W. Simons

Bulletin De l'Institute Historique Belge de Rome

The Beguine Movement in the Southern Low Countries:
A Reassessment*

The movement of the semi-religious women known as beguinae is now almost
unanimously regarded as one of the major manifestations of feminine religious
life in the Middle Ages. Studied at first within the framework of local
devotional history, it has drawn since the beginning of this century the interest
of social historians, church historians, scholars of mysticism, literature, art,
and today one could hardly conceive any scholarly book on medieval women not
featuring at least a few pages devoted to the beguines. A successive variety of
approaches does not and should not necessarily lead to a clear-cut picture of the
subject. In the case of the beguines, who never in the course of history
constituted a united order or followed a single rule, one cannot overemphasize
the inherent diversity of their status, organization and function. For instance,
the movement tends to be associated primarily with the Southern Low Countries and
with the Rhineland, although recent historiography has shown it to have
counterparts over a much wider area, encompassing parts of Central Europe, the
south of

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France, and, especially, Italy1. One also finds it situated almost exclusively in
the Middle Ages2, which may well be accurate when dealing with the Upper-Rhenish
branch but fails to acknowledge its second zenith in the seventeenth-century
Southern Low Countries. Recently Joanna E. Ziegler analyzed the curious twists by
which mainly Anglo-Saxon beguine historiography has come to consider the beguines
as,, women, often poor and living alone about the town under the parental roof or
living together with a few friends in small 'convents'", thus neglecting the
massive beguinages of the curtls type still prominent in many Belgian towns3 . If
recent scholarship has already denounced the fallacy of such generalizations, it
should also be concerned with excessively local viewpoints 4. With respect to the
Low Country beguines, the seemingly endless preoccupation with the precise origin
of the movement has resulted in a confusion of tongues that frankly

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bewilders non-Belgians. After the studies of Kurth and others, trying to
establish its roots in Liege rather than in Brabant5, historians have located the
early movement alternatively and rather arbitrarily in both areas, or, more
prudently but incorrectly, in ,,Flanders" 6; indeed recent scholars devoted to
the rehabilitation of so-called ,,Walloon" history have strived to regain the
beguines from usurpation by ,,Belgo-Flemish" historiography (which apparently was
master-minded by Henri Pirenne) and have contended that their generic force was
Walloon, and not ,, Belgian " 7 .

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It is hardly necessary to say that the latter discussion does little to further a
true understanding of the beguines, nor is it surprising to note that, in these
circumstances, the most valuable work on beguine history of the last decades has
been due, with important exceptions8, to non-Belgian scholars, who seem to have
been more alert to its significance in a larger context. Meanwhile the focus of
beguine historiography has definitely shifted from the Southern Low Countries to
other areas9 As a classic example of the law of diminishing returns, research on
the ,, Belgian " beguines has yielded until very recently far fewer new insights
than the study of their Rhenish and other colleagues. It can be said that there
is now a greater knowledge of the social and even intellectual environment of the
beguines in parts of Germany or the Northern Low Countries, than of the situation
in the Southern Low Countries, though everyone agrees that precisely in this area
the movement was most succesful. One explanation for this apparent paradox may be
found in the paralysing achievements of historiography itself: after the
brilliant  works of Alcantarra Mens and Ernest W. McDonnell10, published in the
late forties and early fifties of this century, there was only very little
stimulus to study a field where no leaf could possibly have been left unturned,
no document unseen. Both works presented comprehensive, classic and
quasi-definitive studies of the ,, Belgian '' beguines in the Middle Ages.
However, difficult as it is to find any omission in either one of the books,
great effort is also required to grasp the full value of the information they
con-

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tain, or to find answers to some essential questions presently posed by research
on the beguines ". This paper is not intended to provide all those answers. Its
purpose is rather to re-envisage the conditions that have characterized the
beguine movement in the Southern Low Countries and have allowed its specific
development and unique survival into the twentieth century. It will therefore
discuss three fundamental problems: the influence of social and demographical
factors on the origin and growth of the movement, the size of the Southern Low
Country beguine communities, and finally, their ultimate organization in the
exceptional curtis - type beguinage. In the absence of a uniform terminology in
this field, I would like to define first a few of the expressions I will be using
12, A curits beguinage (Dutch: begijnhof) is an architectural complex, usually
surrounded by walls, in which houses of beguines are grouped around a chapel; it
also contains a ,, hospital '' for poor or elderly beguines, and service
buildings for communal use. The whole community is governed by a single ,, Head
Mistress " ( Dutch: grootjuffrouw  or grootmeesteres )  to whom all beguines
pledge obedience for the duration of their stay, and by a single rule,
transmitted orally perhaps in the beginning, but soon to be codified. Although
such a beguinage is often endowed with an independent parochial status, this is
not always the case. A beguine convent  is a community of beguines, living
together under the guidance of a Mistress. This convent can be situated inside a
curtis beguinage, in which case it is incorporated in the larger complex, with
the Mistress acting as a deputy to the Head Mistress; it can also exist outside
the curtis structure as a quasi-autonomous institute, supervised by the parish
priest and other religious or secular persons appointed as trustees. Finally,
beguines houses accomodate individual beguines, living alone or in the company of

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a relative and/or servant; in the Southern Low Countries such a house is rarely
to be found outside the curtis structure.

The Origin of the Beguine Movement

It is now well established that the first beguines appeared in the Southern Low
Countries at the turn of the twelfth century. Either individually or in small,
unorganized communities, these women manifested great devotion to evangelical
poverty, striving to lead a more ,,perfect '' life in the image of Christ,
wearing humble dress and occupied by good works, both in the secular, factual
world, through the care of the sick and needy, and in the spiritual world,
through constant meditation and prayer. They are called mulieres religiosae,
although everyone knows that they do not belong to any recognized order or follow
an established religious rule. Their lifestyle is not without danger: at a time
when the threat of heresy seems omnipresent several authorities in the Church
feel obliged to condemn such irregular  conduct, but they do find support in a
few powerful figures such as the regular canon, preacher, and future cardinal,
James of Vitry. Largely through him, their propositum receives papal approval, in
1216, and from then on their numbers increase steadily 13. Why ? historians have
asked. Where did all these women come from ? Could they all have been rejects
from the the innumerable convents for nuns founded by the reform movements of the
twelfth century, the Cistercians, Premonstratensians, or others, who
progressively closed their entrance to women of lower social status?  Is there an
explanation to be sought in demographical and social factors leading to an
exceptional women's surplus in the late Middle Ages? This is, basically, the
Frauenfrage, adressed first in socioeconomic terms by Karl Bucher14, and, from a
Church

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historian's perspective, also present in the work of Joseph Greven15. The
Frauenfrage  has been vigorously debated since then 16, Some recent contributions
concentrating on its relevance to religious history have countered the generally
demographical approach by focussing on the thirteenth-century lives of individual
beguines. Although they may help to remind the historian once again of the people
behind the figures, they have not provided new answers 17. Altogether different,
and more challenging, was the treatment Ludo Milis reserved for this problem in a
lecture he delivered in 1980, in which he stated: "The religious movements of the
twelfth century ( ... ) clearly recruted their members from the countryside,
among the nobility and well-to-do farmers. The movements originating in the late
twelfth century and the mendicant orders of the thirteenth century, on the other
hand, attracted adherents from an urban environment. Therefore, the ever

