Not nuns but close…

I’ve often thought that the life of an average medieval woman would have been really awful. Legally being the property of first your father then your husband, no reliable birth control, dying in childbirth, and all the hard work in between. No thanks.

But I recently came across a group of women who actually did have agency in their lives, and choices to marry or not. In his book “Edge of the World, a cultural history of the North Sea and the transformation of Europe,” Michael Pyle has a chapter devoted to the Beguines.

Beguines lived in semi-monastic communities, but did not take any kind of religious vows. They promised not to marry as long as they lived as Beguines, and they were able to leave any time. They were most active for 300 years in the later medieval period, from the 13th to the 16th centuries.

The whole movement started in the Low Countries when, around the 12th century, some women chose to live alone and devote themselves to prayer and service without actually taking any vows. Their numbers grew, and they mostly lived in communities in towns where they would care for the poor or sick.

They were not nuns, and could leave any time. But they wanted to pursue a life of prayer, though they did not live in convents, and they didn’t give up any property or take vows of poverty.

Several of the communities grew to thousands of women, like the one in Ghent. In Paris the community had about 400 women at once. In general, people supported the women, but some were resentful at how they seemed to have it both ways – the bonus of keeping wealth and not having to take vows while having the seeming protection that came with being a nun.

I think it must have been a pretty decent life, and were I a medieval woman, I’d definitely be looking them up! Also, I don’t know why they haven’t been written about very much. They seem fascinating. Definitely an area for further study and investigation!