Beguines and Beghards

BEGUINES AND BEGHARDS. - The Beguines belong to that category of persons who follow a life midway between that of simple laypeople and that of religious properly so called. Hence in origin they were called not religiosae, but mulieres religiosae: they are pious women, virgins or widows, who live together in an enclosure or "beguinage" (beguinagium), either dwelling in common houses or residing, alone or two or three together, in small private houses of one or more rooms. They do not take the three traditional monastic vows, but only those of obedience and chastity, and of a temporary character, so that the Beguines do not bid a total farewell to the world; they nevertheless lead a common life of piety similar to the cloistered one.

In considering their history, one must distinguish the Beguines and Beghards who from the beginning developed within orthodoxy from those who professed heretical doctrines. It is in fact proven that the term beguinus or beguina was originally used in Brabant, in the territories of Liège and the Rhenish provinces, to designate, in general, the Cathar heretics or those of similar currents; another contemporary designation for these heretics is that of apostol[i]ci, deriving from their practice of a poor and pilgrim life. Etymologically the epithet Beguine certainly does not derive from St. Begga, who lived in the 7th century and was in no way the foundress of the Beguines, while only belatedly, in the 17th century, was she chosen by them as patroness; nor from Lambert "li beges" (d. ca. 1177), who was not the founder of their local movement but one of its various organizers; indeed, the nickname "li beges" was maliciously pinned on Lambert of Liège, because he was unjustly accused of belonging to the sect of the Cathars, that is, of the "begini" or "beges." On this basis, some authors (J. Van Mierlo) would regard this qualifier as a popular corruption of the name "Albigenses" (al-beghini?), given to the Cathar heretics in southern France; others would consider it a derivation from the supposed Anglo-Saxon verb "beggen" (to chatter, to pray, or to beg). Given the serious difficulties of both hypotheses, it does not seem improbable that the word begginus, with heretical meaning, comes from the old French term bege (today beige), said of raw or undyed wool, and from the suffix -inus, analogously to what happened for its close synonym biz[=]occo, derived from bizo (grey, indicating grey or uncolored cloth) and from a suffix, and for the epithet humiliatus, in Lombardy, derived from the humble habit, that is, without color, undyed, ash-grey, also called beretino, whence the name "berettini" by which the Humiliati were called by the people; so too for the etymological and historical French doublet of bizocco, namely biset (Frère bis), coming from bis (= grey) and from the suffix

(from J. A. Goris, Ars Belgica IV, Lierre - Brussels 1933)
BEGUINES - Church of the Béguinage, built from 1664 to 1666. The facade was renovated in 1767 by Van Everbroeck-Lierre.

diminutive -et. The earliest spellings begina, begginus, in French begin, begine, favor this interpretation. It is moreover established that the Cathars too, called "Apostolics," wore an undyed, greyish cloth, that is, bege. The term beg[ur]ardus is a later development (first half of the 13th century) of beguinus; but it was subsequently applied almost exclusively in a heretical sense to other heterodox manifestations, of a pantheistic and quietistic character, as for example to the Amalricians, disciples of Amalric of Bena (v.), and above all to the sects of the Free Spirit (v.) or Spirit of Liberty.

The beguine movement in general is a manifestation of that religious fervor which pervades the 12th and 13th centuries and which gives rise to various forms of ascetic and evangelical life, such as that of the Waldensians in southern France with its ramifications, among them the "poor Catholics," of the "Humiliati" in Lombardy, and, to refer specifically to associations of "religious women," that of the beguines in Brabant, of the papelarde (or pappalarde) in northern France, of the bizocche (or pinzocchere) in central Italy — as, for example, Bl. Filippa Mareri and her first followers at Petrella Salto (Rieti) and certain other groups of devout women in Tuscany and elsewhere, to whom later Card. Ugolino (1218) gave a rule of Poor Clares — and, finally, of the beate in the land of Spain. This movement, very vast but still fluctuating in its forms, could be called beguinism or bizocchism. It includes men (boni viri, boni valeti, boni pueri, etc.) and above all those "mulieres religiosae" who are either affiliated with a male institute (Humiliati, Poor Catholics) or united in independent associations, and who devote themselves to a religious life different from the traditional monastic institutions. Because of certain external resemblances to heretical groups, and because of the prejudice and aversion of the anti-reformist part of the clergy, these persons were denigrated and even persecuted as heretics; the very members, for example, of the Franciscan and Dominican institutes, which crowned this religious movement, are sometimes mockingly treated as begards, while the same epithet, as well as that of bizocce, would become synonymous with spiritual (Franciscan) and with fraticello: "viri qui vulgariter fraticelli seu... bizochi sive beguini, vel aliis nominibus nuncupantur" (Sancta romana, 30 Dec. 1317; cf. C. Eubel, Bull. Franc., V, Rome 1898, p. 134).

