21. The Murder of Marguerite Porete, Paris, France 1310

The Place de Hotel de Ville, in Paris
Up until 1802, the Place de l‘Hôtel de Ville, in Paris (in front of the City Hall) was called the place de Grève. Here we see a lovely view of it, from the early 19th century, painted by Henri Courvoisier-Voisin. Isn’t it pretty? Lovely, it is. However, back when it was the place de Grève, it was the place for Parisian executions. Lots of them. Including that of Marguerite Porete, burned at the stake — probably right about where that cart, in the middle of the plaza, is meandering over toward the river. Yeah, about there. It was a versatile plaza back then — people were burned at the stake, beheaded, torn apart by horses — and then there was that guillotine era. Bienvenue à Paris!

Marguerite Porete wrote a book.  One bishop said it was heretical and burnt it. Three theologians said it wasn’t heretical, just really difficult for regular people to work with, on account of in order to follow it, you’d have to be as spiritually ardent as Marguerite Porete, and very few people were. The head Inquisitor of France got a committee together, and they said the book was heretical and she should take it back and say sorry.  She didn’t. They burned her and the book both.  The crowd wept. The book (since not all the copies had been burnt) became very popular, but nobody knew who had written it.  But we know now!  It was Marguerite. In this episode, we explain what she wrote. And Michelle discovers that really Philip IV of France was quite dreadful and she’s sorry she had such pity for him when we covered the Tour de Nesle affair, and really he got what was coming to him.

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