Specula'' often offered mirrors of history, doctrine, or morals. Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum Maius which included the ''Mirror of Nature'', ''Mirror of History'', and ''Mirror of Doctrine'' is not often described as a core representative of the genre. One historian has surmised that this is because Vincent's work was intended to be an objective work which is at odds with ''speculum'' literature, since it "is a subjective genre". More usual members are found in this list: * Honorius Augustodunensis' ''Imago mundi'' (cited by Vincent of Beauvais as ''Speculum mundi'') and ''Speculum Ecclesia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beguines
The Beguines () and the Beghards () were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Western Europe, particularly in the Low Countries, in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take formal religious vows; although they promised not to marry "as long as they lived as Beguines," to quote one of the early Rules, they were free to leave at any time. Beguines were part of a larger spiritual revival movement of the 13th century that stressed imitation of Jesus' life through voluntary poverty, care of the poor and sick, and religious devotion. Etymology The term "Beguine" ( la, beguinas; nl, begijn) is of uncertain origin and may have been pejorative. Scholars no longer credit the theory expounded in the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition (1911) that the name derived from Lambert le Bègue, a priest of Liège. Other theories, such as derivation from the name of St. Begga and from the purported, reconstructed Old ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gloss (annotation)
A gloss is a brief notation, especially a marginal one or an interlinear one, of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text or in the reader's language if that is different. A collection of glosses is a ''glossary.'' A collection of medieval legal glosses, made by glossators, is called an ''apparatus''. The compilation of glosses into glossaries was the beginning of lexicography, and the glossaries so compiled were in fact the first dictionaries. In modern times a glossary, as opposed to a dictionary, is typically found in a text as an appendix of specialized terms that the typical reader may find unfamiliar. Also, satirical explanations of words and events are called glosses. The German Romantic movement used the expression of gloss for poems commenting on a given other piece of poetry, often in the Spanish style. Glosses were originally notes made in the margin or between the lines of a text in a classical language; the meaning of a word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imprimatur
An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the Roman Catholic Church effectively dates from the dawn of printing, and is first seen in the printing and publishing centres of Germany and Venice; many secular states or cities began to require registration or approval of published works around the same time, and in some countries such restrictions still continue, though the collapse of the Soviet bloc has reduced their number. Catholic Church In the Catholic Church an imprimatur is an official declaration by a Church authority that a book or other printed work may be published; it is usually only applied for and granted to books on religious topics from a Catholic perspective. Approval is given in accordance with canons 822 to 832 of the Code of Canon Law, which do not require the use o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nihil Obstat
''Nihil obstat'' (Latin for "nothing hinders" or "nothing stands in the way") is a declaration of no objection that warrants censoring of a book, e.g., Catholic published books, to an initiative, or an appointment. Publishing The phrase ''nihil obstat'' is used by a cleric, of the Catholic Church, known as a ''Censor Librorum'', to indicate that a book contains nothing contrary to Catholic doctrines, faith, or morals. Canon law requires this approval for the publication of books by faithful Catholics if they "touch upon matters of faith and morals", and requires that pastors enforce this rule. The ''Censor librorum'' (Latin for "censor of books") is delegated by a bishop of the Catholic Church. The ''Censor Librorum'' reviews the text in question, a process that in the modern era is roughly two months long. If an author is a member of a religious institute (such as a monastery), and if the book concerns religion or morals, then canon law requires obtaining the ''imprimi potes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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