The Beguine, The Angel, and the Inquisitor ─ The Trials of Marguerite Porete and Guiard of Cressonessart

On 31 May 1310, at the Place de Greve in Paris, the Dominican inquisitor William of Paris read out a sentence that declared Marguerite “called Porete,” a beguine from Hainault, to be a relapsed heretic, released her to secular authority for punishment, and ordered that all copies of a book she had written be confiscated. William next consigned Guiard of Cressonessart, an apocalyptic activist in the tradition of Joachim of Fiore and a would-be defender of Marguerite, to perpetual imprisonment. Over several months, William of Paris conducted inquisitorial processes against them, complete with multiple consultations of experts in theology and canon law. Though Guiard recanted at the last moment and thus saved his life, Marguerite went to her execution the day after her sentencing.

Sean L. Field is associate professor of history at the University of Vermont. He is the editor and translator of The Writings of Agnes of Harcourt: The Life of Isabelle of France and the Letter on Louis IX and Longchamp and author of Isabelle of France: Capetian Sanctity and Franciscan Identity in the Thirteenth Century, both published by the University of Notre Dame Press.