h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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Actually, it has not been proven that Marguerite Porete was a supporter of the Free Spirit heresy, though she was accused of such, and was burned at the stake on June 1, 1310. Her writings praised Love over Reason as the path to mystical union. The Beguines, a group to which she is often linked, were non-conformist women who took personal vows of chastity, engaged in charitable works, and lived either alone or in groups without formal ecclesiastical ties or control. They, too, were accused of heresy, and persecuted. Although Marguerite was both a mystic and a traveling preacher, beguines, as a whole, were more involved with such deeds as caring for the sick than with spreading a particular theology.