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repeated explanation, that the limitation of entrance into the traditional orders
accounts for the origin of the movement of the devotae mulieres,  seems to have
no basis: the population groups in which the beguines rooted were different from
the ones that leaned towards the older convents, although the spiritual
background may have been alike in both cases". He emphasized the importance of
the so-called twelfth century renaissance as a mental, cultural and social
breaking-point: he argued that the women's surplus had always existed, but became
only prominent after the disruption of the protective agricultural society 18.
This engaging conception of the problem has not yet been fully accepted. Instead,
Esther Koch questioned the existence of the women's surplus in the late Middle
Ages and called for new research on the position of women on the marriage market,
taking into account moreover the relative cost of entrance into religious orders
as opposed to the cost of marriage19. It is true that this debate threatens to
eclipse another one, certainly as important, dealing with the rationale behind
this peculiar form in which the women's religious movement manifested itself,
this is a way of life on the perilous border between the secular and the
religious world 20. One should also remember that their ven-

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ture was not the appanage of women: some men, known as beghards, chose the same
path 21, And yet, if we wish to explain in one way or another why these women
could not find shelter in the existing convents, why another way of life was
conceived for them or by them, and why they exceeded men in so large a number,
the Frauenfrage remains there to be answered. When overviewing the array of
demographic studies published so far on the Southern Low Countries in the Ancien
Regime, there can be no doubt as to the persistance of a women's surplus
throughout the period from the late Middle Ages on. However, two important
restrictions should be introduced here. First, the women's surplus is most
pronounced in the age group between 5 and 25, roughly the prenuptial and nuptial
age, due to a greater infant and adolescent mortality among males; the situation
is reversed in the case of the later age groups, on account of a higher mortality
among women through childbearing 22, Secondly, the women's surplus among adults
is largely an urban phenomenon. While its extent -- probably somewhat exaggerated
by deficiencies in Biicher's collection of data -- has been questioned,
demographers of the late Middle Ages and the Ancien Regime have demonstrated its
presence time and again and agree that it should be considered ,,normal'' in a
pre-industrial society23; the underlying cause is usually sought in the
inequality of immigration ratios.

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Migration processes stand out as notoriously intricate areas of study in
historical demography before the nineteenth century24. Despite these problems,
there is a clear view of its basic aspects. Women, more than men, were attracted
from the country into the towns because of the relatively greater opportunity for
single women to find a professional occupation in the margin of the corporative
urban economies; yet the governing factor seems to have been the urban demand for
unskilled, domestic help, which was predominantly feminine. Roger Mols, the noted
specialist of urban historical demography, even proclaimed the women's surplus a
,,general law" of urban immigration25, a statement further corroborated by recent
demographic studies of the Southern Low Countries in the Ancien Regime26.

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Returning to the question of beguine recruitment, it is first important to
observe that, in a long run perspective, beguinages are essentially urban, i.e.,
located in urban centers27. That said, there is considerable evidence that great
numbers of the women populating the beguinages were of rural origin. Our figures
for the late Middle Ages are naturally scarce, but research by Walter de Keyzer
has revealed that in thirteenth and fourteenth century Mons, of the 23 beguine
convents of which the founder is known, at least 14 had been founded by members
of extra-urban families 28. According to Floris Prims, who gave a rather
impressionistic, but not necessarily unreliable account of the first centuries of
the beguines in Antwerp, ,, most members of the community had come from the
countryside"29. Accurate data on the geographical origin of beguines are
available from the seventeenth century onwards for at least six beguinages. In
Louvain's smaller beguinage (Saint Gertrude's), 43 % of the beguines admitted
between 1598 and 1780 had come from out of town 30. A slightly higher proportion
of beguines (48 % ) living in the main beguinage of Tournai (La Madeleine) in
1691 had been born

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elsewhere 31. However, in four other cases beguines of non-local origin formed a
large majority in the beguinage, with percentages as high as 62 in Sint-Truiden
in 1780 32, 82 in Diest from 1570 until 1778 33, 84 in the beguinage of Saint
Elisabeth in Ghent near the end of the eighteenth century 34, and even 95 in a
small beguine center such as Hoogstraten in 1619 35. We should finally note that
Birgitte Degler-Spengler and others already reported similar findings regarding
the fourteenth and fifteenth century beguine convents in the Upper-Rhine area 36.
This evidence, then, suggests very strongly that beguine communities housed a
significant, probably even predominant, number of women of extra-urban origin.
The exact proportion of this group cannot be expressed with any accuracy; it is,
at this stage of our research, likewise unclear whether these women joined the
beguinage directly from their native village, or had done so only in a two-step
process, involving a migration to town, and

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from town to beguinage37. Further research is also needed into the usual age of
entry into the beguinage. Given the probably consistent women's surplus in the
prenuptial and nuptial age groups throughout the Ancien Regime, this question is
obviously of particular importance. Contemporary views continuously emphasized
the large number of women of nuptial age who sought refuge in the beguinage after
failing to marry properly 38. At the present point in our research, our data are
of little statistical value, and too far apart in time to set them off against
the fluctuations in nuptial age accross the centuries. At the end of the
seventeenth century, for instance, the mean age of profession of the beguines at
Sainte Madeleine of Tournai was 20.0; one century later, in the beguinage of
Sint-Truiden, the same figure was 21.8, but in the Louvain beguinage of Saint
Gertrude's we observe, almost comtemporarily, an average profession age of 26.5
39.

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Nevertheless, the main conclusions that should be drawn from these data remain:
1. The beguine communities did not only recrute among the local, urban
population; in fact, about 50 %, and sometimes considerably more, of their
members had been born in the countryside. 2. The geographical area of recruitment
overlapped, at least partly, that of the traditional women's convents, located
outside the towns. Hence, the gradual limitation of entry into these nunneries
must be considered a contributing factor in the beguinages' success. 3. The
underlying dynamics leading to the formation of large groups of women in search
of a ,, new ' ' way of life, can indeed be found in the effects of the ,, urban
revolution ' ' of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Thus, if the first two
conclusions differ significantly from the views expressed by Ludo Milis, the
third joins him in his assessment of the beguine movement in connection with the
rise of a new urban society. The mere fact of the women's surplus cannot in
itself explain the sudden success of semi-religiosity. Arising not only in
response to a fundarnental social and mental crisis, but also as a manifestation
of a lifestyle embedded in the new socioeconomic tissue that would link town and
countryside throughout the late Middle Ages and the Ancien Regime, the beguine
movement is evidently more than a momentous response to a twelfth or thirteenth
century Frauenfrage. If we are to understand this process at all, we should bear
in mind the tremendous impact of the qualitative, rather than quantitative change
in society provoked by the rise of the medieval town. There is no doubt that
starting from the twelfth century, and lasting until the very end of the
preindustrial era (and sometimes even beyond), quasi-permanent mlgratlon from
countryside to town poured great numbers of women into a new environment,
literally dislocating them to find means of subsistence other than the
established ones, which they did in the secular, professional world as well as in
the religious sphere. Thus we acknowledge economic re-orientation in the
preindustrial age paired with change in mentality, renewal of social ambitions
echoed bv a revision of religious group behavior.

