Herb-workers and Heretics: Beguines, Bakhtin and the

Basques

Part 1. Overview of the Beguine Movement

[draft 05.25.2007]

Roslyn M. Frank
University of Iowa
Email: roz-frank@uiowa.edu

Historical Background
During the Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the word beguine was used by women to identify
themselves as members of a wide-spread and influential women's movement. The same term was
used by their detractors and overt opponents, with the highly charged negative meaning of
"heretic."1 The etymology of the term beguine and ultimate origins of the movement have
never been satisfactorily explained.2

Origins of the Movement

Most investigations on the movement derive its origins from southwestern France connecting it to
the Cathars. The tracks of the movement become increasingly difficult to follow as one moves
back in time. Naturally, this is true of all medieval studies when one attempts to penetrate the so-
called Dark Ages. The dearth of written texts and general lack of coordinated studies, focused on
specific towns and villages of this zone, make it extraordinarily difficult to determine with any
accuracy a beginning date for the movement. Nonetheless, in this period, as soon as written
sources become available, the Beguines are already present as a social group. The problem arises
when one attempts to speculate on their status and extent during the early 9th and 10th centuries,
periods for which no documentation is available concerning the activities of the popular classes.
Indeed, the documentation for the movement is extremely sparse even in the 11th century.

1
A much earlier version of this article was presented as a conference paper entitled "The Beguines: A
Historical Perspective" at the Central Renaissance Conference, Iowa City, Iowa, March 26, 1976. A more
updated and reoriented version with the title of "Herb-Workers and Heretics: The Beguines and the
Basques" was given at the Congreso Internacional de Investigacin, Docencia y Feminismo, San Sebastian,
Spain, March 26, 1993.
2
Cf. Frank 2001 for more information on the etymology of the term beguine.
Roslyn M. Frank Page 2 3/13/2011

In the thirteenth century when the Beguines first come into clear focus against the background
of late Medieval culture, the movement had already spread all across Europe, being found in
Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Sicily. The women who called
themselves Beguines came from all social classes and their life styles varied as much as their
social backgrounds. Some lived at home with their families; others supported themselves by
working; some enjoyed substantial incomes and endowments; while others lived more or less
unattached lives, choosing often to beg for their sustenance. These latter women did not reside
permanently in Beguinages, but rather traveled about the countryside preaching their beliefs.
The Beguines were generally unmarried women, although at times widows were also
represented. Apparently married women could join once they received the permission of their
husbands. The Beguines were tied by no permanent vows, and were free to depart at any time.
Among them, personal property was usual. Often a Beguinage consisted of nothing more than a
tiny house or loft located in the town's poorer section and inhabited by four or five Beguines. At
other times, whole streets were lined by houses owned or rented by Beguines.
The women lived communally, sharing expenses and incomes, much as would be the case in a
collective or cooperative. Depending on the size of the house, the women elected one of their
group to supervise their business affairs. The election of the Magistra or "Martha" as she was
called, usually occurred when there were fifteen or more women sharing a house. Three types of
income were available to the Beguinages: the property the members brought with them on
entrance, contributions and donations by relatives and patrons, and the money earned by the
Beguines themselves.
Although the Beguines as a group were often accused of begging, high priority was put on
obtaining a livelihood through manual labor. They were engaged in all occupations open to
women, and in addition, were particularly active in the education of young girls who studied in
the Beguine schools. They also played a major role in providing medical care for both the poor
and the rich. In the case of members of the lower classes, their services were provided free, as
charity, but in the latter, they received compensation. The cures were based on folk medical
practices which were primarily herbal in nature. Their success in the weaving industry allowed
them to own shops and eventually to dominate the guilds in some areas. This same economic
success contributed to their downfall, for it met with much controversy from the public sector and
the male guilds. The competition of the Beguinages with the male dominated guilds grew into a
series of disputes that led town councils and guilds to enact discriminatory legislation against the
Beguines. By the mid-fifteenth century, the increasingly restrictive nature of these guilds and
locally imposed regulations reduced many a thriving Beguinage to a poor house for destitute
women.
Often, the Beguinage resembled a miniature town populated solely by women, situated just
outside the actual urban center, and having its own church, cemetery, hospital, pharmacy, school,
public square, streets and walks. Throughout Europe it was common for the Beguines to own
mills where they ground wheat for themselves, as well as for the general population of the area.
The most well-known of these miniature cities is the great Beguinage of Ghent, which was
founded in 1234 by the Countesses of Flanders, Jeanne and Marguerite. At the beginning of the
14th century, this Beguinage, surrounded by its walls and moats, contained two churches, open
plazas, eighteen conventual dwellings where the younger Beguines lived, over a hundred houses
where the older women resided, a brewery and an infirmary, all of which were run by women.
Roslyn M. Frank Page 3 3/13/2011

