Cities of ladies : Beguine communities in the medieval low countries, 1200-1565 / Walter Simons.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Simons, Walter, 1956-

Contributor:

University of Pennsylvania. Press.

Series:

Middle Ages series

Middle ages series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Beguines--Benelux countries--History.

Beguines.

Monasticism and religious orders for women--Benelux countries--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Monasticism and religious orders for women.

Church history.

History.

Benelux countries--Church history.

Benelux countries.

Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Church history--Middle Ages.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 335 pages) : illustrations, maps.

Other Title:

Penn Press e-books.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2001]

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

text file

Summary:

In the Early Thirteenth Century, semireligious communities of women began to form in the cities and towns of the Low Countries. These beguines, as they came to be known, led lives of contemplation and prayer and earned their livings as laborers or teachers.

In Cities of Ladies, the first history of the beguines available in English in almost fifty years, Walter Simons traces the transformation of informal clusters of single women to large beguinages. These veritable single-sex cities offered lower and middle class women an alternative to both marriage and convent life. While the region's expanding urban economies initially valued the communities for their cheap labor supply, severe economic crises by the fourteenth century restricted women's opportunities for work. Church authorities had also grown less tolerant of religious experimentation, hailing as subversive some aspects of beguine mysticism. To Simons, however, such accusations of heresy against the beguines were largely generated from a profound anxiety about their intellectual ambitions and their claims to a chaste life outside the cloister. Under ecclesiastical and economic pressure, beguine communities dwindled in size and influence, surviving only by adopting a posture of restraint and submission to church authorities.

Based on the archival records left by some 300 beguine communities, Cities of Ladies illuminates the context of beguine writings, which are considered among the most significant documents of medieval women's mysticism. In updating and expanding our knowledge of the beguines, Simons makes a significant contribution to the history of urbanization, religious change, and gender in medieval Europe.

Contents:

1 Women, Work, and Religion in the Southern Low Countries 1

The Southern Low Countries in the High and Late Middle Ages 1

Household Structure and Gender 7

Religious Renewal and Dissent Before the Beguines 12

Women as Reformers and Heretics 19

Lambert le Begue 24

2 The Formation of Beguinages 35

Informal Communities 36

Formal Communities 48

3 The Contemplative and the Active Life 61

The Withdrawal from the World 61

Charity 76

Teaching 80

Manual Work 85

Saints and Workers 87

4 The Social Composition of Beguine Communities 91

Social and Economic Status 91

Patrons of the Beguinages 104

The Success of a Formula 109

5 Conflict and Coexistence 118

The Debate 121

The Inquiries 132

The Aftermath 135

Appendix I. Repertory of Beguine Communities 253

Appendix II. Population of Select Court Beguinages 304.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-251) and index.

Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Simons, Walter. Cities of ladies.

ISBN:

0585436312

9780585436319

9780812200126

0812200128

OCLC:

51478963

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.