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It is however impossible to view the semi-religious women as mere,, victims of
deracination ", which, in the corporative society of this era, equals,,
marginalization " 40. Marginal they were as deviants, as members of an
ill-defined Zwischenstand, successively accused of heresy, hypocrisy, and
bigotry. Yet, taken as a whole, the beguine movement in the Southern Low
Countries displays too wide a variety on the social scale to be associated with
fringe groups alone. The true importance of the urban phenomenon does not lie in
its setting into motion people on the edge of society: it affected all social
strata, and in highly urbanized regions such as these it would soon plant its
imprint on society as a whole. This must be considered if we want to answer fully
the question recently posed by Brenda Bolton: why weren't there beguines in the
British Isles 41? Although the beguine movement at its medieval highpoint did
spread over the larger part of the European continent, its nucleus lay
undoubtedly in the most advanced areas of urban development, i.e. the Southern
Low Countries, the Rhenish lands, and Northern and Central Italy.  Only there
were the semi-religious numerous enough to form organized communities of real
importance. And of all these regions only in the Southern Low Countries did the
beguine movement take a form judged accep-

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table enough to secure its continuation as a specific institution over the
centuries.
 

The Size of the Beguine Communities

In his Bonuum Universale de Aptibus, a book of marvelous and exemplary stories,
Thomas of Cantimpre (+ 1270-1272) mentioned a beguine he knew personally as the
Head Mistress of ,, two thousand" beguines in the town of Nivellesi'. These words
have been quoted often, as they are among the very rare contemporary estimates of
the beguine population in the Southern Low Countries43. Comparable figures recur
in the modern historiography of the beguines, although their documentary basis is
not always clear. Thus, the beguinage of Saint-Elisabeth in Ghent is said to have
harbored over 800 beguines in the thirteenth century, and the main beguinage of
Brussels as many as 1000 in the seventeenth century 44. How to judge these
numbers ? The study of so-called monastic demography is a relatively new  field.
Andre Tihon, Leo Van Buyten and Ernest Persoons have collected in recent years
data on the feminine monastic population in the seventeenth and eighteenth
century Southern Low Countries45. For the beguinages, however, it is not
impossible to find

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firm evidence for earlier times as well -- although, not surprisingly, the Middle
Ages provide only a few samples of such material. It is the very ambiguity of the
beguine status that has brought forth a relative wealth of sources: as,, lay
people ", the beguines were subject to the same fiscal obligations that bound all
except the nobility and the clergy, at least in theory, for local exemptions were
sometimes granted to beguine communities. We can gather fairly comprehensive
statistics on beguine populations in the duchy of Brabant through a particular
type of tax-related primary source, namely the census of hearths conducted in the
duchy at the end of the fifteenth and especially in the sixteenth century46. They
contain accurate data on 19 beguinages in the duchy. For some of them, and for
certain beguinages in the county of Flanders and the principality of Liege, it is
possible to chart the evolution of population figures in the following centuries
on the basis of registers of admission to the beguinage, obituary lists, and
visitation reports 47. Piecing together this sometimes scattered information, we
record enormous geographical and chronological variations. In earlv sixteenth
century Brabant, a wide range of beguine institutes existed, housing any number
from 2 ( in the beguinages, very probably nothing more than ,, beguine houses '',
of Halen and Geldenaken ) to 372 beguines ( in the main beguinage of Brussels).
At the same time, such ancient and reputed beguinages as the ones in Nivelles and
Zoutleeuw have a modest population of 24 and 36 respectively -- or see their
numbers rise as high as

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185, in the case of Diest. Wherever we can trace the fluctuations in the next few
centuries -- in Brabant as well as elsewhere -- we are again struck by the
variations reflected in these figures. However, the trend is clear enough: our
data reveal a marked increase in beguinage population in the course of the
seventeenth century, reaching its peak around the 1670s; after 1700 a quasi
definitive decline becomes apparent, although some beguinages witness a temporary
recovery in the second half of the eighteenth century. To cite the most
spectacular example: in Diest, the beguinage almost doubled in size between 1526
and 1669, its population reaching as many as 416 beguines (and 135 inhabitants
who were not beguines).  In the same period, the beguine population of the main
beguinage of Brussels rose from 372 to 510. The evolution in what was possibly
the largest beguinage of the Southern Low Countries, Saint Elisabeth's in Ghent,
from the end of the sixteenth century until 1670, shows exactly the same pattern:
here, we note an increase from about 400 to about 800 beguines . There are not
many sure indications of the number of beguines during the Middle Ages. Isolated
convents did not usually count more than 10 beguines, in fact, we counted even
fewer beguines in the Douai convents of the fourteenth centurv, and the same
apparently goes for the separate convents of Huy, Mons, Tournai, and some Artois
towns at that time 48. Our direct information on the curtis  beguinages may often
appear unverifiable. but it can be substantiated indirectly. A Douai will of
February 1273 contains a gift to 100 beguines at the local beguinage of
Champfleury49. Eighty-four beguines lived in the Cantimpret beguinage of Mons in
1365 50. In the second half of the fifteenth century, the beguinage of Ter Hooie
in Ghent housed 48 beguines, two more

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than the one in Courtrai 51. At first we would be inclined to reject the early
figures for Saint Elisabeth's in Ghent as mere,, propaganda", initiated by its
inhabitants to claim more suppon from its historical benefactors, the counts of
Flanders52. Yet some of these assenions, such as the one implying the existence
of 30 convents in the beguinage in 1284 53, could have been easily verified, and
one is inclined to think that the count's efficient bureaucracy actually did so.
Even though they do not result in an exact total number of beguines ( the number
of beguines populating each convent, or living alone, is unknown54), they can
give a first,, impression of greatness''.. The study of the architectural history
of these beguinages seems to confirm this. Most of them reached their full
extension before the end of the thirteenth century 55. Saint Catherine's
beguinage of Tongeren is a fine example. A rental of the early fourteenth century
lists 51 beguine houses in the compound56, In 1627, a few years before

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the renewed growth of the beguine population called for intense building activity
inside the beguinage, the number of houses was exactly the same57, giving shelter
to 135 beguines58. There is, of course, no fixed correlation between the number
of beguine houses and the total population of a beguinage. From thirteenth
century wills we understand that many beguines were living with one, two or even
more companions, usually sisters and nieces 59; there is a general view among
scholars that in the course of the following centuries the beguines tended to
prefer individual housing60. However, a brief comparison of the beguines to
houses ratio in various beguinages from the sixteenth century onwards shows that
the 1627 Tongeren figure can be consideted fairly high 61. I would therefore
argue that the population of beguinages in the Southern Low Countries reached a
peak very quickly, during the first century of their existence; in the aftermath
of the beguine persecutions of the early fourteenth century -- which we shall
discuss shortly -- their numbers were probably reduced significantly and remained
low throughout the sixteenth century.  In the course of the seventeenth century,
the beguinages definitely attracted more women again; their global number
probably equalled the thirteenth centurv high around the 1670s (surpassing it in
some cases), after which a slow decline must have set in. Obviously more research
is needed in this area. One has to have at one's disposal, for instance, a,,
catalogue ' ' of beguine institutions over the centuries, in order to follow the
fluctuations in the

