Above: “Daniel in the Lions’ Den,” with Saint Peter on the left and Saint John on the right, 1500-1550, Hof van Busleyden Museum, Mechelen (Malines), Belgium.
There are among us women whom we have no idea what to call, ordinary women or nuns, because they live neither in the world nor out of it.”
Guibert of Tournai (1200-1284), 1274, via “Sisters Between: Gender and the Medieval Beguines,” Abby Stoner, Kenyon College
The Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music might have wondered what she was going to do about Maria, but that’s nothing compared to the befuddlement of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the 13th century figuring out how to control the Beguine Sisters.
Limited options were permitted women in the medieval ages: subjugate themselves in marriage or enter a cloistered convent for life. Those limited choices are what attracted women to voluntarily cluster together in houses, forming their own communities on the outskirts of towns – beguinages. They donned habits similar to those of nuns and committed themselves to chastity, albeit not necessarily a lifetime commitment.
While many worked in hospitals and cared for the poor, they were not cloistered. Beguines were allowed to earn their living selling harvested products, items produced in their kitchens, beer from their breweries, cloth, and a wide range of handicrafts. They gave to the poor freely, but they themselves were not required to live in poverty. They could come and go and interact with those in town, selling their goods, teaching students and spreading their message of a loving God.
First, that we should love God with our whole heart—that is to say that our thoughts should always be truly directed towards him: and with our whole soul, that is that we should say nothing but what is true, even though we die for it: and with our whole strength, that is that we should perform all our works solely for him; and that we should love ourselves as we ought, that is that doing so we should not look to our advantage but to the perfect will of God: and that we should love our neighbors as ourselves….”
The Mirror of Simple Souls, Marguerite Porete (1258-1310), 1300
Above: “The Work of the Beguines,” Anonymous, 1578.
Thousands of women flocked to this liberation movement beginning in the 13th century. The beguinage in Mechelen, located between Antwerp and Brussels, was home to as many as 1,500 women at one point; the total number of women who elected this lifestyle numbered tens of thousands throughout Belgium, France and Germany. Their declarations of independence rocked the prevailing male hierarchy of the medieval period. These women did not want or need men.
The women commonly known as Beguines, since they promise obedience to nobody, nor renounce possessions, nor profess any approved rule are not religious at all, although they wear the special dress of Beguines and attach themselves to certain religious to whom they have a special attraction. We have heard from trustworthy sources that there are some Beguines who seem to be led by a particular insanity. They argue and preach…. and express opinions contrary to the catholic faith…. These Beguines thus ensnare many simple people…. They generate numerous other dangers to souls under the cloak of sanctity. We… justly regard them with suspicion….”
Council of Vienne, 1311-1312, convened under Pope Clement V (1264-1314), excerpts from Papal Encyclicals Online
Living under the authority of Catholic kings, church rulings such as the one above increasingly forced Beguines to curtail some of their outside activities, including the recruitment of women to join their communities.
Perhaps this inward communal focus led some to create personal “Secret Gardens,” some in the collection of Menchelen’s Hof van Busleyden Museum. Cabinet doors opened to reveal intricate gardens of paradise, altars to some of the sisters’ favorite saints. Silk flowers, embroidery, religious medallions and small relics of saints, often carefully labeled shards of bone, are intertwined, framing what became known as poupees de Malines, or Mechelen dolls.
Sales of these painted alabaster and wooden “dolls,” figurines used for prayer became one of income-producers for the Beguines of Malines. Missionaries would carry the figurines to colonies around the world to assist them in converting illiterate “savage heathen” natives to Christianity.
Above: Details from Secret Gardens, 1500-1550.
Among the poupees in the Hof van Busleyden collection is my favorite saint, hopefully watching over my eyesight, Saint Lucy, or Santa Lucia. At first I failed to recognize her because she lacked her traditional iconographic symbol – a plate bearing two eyes. Instead, Saint Lucy (283-304), a virgin planning to stay that way while dedicating herself to God, was persecuted in many ways, including gouged eyes, before the sword finally ended her life. Few things angered pagan men more then being spurned by virgins pledging themselves to follow in the path of Jesus.
Wilgefortis (14th century) is another martyr favored by the Beguines. Her father had pledged the avowed virgin to a Moorish king. To avoid this fate, she prayed to be made repulsive. Her prayers were answered by a beard sprouting from her chin, a change resulting in rejection by her betrothed. Angered beyond reason, her father had her crucified. The Catholic Church never recognized the young woman as a saint, but that did not hinder her popularity among the Beguines and unhappy wives.
Above left: “Saint Lucia,” 1500-1530. Right: “Saint Wilgefortis,” 1400-1450.
We perpetually forbid their mode of life and remove it completely from the church of God. We expressly enjoin on these and other women, under pain of excommunication to be incurred automatically, that they no longer follow this way of life under any form, even if they adopted it long ago, or take it up anew…. The diocesans and the inquisitors of heresy… are to exercise their office with special care concerning them, making inquiries about their life and behavior and about their beliefs…. They are to impose due punishment on those whom they find guilty, unless there is voluntary abjuration of the above errors and repentance with fitting satisfaction.”
Council of Vienne, 1311-1312, Papal Encyclicals Online
While the Catholic Church could somewhat tolerate Beguines who stayed put in their beguinage communities, women stepping out to preach and recruit followers proved more than they could stomach. Nursing the sick in hospitals was acceptable, but the pathway insisted upon by women like Marguerite Porete proved intolerable. Armed with copies of her book, The Mirror of Simple Souls (quoted higher up in this post), she insisted upon traveling to spread her word and seek converts to the beguinage way of life.
Porete’s message of divine love was not well received by the church. Her trial was presided over by 21 male theologians, who condemned her brand of faith as heresy. She was burned at the stake on Place de Greve near Hotel de Ville in Paris on June 1, 1310. Maybe some remembrance of her is tucked away in one of the Secret Gardens, or perhaps there were poupees de Malines figurines of Marguerite.