THE BEGUINES
The late 12th Century was the time of the Crusades and the
monastic movement. Greek and Roman writings – science, philosophy, literature -
had been translated into Latin. Scholarship
and urban culture throughout western Europe paved a way to an early
Renaissance.
For upper class women there were
two choices: marriage or the cloister and even the cloister was an expensive proposition. There were few havens for women and those that existed became more and more under
the authority of the male religious hierarchy. The mendicant orders, of which the
Beguines were one, came under increasing scrutiny
as their ways of vita apostolica challenged
ecclesiastical authority.
The Beguines were a spontaneous
women’s movement, not adjunct to any male figure or group. There was no founder, no
rule, no one to supervise or regulate the Beguine houses scattered throughout
northern Europe. It is hard to describe the history of the movement and nobody is sure how the
name came about. They probably began in Liege, but maybe not. Around
1175, Lambert le Begue, who was a priest
of Liege, encouraged women with whom he was associated to “live religiously.”
The first prominent woman to be identified as a Beguine was Mary of Oignes (d.
1213) who was a “conversa” of a male Augustinian priory near Nivelles.
The Beguine communities
proliferated and some became cities-within-cities with walls and moats, houses
and hospitals, churches, streets, and public squares. A grand mistress and council presided over
each group and as time went along, they turned mainly to nursing the sick. The
stance of Rome was mixed toward the Beguines. Sometimes their property was
confiscated and sometimes they were permitted to pursue their way of life. The
Napoleonic Wars and the Reformation took their toll. By 1969, there remained about
13 Beguinages in Belgium and Holland.
The goals of the Beguines were
simplicity and freedom. They valued manual labor and promoted the use of the
vernacular. Although they lived simply, they did not obligate their members to
poverty. They had intense devotion to the Eucharist. They stressed love as a way
to divine union. Although scandalized by its greed and corruption, the Beguines did
not reject the Church or its teaching. The Spanish Inquisition had a good, close look
at the Beguines who were seen as inflammatory and heretical.
- The Beguines demonstrated that it was possible for a woman to be dedicated to God without having to join a convent. Because the Beguines didn’t have any organizational support structure, they were sitting ducks for persecution and co-optation.
Source: Elizabeth T. Knuth “The
Beguines” 1992.
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There is an American Beguine
Community consisting of married, widowed, and single women who follow various
Christian traditions. Some live together in a “beguinage” some live separately.
They say in their incarnation of the original Beguines, they aren’t something
you join; they’re something you do. Their work is directed mainly toward the needs of
women in the workplace. Located in the Bay area, another of their activities
has been to introduce individuals, groups and churches to the meditative music
and liturgy of Taize.
www.beguine.org
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