The final chapter extends my examination of spiritual perfection with attention to devotional and theological rivalries in the Life of Dorothea of Montau (d. 1394), the fourteenth-century Speculum inclusorum, and Marguerite Porete’s (d. 1310) Mirror of Simple Souls. I argue that late medieval discourses of perfection, including those formulated in the papal decree Ad nostrum (1311), become a means of securing charismatics more firmly to sacramental devotion. That culture of Eucharistic piety and devotion to the Crucified also carried a strongly affective resonance that assimilated charismatics to a spiritual economy of suffering. It is here that several writings placed increasing pressure on the angelic image, which for centuries served orthodox priorities, and which remained closely associated with charismatic experiences. A stage whereon such developments unfolded, the interaction between imitatio clerici and imitatio sancti became a defining feature of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century anchoritic culture.
