Beguines

Beguines. Prompted partly by pious motives, partly by the advantages of the "religious" profession, there sprang up in the Middle Ages a class of persons who without taking strict vows devoted themselves to mendicancy and good works. Women usually of social position and either widows or spinsters adopted this life in the Netherlands about the 12th century under the name Beguines. Some trace the word to Begg or Le Begue, a supposed founder of the community, others to St. Begue, and others again with greater probability to a verb meaning "to stammer." They spread over France and got a footing in England, being protected by the Church, but everywhere became gradually absorbed into the inferior order of Franciscans, excepting in Germany and Belgium, where beguinages still exist. The male members were known as Beghards, but they developed into a mystical and perhaps socialistic sect, rebelled against the Pope, were suppressed, and ultimately disappeared among the Franciscan tertiarii, to whom they were closely allied. In Italy they were known as Bizgocchi or Boccasoti.