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total number of beguinages62. There is also a need to study more closely the
internal shifts in beguinage populations, which, depending on the time and
source, catalogued changing numbers of plain ,,beguines", novices, servants
(female and  male), and children living in the beguinage for various reasons,
whether they were simply raised there by relatives, received room and board to
attend the beguine school, or, as far as the girls were concerned, actually
prepared for life as a beguine63. In the mean time a few tentative conclusions
can be advanced. The sources necessary to confirm or correct the ever-repeated
impressions on beguine numbers left by medieval and later chroniclers are in fact
extant. Our preliminary search reveals that, although these figures appear to be
exaggerations and cannot be generalized, some of these beguinages were indeed
very large and their inhabitants certainly outnumbered the population of even the
largest women's monastery 64. It also warns against generalizauons concerning the
percentage of the total urban population likely to be living in a beguinage,
given the significant fluctuations in the beguine population65. With respect to
our hypothesis concer-

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ning the rural roots of many beguines, we are compelled to investigate possible
links between the general trend in beguine numbers on the one hand, and the
changes in migration movements from countryside to town on the other hand -- and
if our first impressions are accurate, the one may very well echo the other66.
Finally, when reconsidering the impact of internal religious or cultural versus
economic or demographical factors, we should focus not only on the thirteenth,
but also on the seventeenth century; through a series of measures both
stimulating and repressive, the Counter-Reformation may have engendered the same
effervescence for beguine life as did the religious upheaval of the late twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, even in a different economic context. In itself the
size of the beguine movement in the Southern Low Countries is not sufficient to
explain why it could have survived into the twentieth century, whereas its
Rhenish counterpart did not. For, even if in these regions beguine institutions
were not so widespread, no one will doubt that the total beguine population  in
fourteenth-century Cologne or Basel was equally impressive67. The difference lies
in its organizational form.
 

Beguine Organization: the Success of the curtis Beguinage

Among the several forms beguine institutions in the Southern Low Countries had
adopted since the thirteenth century. one soon became paramount: the curtis
beguinage. The process leading towards its emergence has been sketched by the
Flemish historian L.J . M . Philippen as a succession of four phases 68 . At
first, beguines would live alone, in saeculo, under parental roof; then, small
communities of these women would be formed under the

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guidance of the clergy; in a third stage this community, gathered around a
hospital or infirmary, was recognized as a separate,, - order ", that of the
beguinae clausae, detached from the world, yet not part of the,, regular " clergy
as equals of nuns; in the end, when beguinages were large enough, they would be
allowed to constitute independent beguine parishes, the typical form of the
,,Belgian" begijnhof  Philippen's model has become classic69". As a decisive
breakthrough in beguine studies and a courageous attempt at synthesis, it should
be studied carefully and respected. It is most certainly helpful to understand
the evolution of the beguine movement in the thirteenth century. Scholars of the
beguines in the Rhenish lands have proposed other typologies tailored to the
local situation, but they have not fundamentally challenged Philippen's views on
the Low Country beguines70. Nevertheless, his model can be reviewed. My
objections concern not so much its intrinsic value, but rather its application in
beguine historiography. Many historians have interpreted the evolution from
beguinae singulariter in saeculo manentes  to the erection of curtis  beguinages
as a matter of growth its motor was the inerelsing number of beguines. l he last
stage, the independent beguine parish, was portrayed as a natural conclusion, by
which the beguinage would concretize its full,, maturity " . Consequently, the
isolated beguine convents in the Rhenish area and elsewhere could be considered
as unfinished, immature communities, barred from developing into the curtis
beguinage by the early fourteenth-century persecutions. I would suggest viewing
the isolated convent and the curtts beguinage (whether it was an independent
parish or not) as two institutional forms that were neither consecutive nor
mutually exclusive: they should be understood as two possible organizational
forms open to the beguines and their leaders at the same stage of development. If
we adopt such a perspective, our inquiry will focus on the external pressures
guiding the movement rather than on its organic, internal impetus. We will be
examining the reasons

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why women were gathered together in one large community, rather than being
allowed to dwell in several, smaller groups, scattered about town. In doing so,
we will see that in the Southern Low Countries, the two communal forms did in
fact coexist for almost a hundred years, but only one survived the turmoil of the
fourteenth century. The great beguinages of the Southern Low Countries were not
the end result of a spontaneous and steady flow of women towards one place. On
the contrary: they are due to a conscious and relatively coordinated intervention
by ecclesiastical and secular authorities to channel the religious fervor of
women within certain limits, at an early stage. In spite of the impression
created by Philippen's chronological reconstruction, the curtis  beguinages are
in fact contemporary with most isolated convents, and sometimes even older: the
vast majority of them were founded between 1230 and 1270 71. The initiative for
this intervention can be traced to a limited number of people. The early role of
the countesses Joanna (1205-1244) and Margaret (1244-1278), governing Flanders
and Hainaut, in the creation of beguinages has been reported before72; their
concern was also shared by the dukes of Brabant Henry I (1190-l235) and Henry III
(1248-1261)73, and by such a lesser prince as Arnold IV (1227-1273), count of
Loon74. Soon

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local lords followed their example75. For all the common interest which could
have moved these secular leaders into action in this field, it is difficult not
to presuppose a coordinating force at the basis of their design, executed in
several principalities and across the borders of dioceses and even church
provinces, in what looks like a single, closely timed and well organized
operation to control an otherwise spontaneous movement. I would hypothesize that
this ,, link '' is to be sought in the policies of the religious orders devoted
to the care of the mulieres religiosae  these include the canons regular, who
counted among them the first propagators of the vita apostolica  in an urban
environment, such as John of Cantimpre and James of Vitry76; the Cistercians,
guiding the early beguines in rural areas77, but, in the period we are concerned
with, we should think especially of the Dominicans. The Dominican order started
its expansion over the Southern Low Countries in 1225 with the foundation of a
convent in Lille, and had spread all over the region by 1275-8. As spiritual
guides and confessors at the Flemish-Hainaut court, they left a definite mark on
the religious projects of both the countesses Joanna and

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Margaret26. Not surprisingly it is also in these counties that the Dominican part
in the creation of curtis  beguinages can be best documented 80, but in Brabant
as well there is evidence of their early interest81. Even in the diocese of
Liege, where the bishop delegated the organization and visitation of the beguines
to a secular canon, master Renier of Tongeren in 1266 82, Dominicans from the
convents of Louvain (founded in 1228-1230) and Liege (ca. 1230)83 were
supervising local beguine communities, and, as far as we know, may have
cooperated in the formation of curtes  as well: it is certainly intriguing to
note that the two Dominicans from the Liege convent involved in the foundation of
the beguinage of Tongeren in 1243 84, had been trained at the convent of Lille in
the county of Flanders 85, the very convent from which the spiritual counsellors
to the Flemish court were recruited 86. The Dominicans' concern lasted well
beyond the formation period of the beguinages, for they were often called upon

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to perform visitations, supervise the chaplain, preach in the beguines' chapel
and hear confessions, in short, to guard the beguines' orthodoxy; as a matter of
fact, they have conserved this role up to the present day among the last beguines
in Belgium 87. Whoever took the initiative -- whether it was the temporal or the
spiritual authority -- the ultimate question will be: why? What made these
authorities decide to act, and, especially, why did they opt for the curtis
type? The foundation dossiers of most beguinages (documents on the acquisition of
the grounds, negotiations with the parochial clergy, creation of the institute,
confirmation by the bishop, sometimes the erection of the beguinage as a separate
parish ) contain statements on these questions, which can be understood as clear,
,, public " rationalizations. They refer to the need to shield these women from
external interference with their quest for a more religious life, to create an
adequate environment for comtemplation and meditation, in other words, to ensure
them of a quasi-monastic isolation in the midst of urban commotion and wordly
temptations88. In addition to this, they avow concern for the physical protection
of an all-female community, by the erection of a wall and often of a moat around
it, to which only one gate would give access, to be closed at night.  Aside from
robbery and sexual harassment, there were other dangers to be feared, such as
abduction and forced marriage. In 1242, countess Joanna of Flanders specifically
ordered the bailiffs and magistrates of her lands to protect the ,,girls wishing
to join the beguines" against such abuse89; an actual