The guardianship of the Beguinage of Ghent was hereditary in the House of Flanders, and
eventually came under the supervision of the Dominican Prior of Ghent. The close ties of this
house with the ruling families of Flanders may well explain why it survived to the twentieth
century.
During the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, across Europe the Beguines enjoyed the
widespread patronage and enthusiastic support of members of all social classes who endowed
them with lands, material goods, and stipends. Often, these donations were willed to the Beguines
with the stipulation that the women pray for the deceased donor by celebrating anniversary
masses.3 In Flanders, the Beguines consistently enjoyed the most exalted patronage even during
the periods in which they were most persecuted in other locations, such as Germany. In France,
they initially received substantial support from St. Louis, who provided them with houses in Paris
and other cities. He also left them abundant legacies in his will as did his sons. In Paris, it was
reported that there were multitudes of Beguines. About 1240, they were estimated at two
thousand in Cologne and its vicinity, and there were as many in the single Great Beguinage of
Nivelle in Brabant. By the fourteenth century, their numbers had grown rapidly and those living
in the sedentary manner described above were estimated at 200,000 in Germany alone. It should
be noted that such a figure may not be indicative of their total number, since many Beguines did
not reside permanently in the Beguinages.

14th Century Oppression: The Clementines

A series of harsh Papal decrees were issued in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, in
which the Beguines were increasingly singled out for condemnation and persecution as
"heretics." The Papal decrees culminated in the two Clementines of the Council of Vienna of
1311: Cum de quibusdam mulieribus and Ad nostrum. When Pope John XXII finally published
the Clementines, in revised form in 1317, they had a devastating effect on the Beguine
movement. At first these decrees met with resistance from the Beguines, local lay and
ecclesiastical authorities, as well as from the Beguine's royal patrons. However, the later papal
decrees proceeded to outline increasingly severe punishments for those who aided the Beguines.
This served to drastically reduce the popular support the movement had previously enjoyed. This
was particularly true in Germany where a blanket provision pronounced excommunication for
those actively participating in the Beguine movement, and also for anyone aiding and abetting the
Beguines. In Germany where the Beguines were said to number some 250,000 at the time of the
Inquisitorial decree, the property belonging to the innumerable Beguinages was confiscated by
the Inquisition. The women were given three days notice prior to expulsion from their homes.
Those who resisted were imprisoned and/or burned. The Beguinages were ordered sold with one
third of the proceeds supposedly being used to repair the walls and roads of the town; another
third went directly to the Inquisitors to defray the cost of the proceedings against them; and the
last third was given also to the Inquisitors to be used as alms to the poor, the church, penitent
heretics, Beguines who renounced their allegiance to the movement, and those imprisoned, the

3
Readers who are familiar with the Basque serora's duties and responsibilities will recognize the structural
parallels between the two sets of data: the morphology of the Beguines' religious role and that of the serora.
Cf. Frank 1977, 2001.
Roslyn M. Frank Page 4 3/13/2011