The beguine movement and institute in the proper and original sense was born and took shape in the eastern and southern part of present-day Belgium, around 1170. The first adherents generally belonged to the category of "recluses"; these "religiosae mulieres" or "conversae" lived enclosed, in a more or less strict sense, in little cells grouped around a church, chapel, or around a monastery, mostly of men, or near or within a hospital, practicing a life, half active and half contemplative, like that of hermits. Especially the so-called double monasteries were particularly suited to receive these recluses into the community of virgins or widows, rigorously separated from the community of monks; this custom was in vogue especially in the early Norbertine canonries; it also happened that within a monastery, not double, of monks there was formed, in the course of time, a "converseria," a refuge for such women. At the beginning these recluses or conversae were habitually associated with a religious Order, whose rule they followed. But from the middle of the 12th century the monks, for reasons of propriety and convenience, gradually abolished double monasteries and converserie, forbade entry to women, and even refused affiliation to devout women who lived outside or served in hospitals and other charitable institutions. This discipline, which became general in the last quarter of the century, drove hundreds of these converse women, left without the support of an institute and a monastic rule, to group themselves into autonomous associations, with the aim of practicing the religious life according to the norms of the Gospel, the imitation of the Apostles, and the directives of the ancient Fathers. From this orientation the beguine institute was born, not through the initiative of a founder or foundress, but rather through the combined action of various factors: first, those of a religious nature, such as the Gregorian reform and other currents of spiritual fervor and mystical doctrines, or of eremitic-penitential tendencies transmitted by Greek-Eastern monasticism; second, economic and social factors, not excluding the demographic situation of a surplus of the female population, increased by the numerous participation of the Brabantine nobility in the crusades and other military expeditions. We find these first organized associations in the city of Liège around 1170, founded by the aforementioned reforming priest Lambert, and in that other one founded ca. 1180 at Huy (province of Liège) by the blessed Ivetta of Huy; this latter foundation, as probably also that of Lambert, comprised a double agglomeration of huts around a small church and a hospital in which there lived, separately, on the one hand the virgins or widows, and on the other the religious men, later called begards.

These primitive beguinal communities were not, however, in conformity with the canonical norms, because they practiced a common life almost cloistral, without the necessary affiliation to a monastic Order, that is, without a juridically approved rule. Even the Fourth Lateran Council (can. 13) of 1215 prohibited the introduction of these novelties. The following year, however, James of Vitry, great protector of the primitive beguinal Congregations of Belgium, obtained from Honorius III the distinguished privilege of their recognition, extended also to those of France and Germany. This approval, even if not written, favored the diffusion of the new institute in western and central Europe; in fact, all the aforementioned forms of improper beguinism or bizzocchismo, in order to save their own institution condemned by the Lateran canon, adopted the approved program of the beguines of the Low Countries, and with the program also the epithet, the organization and the mystical doctrines (Flemish school) of those devout women. The Humiliati, already approved earlier by the Holy See, are an exception.

In the Flemish regions of Belgium and Holland, beginning from the first half of the thirteenth century, large and populous autonomous béguinages were constituted: they are small towns, provided with an enclosure, with a sanctuary, cemetery and their own parish priest, with one or more infirmaries, special convents and individual little houses with hundreds of beguines, who in the time free from prayer weave wool, assist the sick, and watch over the dead; they follow as a rule certain diocesan statutes.

The thirteenth century marks a first apogee: beautiful but simple churches in Gothic style; a grandiose mystical literature in the Flemish vernacular, coming for the most part from the writer Hadewych, who already announces Ruysbroeck (v.). There was a dangerous period in the early fourteenth century, because of the condemnations of the Council of Vienne (1311, published in 1317) against irregular beguines and begards, and of heretical doctrines; fortunately in those decrees an exception was made, often renewed thereafter, for those orthodox and honest, faithful to the approved forms. A second apogee followed in the seventeenth century: notable and rich churches in Baroque or Rococo style. Despite the suppressions during the French domination (end of the eighteenth century), several béguinages have maintained themselves down to today, although the number of beguines is quite restricted. That of Bruges and the two of Ghent preserve a real vitality; in Holland the best known are those of Amsterdam and Breda.

The begards of mercy (care of the sick and free burial of the dead), also called cellites, alexians, lollards, schwestr[i]oni, appear principally from the fourteenth century onward in the Rhenish provinces, in Holland and likewise in Belgium, although their origins seem to go back to the same epoch and region as the beguines, with whom (begutte) they lived in double communities, as we recalled above. There were also begard weavers, better known under the denomination of begards; lay religious devoted to the wool industry, entirely similar to the Humiliati of Lombardy. They are already encountered in the first half of the thirteenth century and are an almost exclusive peculiarity of the Belgian cities. They led the common life, not in agglomerations of huts, but in their own convents. Not having a particular approved rule, they affiliated themselves, as did the majority of the beguines, to a recognized Third Order, especially that of the Franciscans. Toward the end of the fifteenth century they left the loom of lay religious, to adopt little by little the more common distinction between priest-fathers and lay brothers. They disappeared with the French Revolution.

Alcantara Mens