Beghards and Beguines

The Beguines /bəˈɡiːnz/ and the Beghards /bəˈɡɑːrdz/ were Christian lay religious orders that were active in Northern Europe, particularly in the Low Countries in the 13th–16th centuries. Their members lived in semi-monastic communities but did not take formal religious vows. That is, although they promised not to marry "as long as they lived as Beguines" to quote one of the early Rules, they were free to leave at any time. Beguines were part of a larger spiritual revival movement of the thirteenth century that stressed imitation of Christ's life through voluntary poverty, care of the poor and sick, and religious devotion.

The term "beguine" (Latin, "beguinas'', Dutch, "begijn") is of uncertain origin and may have been pejorative. Scholars no longer credit the theory expounded in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica that the name derived from Lambert le Bègue, a priest of Liège. Other theories, such as derivation from the name of St. Begga and from an imaginary old Saxon word beggen, "to beg" or "to pray", have also been discredited. The origin of the movement's name will continue to be as uncertain as dates for the beginning of the movement itself. There is likewise no evidence that Beguines ever formed part of the Albigensian heretical groups. Encyclopedias, when they mention this latter explanation at all, tend to dismiss it.

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