Beguines themselves who were without means of defraying the costs of their own keep while in
prison.
By the end of the fifteenth century, after several hundred years of active persecution, the
Beguine life style ceased to be a viable alternative for women. The movement was nearly extinct,
having been reduced to a few isolated Beguinages. During these two centuries, hundreds of
thousands of women were forced to abandon a way of life that had offered them an independent
existence outside marriage and the cloister. These women suffered diverse fates. Some chose to
become Tertiaries of the established Franciscan and Dominican Orders. Many others, less
fortunate, but perhaps more resolute in their beliefs, were burned by the Inquisition. Thousands of
others were banished from their hometowns or forced into flight to avoid prosecution. The plight
of those who fled is essentially undocumented. However, one may hypothesize that some of the
women joined the ranks of the so-called heretical movements, such as the Sisters of the Free
Spirit, whose way of life and philosophical tenets have so often been confused with those of the
Beguines.
Although the lives of the sedentary Beguines are well documented, we know much less about
the movements and activities of the wandering, or free Beguines, who had no permanent
residences and lived by begging, or from the good will of their supporters. The free Beguines
refused to submit to ordained, spiritual officials, and continued to propagate what must have been
considered subversive doctrines by their opponents, throughout the countryside, holding secret
meetings in forests, caves, and other underground places. The free Beguines often appear to
have been harbored by the more orthodox Beguines, in spite of the severe penalties against such
acts. Given that as persecution increased the wandering free Beguines formed an increasingly
clandestine network of the movement, little is known concerning the details of the daily lives of
the Beguines working underground. However, since they frequently came into direct conflict with
the Episcopal and Inquisitional authorities, there is significant information concerning those who
were captured and sentenced.4
In order to partially illuminate this aspect of the Beguine movement, I have chosen to
document two inquisitional trials. The first occurred in Paris in 1310, a year before the Council of
Vienna issued the Clementine decrees. Some scholars state that it was the actions of the woman
burned here which directly contributed to the subsequent issuance of the Clementine decrees one
year later. In the first formal auto da f of which we have cognizance in Paris, on May 31, 1310, a

4
But one fact is certain regarding at least the history of German beguines: after the papacy and glossators
struck out against them in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, they were continually on the defensive.
Indeed, "free Beguines" who lived without the oversight of the mendicant orders virtually disappeared.
Moreover at the start of the fifteenth century even beguines who had accepted mendicant (primarily
Franciscan) oversightso-called "tertiaries"were driven out of many cities of southwest Germany and
the Rhineland: Basel, Bern, Freiburg/Switzerland, Constance, Strassburg, Mainz. As a chronicler of Basel
stated with apparent glee, new rulings brought fear to the "entire rabble." And unfortunately for
Makowski's thesis, these new rulings were formulated or upheld by legal experts entirely parallel to those
who defended the Sisters of the Common Life. In 1404, the town council of Strassburg ordered that all
beguines, including tertiaries, abandon their way of life on the basis of a determination of local canon
lawyers; in 1411 Basel expropriated all its beguines and tertiaries with the support of rulings by canonists
of Heidelberg (cf. Lerner 2006: 548). Thus the example of lawyers rescuing the Sisters of the Common Life
cannot stand without qualification as representative.
Roslyn M. Frank Page 5 3/13/2011