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case of abduction shook the Bruges beguinage in 1345 and was severely punished,
precisely because of the count's protection90. These arguments are genuine and
sincere. Nevertheless we often wonder who needed protection from whom. Behind the
patronizing, caring measures taken to guard the beguines' moral and physical
integrity, it is not difficult to perceive an inveterate suspicion of women's
religious aspirations, which -- in the view of many -- required confinement as
much as support. Although relatively few members of the clergy or others voiced
their distrust explicitly in the course of the thirteenth century91, it was most
certainly widespread and surfaced repeatedly, for instance through the harenga
introducing the royal confirmation of the customs in use at the Lille beguinage
in 1299, set up, it is said, ,, to prevent the beguines from wandering about town
'' 92. "Amaser beghines" had been the goal according to countess Margaret, in a
charter

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delivered to the same beguinage twenty years before93. This is the key-notion: to
gather the beguines together in one place, in order to allow easy control and
shield their activities from the public eye. The consensus was that, whatever the
beguines intended to do, at least it would take place under the guidance of a
cleric and  behind walls. The term beguinae clausae  coined by Philippen from the
thirteenth-century documents, really only applies to the beguines living in uno
loco, sub una clausura  94, this is in a curtis beguinage. As Joanna Ziegler
demonstrated, this difference between the curtis  beguinages housing,,
encloistered beguines " in the Southern Low Countries, and the ones living in
isolated convents along the Rhine, was well taken in the beginning of the
fourteenth century, when the beguines' orthodoxy became the subject of intense
scrutiny 95. If wandering beguines constituted a potential threat to society in
terms of faith and morals, their excessive number could also pose an economic
burden. By bringing together women of all social categories -- well-to-do
bourgeois or peasant daughters endowed with rents and living in their own houses,
as well as elderly, crippled or in any other way destitute women -- a unique
system of feminine solidarity was created, which could practically ensure its
self-sufficiency. Our sources on the existence of separate beguine groups before
the foundation of the curtis  beguinages are not abundant; yet, in a few
instances, they give revealing insight into the concrete implications of the
foundation of curtis  beguinages. The so-called ,, book '' of William of Rijkel,
abbot of Sint-Truiden, in which a variety of matters dealing with the financial
organization of the abbey between 1253 and 1271 are recorded, contains
annotations on the sale of rents to individual beguines, presumably living in
comfort in and around Sint-Truiden, but also frequent references to the
distribution of food

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among the needy beguines dwelling around the local parish churches ~'. After the
foundation of the beguinage by the same abbot in collaboration with the bishop of
Liege, in 125897, no more beguines are to be found receiving alms. The conclusion
is obvious: these are taken care of by the charitable institutions set up within
the beguinage. Thus, the function of the beguinage as an autonomous institution
reached beyond the purely religious or administrative sphere: it had direct
bearing on the means of subsistence enjoyed by its inhabitants, and, moreover, on
the relationship between the beguines and the urban environment. Once the notion
of ,, self-sufficiency " is fully grasped, we are bound to view the relevance of
the independent parochial status differently and take into consideration the
important financial burden of which the parochial charities would be relieved if
poor beguines were supported by their wealthier colleagues in a separate
community outside  the parish. And even if the begijnhof  did not acquire
parochial status, its formally established solidarity vittually disqualified its
inhabitants from seeking relief offered by the parish.  Therefore, given the
probably large numbers of beguines involved it is not at all surprising that both
ecclesiastical and civil authorities would cooperate willingly to form separate
beguine communities large enough to support themselves98. The basic elements of
this internal solidarity are layed out simply and clearly in a number of texts,
but its precise mechanism could vary from place to place. The 1526 census of
hearths in

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Zoutleeuw explains the system in these laconic terms: ,, the beguinage consists
of three members, these are the beguinage itself, the beguine hospital, and the
Holy Ghost Table [for the poor]; all contribute mutually to give alms to the
needy in the beguinage" 99. Some beguinage statutes incite individual members to
support their poorer colleagues 100, but even without a legal obligation to do
so, beguines would comply 101. Although more research is certainly desirable, we
know that most beguinages adopted a system of,, housing rights ", by which
wealthy beguines could acquire the right to occupy a house in the precinct for
the duration of their stay. In a few cases it was possible to transfer this right
-- usually by will -- to another beguine, but only for one or two,, lives ":
ultimately, the house would return,, to the bosom " of the beguinage, to be sold
again under the same conditions. Any house newly built by a beguine would
likewise become the beguinage's property after her death or departure 102. A
study of such sales in Saint Elisabeth's beguinage of Ghent during the
seventeenth-eighteenth centuries has revealed that a journeymanbricklayer with a
family of three would have to save about 16.5 years in order to equal the median
price of a private house in the compound103. Since a large part of this capital
had to be delivered as a down payment, evidently only very well-to-do beguines
could enjoy the luxury of a private house. On the other hand, the funds from
these sales (providing about 50 % of the

page 94

total domanial income of the Antwerp beguinage around the year 1500 104) were
used directly or indirectly to finance the beguine hospital and to maintain
communal housing in the curtis, from which the less fortunate beguines benefited.
There is reason to believe that such a system was established from the earliest
days of the curtis  beguinage, but also, that it was soon exposed to considerable
strain because of an excessive afflux of needy beguines. By the 1270s independent
convents had been founded in many towns in Flanders, Brabant and Hainaut, through
family intitiatives, just like the beguine convents of the Rhineland105. In Ghent
and Louvain a second curtis beguinage was founded, smaller in size and perhaps
populated by beguines of a generally lower social origin than in the main
beguinage 106. Two texts regarding the Ghent beguines may be termed indicative of
the pressure exerted on the existing beguinages. In a letter of May 20, 1269 to
the prior of the Dominican convent of Ghent, countess Margaret of Flanders
expressed her disapproval of the prior's attempts to change the customs of the
beguinage of Saint Elisabeth. Posing as a mediator for the beguines of Saint
Elisabeth, the prior had extracted from the countess written instructions
according to which needy beguines living outside  the beguinage

page 95

should be admitted to the hospital in the precinct of Saint Elisabeth's. When the
inhabitants of Saint Elisabeth's denounced the prior's imposture and claimed that
they were unable to accept these women, countess Margaret countermanded her
orders 107. She expressely confirmed Saint Elisabeth's rule on the next day 108.
Fifteen years later the same beguinage again called upon its patron begging
permission to extend the property owned by their Holy Gost Table, in spite of the
limitation which the secular power set on the ownership of real estate by
ecclesiastical and charitable institutions. Such an extension is urgent, the
beguines say, because the number of destitute women among them has increased
enormously, to ,,about 300"109. As had been the case earlier in the century, the
Flemish countesses intervened directly in the course of beguine history, but
their measures were now certainly less far-reaching. They did take under their
protection two new institutions for beguines in need, both dedicated to Saint
Aubert, founded in Bruges (before 1269) and Ghent (in or before 1278110. Neither
of them could have, however. provided sufficient relief for the steady flow of
poor beguines Joining the beguinages: Saint Aubert's of Ghent for instance, could
give shelter to only 28 beguines111. These conditions explain the foundation of
so-called,, alms-houses " for poor beguines. They are known to have existed in
Bruges shortly after

