BEGHINES AND BEGARDS. — The beguines belong to that category of persons who follow a life midway between that of simple laypeople and that of properly religious persons. For this reason, they were originally called not *religiosae* but *mulieres religiosae*: pious women, virgins or widows, who live together in an enclosure or "beguinage" (*beguinagium*), either in common houses or dwelling, alone or in twos or threes, in private cottages of one or more rooms. They do not take the three traditional monastic vows, but only those of obedience and chastity, and these are temporary in nature, so that the beguines do not bid a total farewell to the world; yet they lead a common life of piety similar to that of the cloistered.
In considering their history, one must distinguish between the beguines and the beguards who from the outset developed within orthodoxy and those who professed heretical doctrines. Indeed, it is 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 denomination for these heretics is that of *apostolici*, deriving from their practice of a poor and itinerant life. Etymologically, the epithet "beguine" certainly does not derive from St. Begga, who lived in the 7th century and was in no way the founder of the beguines, but was only chosen by them as their patroness as late as the 17th century; nor from Lambert "li beges" (d. c. 1177), who was not the founder of their local movement but one of its various organizers; indeed, the nickname "li beges" was maliciously attached to Lambert of Liège because he was unjustly accused of belonging to the Cathar sect, i.e., of the "begini" or "beces." On this basis, some authors (J. Van Mierlo) consider this qualification as a popular corruption of the name "Albigenses" (al-beghini?), given to the Cathar heretics in southern France; others would see it as a derivation from the supposed Anglo-Saxon verb *beggen* (to chatter, pray, or beg). Given the serious difficulties of both hypotheses, it does not seem unlikely that the term *beggimus*, of heretical significance, comes from the ancient French *bege* (today *beige*), said of raw or undyed wool, and the suffix *-inus*, similarly to what happened with its close synonym *biz[z]occo*, derived from *bizo* (grey, indicating grey or undyed cloth) and a suffix, and with the epithet "humiliated" in Lombardy, derived from the humble habit, i.e., without color, undyed, ash-grey, also called *beretino*, from which the name "berettini" by which the Humiliati were called by the people; thus also for the French etymological and historical doublet of *bizocco*, namely *biset* (*Frère bis*), coming from *bis* (— grey) and the suffix
(from J.
A. Goria, *Ars Belgica* IV, Lierre-Bruxelles 1935)
BEGHINES — Church of the Beguinage, built from 1664 to 1666. The façade was renewed in 1767 by Van Everbroeck-Lierre.
diminutive *-et*. The earliest spellings *begina*, *begginus*, in French *begin*, *begine*, favor this interpretation. It is certain, moreover, that the Cathars, called "apostolic," wore undyed, greyish cloth, i.e., *bege*. The term *beg[h]ardus* is a later development (first half of the 13th century) of *begiinus*; but it was subsequently applied almost exclusively in a heretical sense to other heterodox manifestations, of pantheistic and quietist character, such as, for example, the Amalricians, BEMA (v.), and above all to the sects of the Free Spirit (v.) or Spirit of Freedom.
The beguinal movement in general is a manifestation of that religious fervor that pervaded the 12th and 13th centuries and gave rise to various forms of ascetic and evangelical life, such as that of the Waldensians in southern France with its ramifications, including the "Poor Catholics," of the "Humiliati" in Lombardy, and, to refer specifically to associations of "religious women," that of the beguines in Brabant, the *palepiarde* (or *papalarde*) in northern France, the *bizocche* (or *pinzocchere*) in central Italy — such as, for example, the B. Filippa Mareri and her first followers at Petrella Salto (Rieti) and some other groups of devotees in Tuscany and elsewhere, to whom Cardinal Ugolino (1218) later gave a Rule of the Poor Clares — and, finally, the *beatas* in the land of Spain. This movement, very widespread but still fluid in its forms, might be called beghinism or *bizzocchism*. It includes men (*boni viri*, *boni valeti*, *boni pueri*, etc.) and especially 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 traditional monastic institutions. Because of some external resemblances to heretical groups, and due to the prejudice and aversion of the anti-reformist part of the clergy, these persons are slandered and even persecuted as heretics; the members themselves, for example, of the Franciscan and Dominican institutes, which crowned this religious movement, are sometimes mockingly referred to as beguards, while the same epithet, as well as that of *bizzocco*, will become synonymous with "spiritual" (Franciscan) and "little brother": *"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 movement and the institute of the beguines in the proper or 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, more or less strictly enclosed, in cells grouped around a church, chapel, or monastery, usually of men, or near or within a hospital, practicing a life that was half active and half contemplative, like hermits. In particular, the so-called double monasteries were especially suited to accommodate these recluses within the community of virgins or widows, rigorously separated from the community of monks; this custom was especially prevalent in the early Norbertine canonries. It also happened that, within a non-double convent of monks, a *conversaria* — a refuge for such women — was established over time. 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