renegade Jew was burned, but the principal victim was Marguerite de Hainault, or la Porte. She
is described as a Beguine clergesse and seems to have been one of the Free Beguines for her
wandering life style separates her clearly from the Beguinae clausae. She must have been active
in the underground part of the movement for a number of years, since her first run in with the law
and subsequent prosecution would appear to have occurred at least fifteen years before her death
in Paris. During this period, she repeatedly was threatened with the death penalty. However, she
continued her preaching activities. She had written and circulated a book, presumably in Latin, to
propagate her doctrines. Before the year 1305, this book had been condemned as heretical by the
Bishop of Cambrai, Gui II. The Bishop ordered that the book be burned publicly, in her presence,
at Valenciennes.
Nevertheless, at this point, he spared Marguerite's life although he forbade her, under pain of
execution, from circulating her book or disseminating its doctrines. In spite of these threats, she
continued her work and was again brought before the Inquisitional authorities. On this occasion,
she was called before Gui's successor, Philippe de Marigny. This time, Marguerite was charged
with spreading her philosophy among the "simple folk," called Beghards, but again she escaped
death. Unwearied in her missionary zeal, she even had ventured to present the forbidden volume
of her writings to Jean, Bishop of Chlons, without suffering the penalty due. In 1308, she
extended her propaganda to Paris itself, and there she fell into the hands of the Dominican
Inquisitor Frre Guillaume of Paris, chaplain of the Pope and confessor to the king, before whom
she persistently refused to take the preliminary oath prerequisite to her examination. Until the
Beguine reached Paris, she had crossed the path of the Episcopate only. In Paris, it was the Papal
Inquisitor who supervised the process. It has been suggested that the Papal Inquisitor may have
been too preoccupied with the affair of the Templars to give Marguerite prompt justice. Whatever
the reason, for eighteen months she lay in the Inquisitorial dungeons under the consequent
excommunication. This alone would have sufficed for her conviction as an "impenitent heretic".
Instead of calling an assembly of experts, as was the custom in Languedoc, the Inquisitor laid
a written statement of the case before the canonists of the University of Paris. The Inquisitor
related in his decision how he spent many months gathering evidence against the Beguine,
examining her life and acquainting himself with her relationship to the bishops of Cambrai and
Chlons. On April 30, 1310, the Inquisitor ordered the theologians of Paris to examine
Marguerite's book. Their report states the book disclosed several articles that were adjudged
heretical. In this report, she was said to teach, for example, that a "soul which annihilates itself in
the love of its Creator can without regret accord to nature everything it desires." This pantheistic
doctrine caused Marguerite to be called the first French representative of the Sisters of the Free
Spirit. It was further claimed she had translated the Scriptures, a frequent accusation against the
Beguines, with the result of introducing errors. It was also alleged that she regarded the sacrifices
at the altar with insufficient veneration. She appears to have incurred episcopal and inquisitional
hostility not only by circulating her book in Latin, which contained views which the Inquisitors
considered erroneous, but also because her teachings had spread among the "simple folk," which
leads one to conclude that the writings probably were written in the vernacular. A treatise written
in French called The Mirror of Simple Souls is attributed to her and it enjoyed some currency
even in Italy.
On May 30, 1310, the canonists of the University of Paris unanimously decided that if the
facts as stated were true, she was a "relapsed heretic," to be relaxed to the secular arm.
Roslyn M. Frank Page 6 3/13/2011

Accordingly, on May 31, she was handed over to the civil authorities, with the customary
adjuration for mercy and was burned the next day in the Place de Grve. According to reports,
she conducted herself with such resignation and courage that she moved the crowds to tears.
Some fifty-five years after the death of Marguerite, we once again see the burning of a
Beguine, this time in Germany. The incident testifies to the fact the underground movement was
still functioning, in spite of increasing opposition on the part of episcopal and inquisitional
authorities. In June of 1366, the Dominican Inquisitor Henry de Agro, Inquisitor of the province
of Mainz, brought a case against Metza von Westhoven, a Beguine of Strasbourg, some seventy
or eighty years of age. According to the rules of the Inquisition, this time the judgment was
rendered by an assembly of experts, who condemned her to burn at the stake as a "relapsed
heretic". Nearly half a century earlier she had been tried and had abjured in the persecution by
Bishop John of Zurich. From these facts, one might hypothesize she had spent some fifty years in
the underground part of the movement. One wonders how the individual Beguines reacted to
seeing themselves and their sisters burned, exiled, and imprisoned for such a prolonged period of
time. The intense persecution these women suffered at the hands of Dominican Inquisitors and
other ecclesiastical authorities sheds light on other facets of the Beguine movement. Prior to the
publication of the Clementine decrees in 1317, it is clear the Beguine life style and title carried
with them a particular status in society. The profession of Beguine appears to have been more
socially significant than that of a penitent or tertiary. At times, individual Beguines seem to have
enjoyed a status even higher than that accorded to members of the recognized clergy.
This prestige may be due in part to the fact Beguines were particularly esteemed as healers,
prophetesses and oracles. The revelations and advice of these Beguines were sought by clerics
and common folk alike. With full confidence in the efficacy of the Beguines' spiritual
intercession, people would consult these laywomen in order to obtain cures for body and soul, to
be preserved from danger, to receive supernatural favors, and to be expiated from sin. The fact
women who had never formally professed vows and belonged to no church hierarchy were
venerated in this manner may have caused concern. This may also explain why the Beguines
came to be called "heretics." They were operating in direct opposition to established ecclesiastical
authorities who clearly did not wish to tolerate active female participation in religious matters.
The prerogatives accorded to the Beguines by the general populace as well as the aristocracy
would have made them compete directly with the clergy by appearing to usurp the very powers
vested in the priests themselves.
The prophetic talents attributed to the Beguines often enabled them to exercise immense
power, for they were consulted concerning the founding of monasteries, as well as to determine
the guilt or innocence of queens and kings. At the end of the thirteenth century, the Beguines of
Nivelle were particularly esteemed by the French court for their oracular abilities. Mary of
Brabant, second wife of Phillip III, king of France, was accused of poisoning Louis, the eldest son
of her husband by his previous marriage to Isabella de Aragon. In order to determine the truth of
what happened, Phillip dispatched an abbot and a bishop to go consult a Beguine of Nivelles, who
had a reputation for supernatural gifts, but who was "not approved by any religion." The Beguine
ruled in favor of the queen, judging her innocent of the crime, and the queen in return
demonstrated her gratitude with a generous endowment to the great Beguinage of Nivelles.
In conclusion, one sees that in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and
Sicily, the Beguine movement touched the lives of thousands of women from all classes of
Roslyn M. Frank Page 7 3/13/2011