page 96

1300 1l2, perhaps elsewhere in Flanders as well113, in Hainaut 114, and in major
Brabant towns such as Antwerp 1l5 and Brussels116. There is no doubt that the
crisis in the urban textile industries, which became manifest around 1270-1275 in
Flanders, had a great impact on the labor situation of such single women as
beguines, who often derived their income from various tasks in the production of
cloth 117.  Significantly, restrictions on the production of and trade in cloth
by beguines were imposed from that time on 118. On the eve of the great beguine
persecutions initiated by the Council of Vienne and the subsequent publication of
the famous Clementinae ,, condemning " the beguines, in 1317- 1319, the beguine
movement in the Southern Low Countries was composed of a variety of institutions:
the curtis beguinages, housing women of all social categories and founded with
the full support of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, on the one hand;
separate convents due to private initiatives and genuine ,,poor"-houses erected
specifically for needy beguines, on the other. The latter are certainly
comparable to the beguine institutions of the Rhineland;

page 97

the former were absent in these regions because, I would contend, the
prerequisite political, social and religious conditions that made possible the
formation of the great beguinages were also lacking. As opposed to the Southern
Low Countries, the Rhineland did not know strong, well organized political
authorities, keenly conscious of new developments among the religious, and
traditionally involved in the promotion of new movements119. Urbanization was
less advanced, and consequently, the new apostolic movements crucial to the
organization of larger beguine communities, particularly the Dominicans, had not
spread as rapidly across the Rhine as, for instance, in Flanders and Brabant 120.
If the basis of the dichotomy between the beguine institutions West and East of
the Rhine, as presented above, was laid before 1300, it was soon to be reinforced
by the controversy surrounding beguine orthodoxy after the promulgation of the
Clementine decrees. For the great beguinages of the Southern Low Countries, a
formal rejection of their suspect counterparts in the East was of the essence. To
describe and analyze the various steps by which this was achieved would exceed
the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that the count's patronage in Flanders
adn the close supervision of the beguines by the bishops of Cambrai and Liege,
once more proved decisive121.  As Robert of Thourote, bishop of Liege, had
announced long before in the general statutes for the beguines of his diocese
(1246), beguines who lived outside the

page 98

curtis  beguinage could not be assured of episcopal backing 122. Whereas the
inquiry into beguine behavior in the Rhineland led to a severe crisis from which
these communities were never to recover, in the Southern Low Countries the
conclusions drawn from it tended to reaffirm the curtis  model. Indeed, some
begijnhoven  suffered greatly under the scrutiny of the episcopal and civil
investigators. The beguinage of Antwerp was probably closed for a time 123.
Others, such as Saint Elisabeth's of Ghent, may have lost a portion of their
property l24. In most instances, it can be surmised that the reigning suspicion
severely reduced the population of these beguinages. Yet in the end most curtis
beguinages emerged victoriously from the ordeal, to the detriment of the other
institutions. In the course of the fourteenth century they received new statutes,
approved by the episcopal and civil authorities 125. Very few independent
convents benefited from such an endorsement. The other isolated convents accepted
an ,, established " rule, such as the one of Saint Francis' Third Order, or Saint
Augustine's, easily adaptable to various ways of life126, or disappeared
altogether before the end of the fourteenth century. These were not the times to
either give much latitude for individual experiments or to permit the sort of
restless wandering in search of the right form of religious life enjoyed a
century before by someone like Hadewijch 127. In the protected curtis  beguinages

page 99

religious experience was strictly controlled. Echoes of beguine religiosity from
within those walls became less frequent; transmitted only through the reports of
the regular confessors and pastors appointed to monitor spiritual life in the
begijnhof, they lack the intensity of the earlier writings on the beguines, and
usually omit references to extravagant mystical behavior128. Thus the curtis
beguinage came to be understood as the only beguine institution deemed an
appropriate environment for the beguines of the Southern Low Countries.

Conclusion

In spite of all the scholarly attention devoted to the beguines of the Southern
Low Countries, a number of fundamental issues have not yet been fully addressed.
In this region the beguine movement projects an image that is quite distinct from
the one historians have distilled from data in the Rhineland and elsewhere, not
in the least because it endurecl from the early thirteenth century into the
twentieth. In order to better appreciate the unique features of the Southern Low
Country beguines -- and, by doing so, understand the conditions in which the
movement as a whole was generated and flourished, although assailed by many --
our approach has by definition to be comparative, both in geographical and m
chronological terms. By broadening the scope of our research to encompass not
only the Middle Ages, but also the Modern Age, it is possible to

page 100

shed new light on the so-called Frauenfrage, which many historians have regarded
as crucial to the otigins of the semireligious movement. From the records left by
the beguine communities in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, one can
conclude that many of the Southern Low Country beguines, gathered in large ,,
beguine towns " within the towns, were actually of rural origin, thus supplying
corroborative evidence to fragmented data on the geographical origin of the
beguines in earlier times. This confirms but also develops the views expressed
before by L. Milis and others, for whom the beguine movement essentially stemmed
from the so-called,, urban revolution ' ' of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries. It
seems very probable now, that the beguine institutions recruited their members
among the large feminine contingent of nuptial or prenuptial age which in the
constant migration to the towns from the surrounding countryside resulted in a
lasting women's surplus in urban centers. Just as the urban economies of the
Southern Low Countries provided women with more labor opportunities than the
rural areas, they also offered alternatives to the traditional religious careers.
In this region of early and thorough urbanization, the number of women opting for
a life as beguine was indeed very high. The great curtis beguinages reached their
full extension at the beginning of the fourteenth century; the number of beguines
living therein does not seem to have been equalled until the late seventeenth
century, which saw a remarkable revival of the beguinages. However, it was not
only the size of the movement which assured its survival into the twentieth
century. but also its particular institutional form, the so-called curtis
beguinage, almost unknown outside the Southern Low Countries. Its creation can be
attributed to a combination of political and religious factors, of which the
effectiveness of political organization, traditionally concerned with religious
movements, and the swift expansion of the Dominican Order, related to a high
degree of urbanization, must be considered pivotal. For the curtis  beguinages
are the products of a clear, authoritative policy towards the beguines, both
protective and restrictive. They provided a secure ambience for women of all
social classes, while facilitating ecclesiastical control. As the number of
especially poor beguines seems to have outgrown the capacity of the curtis
beguinages towards the end of the thirteenth century,

page 101

other types of beguine institutions emerged, similar to the ones existing along
the Rhine, until the Clementine decrees put an end to institutional diversity.
From that time on, only a life inside the begijnhof  guaranteed beguine
orthodoxy. The history of the beguine institutions in the Southern Low Countries
offers a fascinating view of the interdependance of socioeconomic, political, and
religious phenomena. When compared with its Rhenish counterpart, it illustrates
how economic precocity and its accompanying social change is mirrored by
innovations in religious life; these, in turn, receive their ultimate form within
the boundaries set by public authority, which acts in accordance with its ability
to judge, govern and promote efficiently the ambitions of its subjects. By their
early intervention to channel the movement into a direction it would not
necessarily have taken, the secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the
Southern Low Countries anticipated the purely repressive action deployed by the
Rhenish lords and prelates by more than half a century. Once again the question
of economic development underlying cultural change has been posed. While it would
be unwise to consider feminine semi-religiosity only in correlation to economic
change, this paper has attempted to show the great extent to which the rise of
urban economies under authoritative princes conditioned the form and fate of
beguine life.
 

