The Beguines of Medieval Paris: Gender, Patronage, and Spiritual Authority

Introduction

introduction in everything a Beguine says listen only to good Whatever happens in her life it is religious. her word is prophecy; if she laughs, it is amiability; if she weeps, it is devotion; if she sleeps, she is ravished; if she dreams, it is a vision; if she lies, think nothing of it. if the Beguine marries That is her conversion: since her vows, her profession Are not for life. Now she weeps and then she prays And then she will take a husband: Now she is Martha, now she is Mary Now she is chaste, now she marries But do not speak ill of her: The king will not tolerate it. —rutebeuf, “li diz des beguines” Not long after returning from his first crusade in 1254, louis iX (r. 1226–1270) founded a house on the eastern end of Paris for “honest women who are called beguines.”1 Prior to gaining this royal recognition and patronage, beguines— lay religious women who took personal, informal vows of chastity and pursued a life of contemplative prayer and active service in the world—were a 2 introduction significant and widely recognized phenomenon in the bustling streets and marketplaces of medieval Paris. Never canonically recognized as religious in the strict sense of the word, beguines did not follow an approved rule, did not live in convents, and did not give up their personal property.2 They were free to abandon their religious vocation at any time, since it was not enforced by any binding monastic vow. Nevertheless, they were generally recognized as “religious women.” dressed in humble garb evocative of habits and publicly pursuing a “more perfect” Christian life, they provoked admiration in some, hostility in others, and bewilderment in many. As the Parisian satirist rutebeuf complained, the woman who adopted the beguine life could pursue charitable action in the world (a spiritual path represented by Martha in the gospel of luke) or engage in contemplation (the path represented by her sister Mary); she could espouse celibacy one year and marry the next if it suited her.3 On the other hand, admirers such as robert of sorbon (d. 1274) noted that beguines exhibited far more devotion to god than even the cloistered, since they voluntarily pursued a religious life without vows, while living in the midst of the world’s temptations. The Franciscan theologian gilbert of Tournai, a contemporary of robert as well as a regent master in theology at Paris, wrote of the beguines, “There are among us women whom we have no idea what to call, religious or lay, because they live neither in the world nor removed from it.”4 Yet, it was the flexibility and dynamism of the beguine life that encouraged thousands of women all over medieval europe to take it up in the first place. inspired by the new apostolic piety of the thirteenth century, with its emphasis on poverty, preaching, and imitation of Christ, beguines found ways to pursue their spiritual ambitions, despite injunctions against women ’s participation in these central features of the vita apostolica. gathering in households or joining formal beguine institutions (known as beguinages), they worked and prayed, engaged with theological questions, bought and sold property, maintained ties with their families, and utilized their personal resources to aid their fellow beguines. Moreover, with its pursuit of both the active and the contemplative modes of religiosity in the world, the beguine life resonated with medieval Parisians at all levels. King louis iX himself experienced the challenge of living a religious life in the world despite the mockery and ridicule with which observable expressions of piety were often met. his commitment to supporting beguines was inspired not only by his personal admiration for the vita apostolica but also by a desire to support new religious opportunities for the women of his realm. Clerical observers, 3 introduction particularly in the schools of medieval Paris where gilbert of Tournai himself was trained, took up ideas about beguines in discussions of a range of issues, from the professional to the pastoral. robert of sorbon, for example, claimed that beguines were illuminated by the fire of charity and worked more to save the souls of their fellow Christians than did trained theologians. robert’s colleague, William of saint-Amour (d. 1272), however, targeted beguines as “silly women” and frauds in his attacks on the mendicant orders during the secular-mendicant conflict of the 1250s. Beguines...