society. Its history is intimately connected with the rise of medieval industry, health care, and the
education of women throughout Europe. By the end of the fifteenth century, after the destruction
of the movement, the Beguine life style no longer was viewed as an acceptable alternative.
Women could no longer live together freely for mutual support without being suspected of evil
doing. After hundreds of years of persecution and suspicion of heresy, any unattached woman,
young or old, who appeared to espouse the Beguine life style, was looked upon as a menacing
being, almost as if she were a "witch." In the smaller towns, the populace often arbitrarily burned
Beguines and women appearing to be Beguines, without waiting for the arrival of the Inquisition,
such was their fear and antipathy toward them.

The Business of Persecution

In Germany, by end of the latter half of the 14th century the Inquisition had established its initial
financial base through proceeds gained by the confiscation of the Beguinages as well as the
properties of the Beghards. It was mainly this confiscation which enabled the Dominican
Inquisitors to first establish themselves in this part of Europe where, during the 16th and 17th
centuries, subsequent Inquisitors would dedicate themselves to exterminating thousands of female
"heretics," to whom over time the Inquisitors had come to assign an even more emotionally-laden
and negatively charged term: "witch." The following description reveals the intricate manner in
which these confiscations served to consolidate the economic power base of the Inquisition in
Germany. In short, it deals with the nitty-gritty of the business of prosecution. The description
itself, reproduced in Lea (1888 [1958] II: 387-392], draws its sources primarily from the work of
J. L. Mosheim De Beghardis et Beguinabus Commentarius (Leipzig, 1790). In reproducing Leas
text I have followed his convention by indicating at the end of each paragraph his sources.
Thus far [until 1366] whatever hopes [to establish the office of the Inquisition firmly in
German lands] might have been based upon the zeal of Charles IV, had not been realized. He
seems to have taken no part in the efforts of the papacy, and without the imperial exequatur the
commissions issued to inquisitors had but moderate chance of enjoying the respect and obedience
of the prelates. In 1367 Urban V, returned to the work by commissioning two inquisitors for
Germany, the Dominican Louis of Willenberg and Walter Kerlinger, with powers to appoint
vicars. The Beghards were the only heretics alluded to as the object of their labors; prelates and
magistrates were ordered to lend their efficient assistance and to place all prisons at their disposal
until the German Inquisition should have places of its own. This was the most comprehensive
measure as yet taken for the organization of the Holy Office in Germany, and it proved the
entering wedge, though at first Charles IV does not seem to have responded. The choice of
inquisitors was shrewd. Of Friar Louis we hear little, but Friar Walter (variously named Kerling,
Kerlinger, Krelinger, and Keslinger) was a man of influence, a chaplain and favorite of the
emperor, who had the temper of a prosecutor and the opportunity and ambition to magnify his
office. In 1369 he became Dominican Provincial of Saxony, and continued to perform the
duplicate function until his death in 1373. He lost no time in getting to work, for in 1368 we hear
of a Beghard burned in Erfurt, and to his unwearied exertions is generally attributed the temporary
suppression of the sect.5