NOTES

* I am greatly indebted to Dr. Marc Boone (Rijksuniversiteit Gent) and Dr. Michel
Van der Eycken ( Rijksarchief Hasselt ) for permitting me to consult their
unpublished Ph.D.-theses, I owe special thanks to Professor Joanna E. Ziegler
(College of the Holy Cross, Worcester), who shared with me many of her latest
findings in the course of her own research on the beguines, and to]. Lizabeth
Fackelman for her editorial help and ncver ending encouragement. 1 See A. Mens,
,,Beghini,begardi, beghinaggi'', in Dizionario degli Istituti di Perfezione, vol.
1 (Rome, 1974), 1165-1180 and K. Elm, ,,Beg(h)inen",in Lexikon des Mittelalters,
vol. 1 (Munich and Zurich, 1980), 1799-1803. In Italy, the movement flourished
largely under the form of the feminine Third Orders of Saint Francis and Saint
Dominic, but not exclusively. A few case studies of these women can be found in
Women and Men in Spiritual Culture. XIV-XVII centuries. A Meettng of South and
North, E. Schulte van Kessel ed. (The Hague, 1986) and J. Pennings,
.,Semi-Religious Women in 15th Century Rome", Mededelingen van het Nederlands
Historisch Instituut te Rome, XLVII/NS 12 (1987), 115-145. 2 See, among others,
M.H. King, The Life of Marie d'Oignies by Jacques de Vitry, Peregrina
Translations Series - Matrologia Latina 3 (Saskatoon, 1987), Introduction, i:
,,At its peak the beguine movement numbered its adherents among the thousands but
( ... ) it never received canonical approbation and continued to operate outside
the official Church structure until its virtual disappearance in the fifteenth
century". 3 J.E. Ziegler, ,, The curtis beguinage in the Southern Low Countries
and art patronage: interpretation and historiography", Bulletin de l'lnstitut
historique belge de Rome / Bulletin van het Belgisch Historisch Instituut te
Rome. 57 (1987), 31-70. 4 J. Greven, Die Anfange der Beginen: Ein Beitrag zur
Geschichte des Volksfrommigkeit und des Ordenswesens im Hochmittelalter  (Munster
i/Westf., 1912), the first authoritative book on the beguines, had already
cautioned against such an approach, see Ziegler, ,,The curtis  beguinages",
37-40. A. Mens (see note 10) consistently referred to the beguine's as a
,,pan-european" movement . 5  G. Kurth, ,, Origine liegeoise des Beguines ",
Bulletin de l'Academie royale de Belgique. Classe des Lettres ( 1912), 437-462,
and idem, ,,Encore l'origine liegeoise des Beguines", ibidem (1919), 133-168. P.
Poswick, ,,Lambert-le-Begue et l'origine des beguinages". Bulletin de la Societe
d'art et d'histoire du diocese de Liege, 32 (1946), 55-73. The older view,
tracing the origin to the walloon part of Brabant, was taken up again in R. Hanon
de Louvet, ,,L'origine nivelloise de l'institution beguinale 'La Royaute'
fondation beguinale d'une Reine de France Marie de Brabant et la legende de la
beguine de Nivelles", Annales de la societe archeologique et folklorique de
Nivelles et du Brabant Wallon,  17 (1952), 5-78.  See also E. De Moreau, Histoire
de l'Eglise en Belgique, vol.3 (Brussels, 1945), 516. 6 The problem is further
complicated by the hazy notion of "Flanders" as a historical entity. Two examples
from outstanding works: J.-CI. Schmitt, Mort d'une heresie. l'Eglise et les
clercs face aux beguines et aux beghards du Rhin superieur du XlVe au XVe siecle
(Paris, 1978), opposes his subject area, the Upper-Rhine, to the other great
beguine region, which he repeatedly calls la Flandre  (36. 38, 58); in Medieval
Women's Visionary Literature,  E.A. Petroff ed. (New York and Oxford, 1986). 179
and 184. the Life of Marie d'Oignies by Jacques de Vitry, and Thomas of
Cantimpre's Life of Christine of Sint-Truiden are mentioned as situated in
,.Brabant-Flanders". One understands that in both cases ,, Flanders " denotes the
whole of the Southern Low Countries. 7.-J.M. Gilmont,  ,,Aux origines de la
chretiente en Wallonie. IIIe - XIIIe siecles", in Jalons pour une histoire
religieuse. J.-E. Humblet ed., Eglise-Wallonie, 2 (Brussels, 1984), 13-44,
especially 14 (,,Pour cerner l'apport original de la Wallonie dans l'evolution de
l'Eglise, il conviendrait de reprendre l'etude des documents, en oubliant le
cadre,, belge '' impose par les Pirenne. . . " ) and 34-41 Pirenne's attitude
towards the aspirations of the burgeoning Walloon movement and the concept of
Walloon history has been discussed recently by Ph. Carlier,,, Henri Pirenne,
historien de la Wallonie?", in Henri Pirenne. De la cite de Liege a la ville de
Gand. Actes du colloque organlse' a l'Universite' de Liege le 13 decembre 1985,
Cahiers de Clio, 86 (Liege, 1987), 65-78. Here is what Pirenne wrote about the
origin of the beguines, in his Histoire de Belgique, vol.I (Brussels, 1st ed.,
1900), 333: ,,L'attribution de l'ordre des beguines a Lambert le Begue repose
certainement sur une etymologie erronee. Il semble que l'institution nouvelle ait
apparu tout d'abord a Nivelles, dans le Brabant wallon''. 8 I am thinking above
all of the research stimulated by L. Milis (Rijksuniversiteit Ghent) and W.
Lourdaux ( and colleagues at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), resulting in a
number of (unpublished) M.A.-theses, which provide new insight in local and
general aspects of the movement; see also notes 18, 97, 104, 118 and 125. 9
Ziegler. ,, The curtis  beguinages", 36-50. 10 A. Mens, Oorsprong en betekenis
van de Nederlandse begijnen- en begardenbeweging.  Vergelijkende studie: XII de
XIII de eeuw, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor
Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie. Klasse der Letteren, IX/7
(Antwerp, 1947); E.W. McDonnell, The Beguines and Beghards in Medieval Culture.
With special Emphasis on the Belgian Scene  (New Brunswick, J.J., 1954). 11
Compare the views expressed by B. Delmaire, ,,Les beguines dans le Nord de la
France au premier siecle de leur histoire (vers 1230 - vers 1350)" in Les
religieuses en France au XIIIe siecle, M. Parisse ed. (Nancy, 1')85 ), 121-162,
particularly notes 2 ( ,. une veritable somme '' . on McDonnell ), and 68 ( ,,
livre riche mais touffu '', on Mens), and by Ziegler,, ~ The curtis beguinages ",
49 ( ,, How to distinguish the forest through McDonnell's trees?"). 12 Cf.
Fl.W.J. Koorn, Begijnhoven en Holland en Zeeland gedurende de mid- deleeuwen