**Beghine** — The Béguinage of Bruges.
The monks, for reasons of propriety and convenience, gradually abolished double monasteries and converseries, forbade the admission of women, and even denied affiliation to devout women who lived outside or served in hospitals and other charitable institutions. This discipline, which became widespread in the last quarter of the century, drove hundreds of these conversae, left without the support of an institute and a monastic rule, to group themselves into autonomous associations with the intention of practicing the religious life according to the Gospel, the imitation of the Apostles, and the directives of the ancient Fathers. From this orientation arose the Béguinal institution, not through the initiative of a founder, but rather through the combined action of various factors: primarily those of a religious nature, such as the Gregorian Reform and other currents of spiritual fervor and mystical doctrines, or penitential-hermit tendencies transmitted by Greek-Orthodox monasticism; in the background, economic and social factors, not excluding the evident demonstration of the surplus of the female population, increased by the numerous participation of Brabant 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 another founded around 1180 in Huy (province of Liège) by the Blessed Yvette of Huy; this latter foundation, like that of Lambert, probably included a double cluster of huts around a small church and a hospital where, separately, on one side lived virgins or widows, and on the other, religious men, later called Begards.
These primitive Béguinal communities were not, however, in conformity with canonical norms, as they practiced a quasi-cloistered common life without the necessary affiliation to a monastic Order, that is, without a legally approved rule. Even the Fourth Lateran Council (canon 13) of 1215 prohibited the introduction of such novelties. Yet the previous year, James of Vitry, great protector of the primitive assemblies, of the homiliaries of Belgium, obtained from Honorius III the notable privilege of their recognition, extended also to those in France and Germany. This approval, even if not in writing, favored the spread of the new institution in Western and Central Europe; indeed, all the above-mentioned forms of improper "beghinism" or "bizzocchism," in order to save their condemned institution by the Lateran canon, adopted the approved program of the Béguines of the Low Countries, and with the program also the epithet, organization, and mystical doctrines (Flemish school) of those devotees. The Humiliates, already approved earlier by the Holy See, are an exception.
In the Flemish regions of Belgium and Holland, beginning in the first half of the 13th century, large and populous autonomous béguinages were established: small towns enclosed by a wall, with a sanctuary, cemetery, and their own chaplain, one or more infirmaries, special workshops, and individual cottages housing hundreds of Béguines who, in their free time from prayer, wove wool, assisted the sick, and watched over the dead; they followed diocesan statutes as their rule.
The 13th century marked a first apex: beautiful but simple churches in Gothic style; a grand mystical literature in the Flemish vernacular, mostly from the pen of the writer Hadewych, who already foreshadows Ruysbroeck (q.v.). A dangerous period occurred in the early 14th century due to the condemnations of the Council of Vienne (1311, published in 1317) against irregular Béguines and Begards and heretical doctrines; fortunately, these decrees made exceptions, often renewed subsequently, for those who were orthodox and honest, faithful to the approved forms. A second apex followed in the 17th century: notable and rich churches in Baroque or Rococo style. Despite suppressions during the French domination (late 18th century), several béguinages have survived to this day, though the number of Béguines is now greatly reduced. Those of Bruges and the two in Ghent retain 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 mainly from the 14th century onward in the Rhenish provinces, Holland, and likewise in Belgium, although their origins seem to go back to the same period and region as the Béguines, with whom (as *begutte*) they lived in communal households, as mentioned above. There were also weaver Begards, better known under the name *bogaards*; lay religious devoted to the wool industry, very similar to the Lombard Humiliates. They are found already in the first half of the 13th century and are a particular, almost exclusive, feature of Belgian cities. They led a common life, not in clusters of huts, but in their own convents. Lacking an approved particular rule, like most Béguines, they affiliated themselves to a recognized Third Order, especially that of the Franciscans. Toward the end of the 15th century, they abandoned the status of lay religious to gradually adopt the more common distinction between priest-fathers and lay-brothers. They disappeared with the French Revolution.
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