5
Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 335-337; Chron. Magdeburg. (Leibniti Scriptt R. Brunsv. III. 749); Herm.
Korneri Chron. (Eccard. II 1113); Cat. Praedic. Prov. Saxon (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 344). Bhmer,
Regest. Karl IV. No. 4761. [Lea 1958 II: 388ff].
Roslyn M. Frank Page 8 3/13/2011

Still there was at first no appearance of any hearty support from either the spiritual or temporal
potentates of Germany, and without this the business of persecution could only languish. When,
however, the emperor made his Italian expedition, in 1368, the opportunity was utilized to arouse
him to a sense of his neglected duties. It was rare indeed for an emperor to have the cordial
support of the papacy, and we may reasonable assume that Charles was made to see that through
their union the Inquisition might be rendered serviceable to both in breaking down the
independence of the great prince-bishops. Thus it happened that when that institution was falling
into desuetude in the lands of its birth, it was for the first time regularly organized in Germany and

which excel all previous legislation in the unexampled support accorded to inquisitors the
given a substantive existence. From Lucca, on June 9 and 10, 1369, the emperor issued two edicts

extravagance of their provisions probably furnishing a measure of the opposition to be overcome.

All prelates, princes and magistrates are ordered to expel and treat as outlaws the sect of Beghards
and Beguines, commonly known as Wilge Armen or Conventschwestern, who beg with the vainly
prohibited formula Brod durch Gott! At the command of Walter Kerlinger and his vicars or other
inquisitors, all who give alms to the proscribed class shall be arrested and so punished as to serve
as a terror to others. With special significance the prelates addressed and commanded to use their
powers for the extermination of heresy; in the strongest language, and under threats of condign
[sic] punishment to be visited on them in person and on their temporalities, they are ordered to
obey with zeal the commands of Friar Kerlinger, his vicars, and all other inquisitors as to the arrest
and safekeeping of heretics; they are to render all possible aid to the inquisitors, to receive and
treat them kindly and courteously, and furnish them with guards in their movements. Moreover, all
inquisitors are taken under the special imperial favor and protection. Moreover, all the powers,
privileges, liberties, and immunities granted to them by preceding emperors or by the rules of any
other land are conferred upon them, and confirmed notwithstanding any laws or customs to the
contrary. To enforce these privileges, two dukes (Saxony and Brunswick), two counts
(Schwartzenberg and Nassau), and two knights (Hanstein and Witzeleyeven) are appointed
conservators and guardians, with instructions to act whenever complaint is made to them by the
inquisitors. They shall see that one third of the confiscations of heretic Beghards and Beguines are
handed over to the Inquisition, and shall proceed directly and fearlessly, without appeal, against
any one impeding or molesting it in any manner, making examples of them, both in person and
property. Any contravention of the edict shall entail a mulet [fine] of one hundred marks, one half
payable to the fisc and one half to the party injured. Besides this, any one impeding or molesting
any of the inquisitors or their agents, directly or indirectly, openly or secretly, is declared
punishable with confiscation of all property for the benefit of the imperial treasury, and
deprivation of all honors, dignities, privileges and immunities.6
These portentous edicts provided for the personnel of the Inquisition and the exercise of its
powers, but to render it a permanent institution there were still lacking houses in which it could
hold its tribunals, and prisons in which to keep its captives. The imperial resources were not
adequate to this, and nothing was to be expected from the piety of princes and prelates. Somebody
must be despoiled for its benefitsomebody too defenceless [sic] to resist, yet possessed of
property sufficient to be tempting. These conditions were exactly filled by the orthodox Beghards
and Beguines, who, since their temporary persecution after the publication of the Clementines
[fifty years earlier], had continued to prosper and to enjoy the donations of the pious. They were
accordingly marked as the victims, and, a week after the issue of the edicts just described, another
was published in which these poor creatures are described as cultivating a sacrilegious poverty,
which they assert to be the most perfect form of life, and their communities, if left undisturbed,
will become seminaries of error. Moreover, the Inquisition has not house, domicile, or strong
tower for the detention of the accused and for the perpetual incarceration of those who adjure,
whereby many heretics remain unpunished and the seed of evil is scattered. Therefore the houses
of the Beghards are given to the Inquisition to be converted into prisons; those of the Beguines are