(Assen, 1981 ), 2-3, and Delmaire,  , ,Les beguines '', 126-128. 13 Recent
bibliography in K. Elm, ,,Die Stellung der Frau in Ordenswesen, Semireligiosentum
und Haresie zur Zeit der heiligen Elisabeth '', in Sankt Elisabeth. Furstin
Dienerin-Heilige, (Sigmaringen, 1981), 7-28 and Ziegler, ,,The curtis
beguinagcs''. 33-34. 14 K. Bucher,  , ,uber die Verteilung der beiden
Geschlechter auf der Erde", Allgememes statisisches Archiv, 2 (1892), 369-396,
and idem, Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter (Tubingen, 2nd ed., 1910). 15 See note
4. l6 For instance in G. Kock, Frauenfrage und Kezertum im Mielalter (Berlin
1962), H. Grundmann, Religiose Bewegungen im Mittelalter (Darmstadt, 2nd. ed.,
1970), 170-198 and 452-456, and more recently by P. Ketsch, ,,Frauenarbeit im
Mittelalter. Quellen und Materialien", in Frauen im Mittelalter, A. Kuhn ed., vol
1 (Dusseldorf, 1983), esp. 13-24, E. Uitz, ,,Die Frau im Berufsleben der
spatmittelalterlichen Stadt, untersucht am Beispiel von Stadten auf dem Gebiet
der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik", in Frau und spatmittelalterlicher Alltag.
Internationaler Kongress Krems au der Donau 2. bis 5. Oktober 1984,
Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fur mittelalterliche Realienkunde osterreichs 9
(Vienna, 1986), 439-473, esp. 444-445; M. Wenskv, ,,Frau. C.III: Die Frau in der
stadtischen Gesellschaft", in Lexikon des Mittelalters, vol.4 (Munich and Zurich.
1988). 864-865. For a survey of the (dominant) German writing on this matter, see
M.C. Howell a.o., ,,A Documented Presence: Medieval Women in Germanic
Historiography", in Women in Medieval History and Historiography, S.M. Stuard ed.
(Philadelphia, 1987), 101- 1 3 1 , esp. 116- l 21. 17 B. Bolton, ,, Vitae matrum:
A Further Aspect of the Frauenfrage", in Medieval Women. Dedtcated and presented
to Professor Rosalind M. T. Hill on the occasion of her seventieth btirthday, D.
Baker ed. (Oxford, 1978), 253-273, and A. D'Haenens, ''Femmes excedentaires et
vocation religieuse dans l'ancien diocese de Liege lors de l'essor urbain (fin du
XIIe - debut du XIIIe siecle). Le cas d'lde de Nivelles (1200-1231), in Hommages
a la Wallonie. Melanges d'histoire, de litterature et de philologie wallonnes
offerts a Maurice A. Arnould et Pierre Ruelle. H. Hasquin ed. (Brussels,198l ),
217-235. 18 L. Milis, ,,Het begijnenwezen, uiting van een middeleeuwse
maatschappij in de kering", in Toespraken gehouden bij de begijnhoffeesten,
Breda-juni 1980 (s.l., 1980),9-29, citation from p. 17-18 (translation mine).
These views can also be found in L. Milis, ,, De Kerk tussen de Gregoriaanse
hervorming en Avignon", in Algemene Geschtedenil der Nederlanden, vol. 3
(Haarlem, 1982), 166-211, esp. 204-205. ln more general terms, the impact of
urbanization on lay religious initiatives is summarized by L.K. Little, Religious
Poverty and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (London, 1978), esp. 113-145.
19 E. Koch, ,, Kloosterintrede, huwelijk en familiefortuin. De kosten van
klooster en huwelijk voor adellijke vrouwen in zuidoost-Nederland in de late
middeleeuwen ", in In de schaduw van de eeuwigheid. Tien studies over religie en
samenleving in laatmddeleeuws Nederland aangeboden aan Prof. Dr. A.H. Bredero, N.
Lettinck and J.J. Van Molenbroek eds. (Utrecht, 1986), 242-257 ( notes on p.
302-306) and Idem,,, De positie van vrouwen op de huwelijksmarkt in de
middeleeuwen", Tijdschrift voor sociale geschiedenis, 13 (1987),150-172. It
should be noted that E. Koch, in the light of her forthcoming Ph.D.-dissertation,
is primarily concerned with the prospects of noble women. 20 See also M. Lauwers
and W. Simons, Beguins et Beguines a Tournai au Bas Moyen Age. Les communautes
beguinales a Tournai du XIIIe au XVe siecle, Tornacum 3 (Tournai and
Louvain-la-Neuve, 1988), 9-10. 21 The beghards have not yet received the same
scholarly attention devoted to the beguines. One could consult J. Van Mierlo,
,,Het begardisme. Een synthetische studie", Verslagen en mededeelingen van de
Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde. (1930), 2,7-305;
McDonnell. The Beguines and Beghards, 246-265 and W. Simons, Stad en apostolaat.
De vestiging van de bedelorden in het graafschap Vlaanderen (ca. 1225 ca. 1350),
Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone
Kunsten van Belgie. Klasse der Letteren 121 (Brussels, 1987), 222-223. 22 See,
for instance, Cl. Bruneel, La mortalite dans les campagnes: le Duche' de Brabant
aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siecle, Universite de Louvain. Recueil de Travaux d'histoire
et de philologie, 6th Series 10 (Louvain, 1977), 130, 417-424. 23 For a striking
example. see A.M. Van de Woude, ,,Demografische ontwikkeling van de Noordelijke
Nederlanden 1500-1800'', in Algemene Geschteden der Nederlanden, vol. 5 (Haarlem,
1980), 102-l68, esp. 141, 148-149, which deals with the,, abnormal "features of
sex ratio's in Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the first half of the seventeenth
century. Little, Religious Poverty, 28-29, avows complete confidence in the
demographers' views on this matter. 24 The problems and sources are best
discussed by T.H. Hollingsworth, ,, Historical studies of migration", Annales de
demorgraphie historique (1970), 87-96. 25  R. Mols, Introduction a la demographie
historique des villes d'Europe du XIVe au XVIIe siecle, vol.2: Les resultats,
(Louvain, 1955 ); 183-199, 218-222, 374-375 . 26 J. Verbeemen,  , ,De werking van
economische factoren op de stedelijke demografie der XVIIe en der XVIIIe eeuw in
de Zuidelijke Nederlanden", Belgisch Tijdschrif voor Filologie en Geschiedenis /
Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 34 (1956), 680-700 and 1021-1055; idem,
.,Bruxelles en 1755. Sa situation demographique, sociale et economique ",
Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis, 45 (1962), 203-233 (esp. 205-209, with references
to other studies by this author); J. Ruwet, ,,La population de Saint-Trond en
1635 '', Bullettin de la Societe d'Art et d'Histoire du Diocese de Liege, 40
(1957), 151-193 (esp. 190-193); E. Helin, La demographie de Liege aux XVIIe et
XVIIIe siecles, Academie royale de Belgique. Classe des Lettres, Memoires,
collection in-8

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