I am God, Says Love

Marguerite Porete (1248/1250 – 1310) was a mystic and the author of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a work of Christian mysticism dealing with the workings of divine love. She was burnt at the stake for heresy in Paris in 1310 after refusing to remove her book from circulation or recant her views. The book is cited as one the primary texts of the medieval Heresy of the Free Spirit. After her death extracts from the book were cited in the bull Ad Nostrum, issued by the Council of Vienne in 1311, to condemn the Free Spirit movement as heretical.

The following excerpt from Mirror shows a conversation between Love, Reason and the Soul, where Love reveals her true identity. This is another classical example of a critique of religious theism from within the Christian tradition.