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Appendix II: The Population of Select Court Beguinages
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Appendix II: The Population of Select Court Beguinages In Chapter 2, I reviewed data regarding the population of several beguinages. In some cases, that information is directly available from the sources or can be gathered with a few computations in a simple procedure; in others, we must combine several records that yield indirect evidence and are often difficult to interpret . The purpose of this appendix is to discuss and explain how population figures have been calculated in those more complex cases. 1. Bruges, Wijngaard (St. Elizabeth). Accounts books of the grand mistress and schola of Wijngaard in Bruges for the period between 1438–39 and 1453–54 (AOCMWB, Begijnhof, H2, and Diversen, Rekeningen), recorded expenditures for newentries (professions) of, and funeral services for, beguines in the court. Combined with charter records and the accounts of the Guild of the Virgin Mary, which registered most deaths in the beguinage between 1454 and 1467, they yield the names of 213 beguines living in the beguinage between 1439 and 1454. Like Desmet, ‘‘Het Begijnhof,’’ 244, who first analyzed these records, I do not think many beguines residing at the Wijngaard between 1439 and 1454 are missing from the list: only those beguines who professed before 1438–39 and died after 1467 or who left the community voluntarily or by expulsion (events that would not be recorded by any of these materials), would be absent (Table A). Population of Select Court Beguinages 305 Table A: Minimum Population Figures for the Beguinage of the Wijngaard in Bruges, 1439–55 Years Number of Beguines – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – The average population in 1439–54 was 144.56; the average number of professions per year was 3.8; deaths in the community were recorded at an average of 5.25 per year. The average number of professions each year, expressed in relation to a population of 100, was therefore 2.6 (or 2.6 ‘‘percent’’).The discrepancy between professions and deaths probably explains the slow decline of the overal population figures, but other factors may of course have played a role. This profession ratio approximates that registered in institutions of religious women with a comparable social background during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Windesheimer nunnery of St. Ursula of Louvain, which had an average population of 46.5 sisters between 1420 and 1520, had, on average , 1.25 professions per year in that period, or a profession ratio of 2.7 percent per year (Ernest Persoons, ‘‘De bewoners van de kloosters Betlehem te Herent en Ten Troon te Grobbendonk,’’ Arca Lovaniensis 5 [1976]: 221–40, at 238). At Louvain’s Groot-Ziekengasthuis, the average annual number of professions between 1500 and 1599 was 0.73; there were then on average 22.6 sisters, which suggests a profession ratio of 3.2 percent per year (Leo Van Buyten, ‘‘Kwantitatieve bijdrage tot de studie van de ‘Kloosterdemografie’ in het Leuvense. De priorij ’s-Hertogeneiland te Gempe, het Zwartzusterskloosteren de communauteit van het Groot-Ziekengasthuis te Leuven (16de–18de eeuw),’’ ibid., 241–76, at 249 and 268). [18.116.42.208] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 00:25 GMT) 306 Appendix II 2. Brussels, Wijngaard In an undated letter to lady Beatrice of Kortrijk (1225–88), former countess of Flanders, a certain brother Amalricus informed her of new liturgical services and prayers to be conducted by various religious institutions in Brabant for the soul of her deceased husband, William of Dampierre, the son of Countess Margaret of Flanders, who was briefly associated with Margaret’s rule until his death in May or June 1251 (RAG, SG, no. 400, ed. H. Kervyn de Lettenhove, ‘‘Béatrix de Courtrai,’’ Bulletins de l’Académie royale de Belgique 22 [1855], 1: 382–400, at 395–96, emended below). It contains oblique references to the population of the beguinages of Brussels and Louvain. The relevant section of the letter reads: Illustri matrone domine B[eatrici] juniori Flandrie comitisse, suus frater Amalricus suas orationes, se ipsum et si quid poterit amplius. Nobilitati vestre, domina mi, significo quod in crastino postquam a vobis recessi karissimo quondam domino meo a singulis beginis de Vinea juxta Bruxellam .vij. psalmos vel officium defunctorum, que ad duo fere milia estimantur, et a singulis sacerdotibus ordinum Fratrum Minorum, Carmelitarum, Saccitarum ibidem missas singulas procuravi. In crastino vero Palmarum idem a singulis beginis de Hovis juxta Lovanium et de Sancta Gertrude ibidem similiter procuravi; et a sacerdotibus ordinum Predicatorum, Fratrum Minorum, Augustinorum, missas similiter singulares; de abbatiis duabus ibidem o...