The Beguines were a product of the extraordinary religious fervour that swept through Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. They were groups of laywomen living in the towns of northern Europe who came together to practise a new form of religious life. They were not affiliated to any religious order; nor did they follow any recognized monastic rule. The movement was probably a response to the social exclusiveness of most convents and their formalism and affluence. Its piety was rooted in the cult of voluntary poverty and the ideal of apostolic life. It was above all an urban phenomenon. The members came from the newly affluent bourgeoisie and they found their milieu in the towns. They were fired by the ideal of an uncomplicated Christian lay life, which was evangelical, imitating the life of Christ.

They were devout women living in the world, in some cases remaining at home in their own families, who used a town Church as a focus for their association and engaged in works of charity. Then they began forming communities and living together. They took no vows but made an engagement to observe celibacy while they lived in the community. A condition of membership was the renunciation of personal property and a simple life style. They attended mass and the canonical hours in the parish Church. They supported themselves by their own work, like weaving, sewing, embroidery, etc and moved around freely serving the needs of the poor and the sick. Some resorted to organized begging as a means of support.

The origins of the Beguines are somewhat complex. No one is sure even about the origin of the name, Beguines.  Some have suggested that it may derive from the verb to “beg” or from the “begging orders” or from the Albigenses, referring to a group of heretics of the time. Others have proposed that the name points to the gray-coloured clothes these pious women used to wear (beige) or that it was a nickname derived from the Middle Dutch word bagga, meaning wearing thick clothes. Others connect the name to Lambert de Begue who played a great role in the organization of these women in the initial stages.

The movement spread fast with many members, and Beguinages sprang up in many places. The Beguines offered an alternative life style to women with relative amount of freedom. They also challenged the religious climate of the day and the oppressive and misogynic structures of the Church. So they were suspected of heresy although for the most part they were neither heretical nor anticlerical. Their individualistic and affective piety aroused the misgivings. The mystical experiences and direct illumination ascribed to some Beguines were seen as posing a threat to the hierarchical organization of divine grace. So by the middle of the thirteenth century organized reaction set in. Criticism focused upon the lack of inclaustration, clerical supervision and female mendicancy. The Council of Vienne in 1312 censured their way of life saying that “these women promised obedience to nobody and they neither renounced their property nor professed any approved rule and so their way of life was to be permanently forbidden.” So they had to make a compromise and live in communities and accept clerical supervision. In this tamed form they continued to exist in many parts of Europe as a respected institution providing a home for the sick and the destitute as well as for the sisterhood.

There is no doubt that it was one of the first movements of women’s liberation offering to women greater freedom than in a convent or in a lay household.  It was one of those early attempts by women to gain foothold in the Church with their freedom and rights acknowledged and respected. Their struggle concerned not only the role of women in the Church but also wider issues such as the place of the laity in the Church, the nature of monastic life, especially as it was interpreted for women, and the nature of Christian life in general. They are the forerunners of thousands of modern day women religious who effectively combine prayer with social service. They remain an inspiration to all women in all generations who want to develop a spirituality in tune with the needs of their times.