The Mirouer is a dialogue among allegorical figures who represent the nature of the
relation between the soul and God. The fundamental structure of the discourse is
grounded in traditional Neoplatonic philosophy, and courtly language is used to express
theological abstractions. The Mirouer is a theological treatise that analyzes how love in
human beings is related to divine love and how the human soul by means of this relation
may expe-rience a lasting union of indistinction with God in this life. The Mirouer is also
a handbook, or “mirror,” that aims to teach the “hearers of the book” about themselves
and how to attain union with God.
Ellen L.Babinsky
[See also: BÉGUINES; HERESY; INQUISITION; WOMEN, RELIGIOUS
EXPERIENCE OF]
Marguerite Porete. Le mirouer des simple ames anienties, ed. Romana Guarnieri and Paul
Verdeyen. CCCM 69. Turnhout: Brepols, 1986.
——. The Mirror of Simple Souls, trans. Ellen L.Babinsky. New York: Paulist, 1993.
Lerner, Robert E. The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages. Los Angeles: University
of California Press, 1972.
Verdeyen, Paul. “Le procès d’inquisition contre Marguerite Porete et Guiard de Cressonessart
(1309–1310).” Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique 81(1986):47–94.
MARIAN ANTIPHONS
. Antiphons honoring the Virgin Mary, many with texts from the Song of Songs, that
originated in the Divine Office but were often used for separate votive services or
commemorations from the early 13th century on. The daily choice of Marian antiphon
varied among churches, but the Salve regina was sung on Saturday everywhere and was
adopted for daily singing by the Cistercians in 1218 and the Dominicans in 1250. In
1246, the Franciscans introduced a seasonal distribution of four commorative antiphons
at Compline that was taken over into Roman use and still survives today: Alma
redemptoris mater from Advent to Purification, Ave regina from Purification to
Wednesday of Holy Week, Regina caeli from Easter Day to the Saturday after Pentecost,
and Salve regina from Trinity Sunday to the Saturday before Advent. The sources of
local French liturgies indicate that Marian antiphons could be sung at various times of the
day (e.g., after Lauds or Terce or at the conclusion of a procession) and in various
locations in the church: before an image or statue of the Virgin, in the choir, or in a
private chapel. In the later Middle Ages, Marian antiphons provided cantus firmi for
motets; these were often intended for private devotions, as part of votive services
commissioned by individual donors.
Susan Boynton
[See also: ANTIPHON; CANTUS FIRMUS; DIVINE OFFICE; MARY,
LITURGICAL VENERATION OF; MOTET (13TH CENTURY)]
Colette, Marie-Noël. “Le Salve regina en Aquitaine au XIIe siècle: l’auteur du Salve” In Cantus
Planus, ed. Lázló Dobszay, Agnes Papp, and Ferenc Sebö. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of
Sciences, 1992, pp. 521–47.
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