6
Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 343-355 [Lea 1958 II: 389ff].
Roslyn M. Frank Page 9 3/13/2011

ordered to be sold and the proceeds divided into thirds, one part being assigned to repairing roads
and the walls of the towns, another to be given to inquisitors, to be expended on pious uses, among
which is included the maintenance of prisoners. But three days notice is given to the victims prior
to expulsion from their homes.7
If the Inquisition could have been permanently established in Germany this unscrupulous
measure would have accomplished the object. What between the imperial favor and Kerlingers
energy it at last had a fair start. [...] As regards the seizure of the Beguinages, it was ruthlessly
carried out by Kerlinger. Those of Mhlhausen had been very flourishing, and on February 16,
1670, four of them were delivered by him to the magistrates to be converted to public
usesprobably the citys share of the plunder. It would seem, however, that obstacles were
thrown in his way. The jealousy of the bishops was not likely to look with favor upon its
permanent establishment of the Inquisition in their dioceses, with prisons and landed property that
would render it independent. Mosheim judiciously suggests that as these houses were benevolent
gifts for pious uses the bishops could assert them to be under their jurisdiction and not subject to
imperial edict; nobles and citizens, moreover, had been trained to regard their inoffensive inmates
with favor, and were not eager to share in the spoils. Whatever may have been their motives,
Kerlinger could not have found the way open to the general confiscation that he desired. In 1371
he was obliged to petition Gregory XL, reciting the existence of heretics called Beghards and
Beguines, and the imperial edict confiscating their conventicles, the confirmation of which he
desired. There was nothing to lead Gregory to suppose that there was in this anything but the well-
understood confiscation of heretical property, and he willingly gave the desired confirmation. 8
Thus, after a desultory struggle lasting for nearly a century and a half, the Inquisition finally
established itself in Germany as an organized body.
In summary, during the early Middle Ages, the Beguines enjoyed great prestige and were
viewed as very productive members of society. As the centuries passed, they were increasingly
marginalized by the dominant discourse until they moved fully into the category of
"undesirables" and either went underground or suffered severe consequences for their attempts to
practice their traditional trades: teaching, spinning, healing, and milling. Eventually, as has been
noted, they were driven from their work in the textile trades, also.

Partial Bibliography
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Frank, Roslyn M. Euskal Herriko Eginkizun Erligiosoaren Inguruko Azterketa Diakronikoa: Serora eta
bere laguntzaileak. In Miguel Angel Barcenilla, Roslyn M. Frank, Anne-Marie Lagarde, Isaure
Gratacos, Xabier Amuriza, Nejane Jurado, Marta Agirrezabala, Alizia Strtze, Arantxa Erasun and
Zirrilda, La mujer en Euskal Herria: Hacia un feminismo propio. Donostia: Basandere Argitaletxea,
2001, pp. 65-103. The English-language translation A Diachronic Analysis of the religious role of the
woman in Basque culture: The Serora and her Helpers" is available online:
http://uiowa.academia.edu/RoslynMFrank/Papers/462178/A_Diachronic_Analysis_of_the_Religious_
Role_of_the_Woman_in_Basque_culture_The_Serora_and_her_Helpers

7
Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 356-362. Mosheim suggests that the distinction between the houses of the
Beghards and the Beguines probably arose from the former being larger and situated in the cities, the latter
smaller, more numerous and scattered among the towns and villages [Lea 1958 II: 390ff.].
8
Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 364-366 [Lea 1958 II: 392ff].
Roslyn M. Frank Page 10 3/13/2011

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W. Etulain and William H. Jacobsen, Jr. (eds.), Anglo-American Contributions to Basque Studies:
Essays in Honor of Jon Bilbao. Desert Research Institute Publications in the Social Sciences 13. Reno:
University of Nevada Press, 1977. 153-160.

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Lerner, Robert E. 2006. [Book Review] Elizabeth Makowski. "A Pernicious Sort of Woman": Quasi-
Religious Women and Canon Lawyers in the Later Middle Ages. (Studies in Medieval and Early
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Belgian Scene. New Brunswick, N.Y.: Rutgers University Press, 1954.
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Bewegung am Rhein. Meisenheim, Germany: Verlag Anton Hain KG, 1960.
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Germany: Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing, 1894.
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