Ebook: The theme of the nothing and the all in Marguerite De Navarre and Marguerite Porete

This paper tests the connection, first proposed in 1963 by Jean Dagens, between Marguerite de Navarre and Marguerite Porete. Dagens argues that Navarre's description in her poem Les Prisons of an anonymous woman, whose book was filled with the Holy Spirit, is a description of Marguerite Porete. Dagens bases his claim on one of the few details that Navarre gives about the woman, that she called Christ her FarNear. Porete, in her book Le Miroir des âmes simples et anéanties, is the first known French writer to use this term, and almost the only one to do so before Navarre. The suggested connection, however, is a puzzling one and deserves further study, since Navarre gives other details that either do not fit Porete or else are of so general a nature that they could apply to any number of female mystics. The absence of further details identifying Porete is especially noteworthy since Porete's work abounds with radical and unusual doctrines, and Navarre's own theology is in many ways so different from that of Porete as to make a connection between the two seem unlikely at first glance.

In order to test the possible connection between the two writers I consider a theme common to both, the theme of the nothing and the all, to see whether Navarre's treatment of it in Le Miroir de l'âme pecheresse and Les Prisons, confirms the connection. Her presentation of the nothing and the all in her early poem, Le Miroir, bears little resemblance to Porete's more nuanced understanding of the soul's nothingness. However, in Navarre's later poem, Les Prisons, a mystical experience causes the main character to redefine the soul's nothingness in relation to God's allness—because God is all that truly is, the soul is nothing. Navarre's more complex portrayal of the soul's nothingness in Les Prisons supports Dagens' claim. I argue that it is either the case that Porete's influence on Navarre is indirect or that Navarre did not read Porete's book in its entirety. Guillaume Briçonnet, Navarre's spiritual mentor, uses the antithesis FarNear in some of his letters to Navarre, making him the likeliest transmitter of Porete's doctrines to Navarre. His letters to Navarre contain striking similarities to Porete's teaching, so exploration of the connection between Porete and Briçonnet is a promising avenue for further research.