The modern-day nuns living in the Belgian Begijnhofs are the inheritors of a long tradition of Women's Christian Mysticism which may have its roots in the mediæval Minnemystiek, or Love Mystic tradition. The surviving Begijnhofs are wonderfully peaceful places. Brugge has one of the largest, with an interior courtyard surrounded by the small houses, now inhabited by Benedictine nuns who took over in 1937. Mechelen has two, and another, at Dendermonde, which had fallen into disrepair, is gradually being restored by the local community.
This relatively modern stained glass from Brugge retains something of the mystical religious atmosphere of the Begijn way of life. The order started during the crusades when 'desolate' women, mostly widows and orphans, started to devote themselves to prayer and good work with orphans and the poor, without taking vows. Originally they lived as urban hermits, but gradually the idea of grouping their cabins together gave birth to the Begijnhof. The earliest in Mechelen was founded in 1207 - forty years earlier than the Brugge Begijnhof.
There are among us women whom we have no idea what to call, ordinary women or nuns, because they live neither in the world nor out of it.
Gilbert of Tournai, 1274
In 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a bull, "Gloriam virginalem", which formally brought "chaste virgins in Teutonia" under his protection. With official backing, the Begijn movement thrived, and within its boundaries embraced women from all walks of life. There was no common rule, every community was complete in itself and fixed its own order of living. The name Begijn may derive from the Flemish "beghen" to pray, or from "Albigensian": this latter is a widely propounded theory. Certainly the name was sometimes used in a pejorative sense and certainly some Begijns were denounced as heretics, but to what extent the Begijn movement was actually heretical is unclear.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, much as today, "heresy" was "a religious point of view with which my church disagrees" and "immorality" meant "adhering to a different code of morals to my own". This makes it difficult to determine which tracts are genuinely describing aspects of the Begijn way of life and which are just tales which had earlier been used against Jews and would later be used against witches. The Begijns were adult women, not wholly in the secular world or wholly out of it. It was this which gave the main thrust to their spirituality: neither nun nor wife, they could adopt the best aspects of both. But, they lived in a society where men found women's sexuality threatening. Naturally, they were associated with prostitutes and other images which the Church found it easy to condemn.
Equally, the Begijns were drawn from a Christian background that was overlaid with folk-religion. It would not be surprising if, for some of them, the divine union of a female soul with a male God became a mystical dualism or pantheism. Their mysticism combined the practice of ascetic, contemplative devotion and the attainment of personal union with the divine. Occasionally, this may have resulted in the development of opinions which were "not in harmony with the Catholic Faith".
Why not ride, longing, through the storm,
trusting in the power of Love,
aspiring to the cult of Love?
Hadewijch of Brabant
Begijn spirituality's greatest writers
Their mystical writings combine the biblical imagery of the "Song of Songs", describing the love between a Bride and her Bridegroom, with the language of courtly love. The Song of Songs can be interpreted allegorically, but I have always found it difficult to read passages such as chapter 5 verses 4-5:
"My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock."
wholly in terms of allegory. Likewise, Hadewijch's visions can be deeply erotic, as with this vision of the sacrament:
"...then he came in the form and clothing of a Man, as he was on the day when he gave us his Body for the first time. As a human man, wonderful and beautiful, with glorious face, he came to me as humbly as anyone who belongs completely to another. Then he gave himself in the shape of the Sacrament, in its outward form, in the customary fashion; and then he gave me from the chalice, to drink from in form and taste, in the customary fashion. Then he came to me as himself, took me entirely in his arms and pressed me to him. My whole body felt his, in true bliss, in accordance with the desire of my heart and my humanity. So I was wholly satisfied and fully transported."
or, Beatrix's description of the rapture of union with Love, from "The Seven Ways of Divine Love"
"She experiences for herself this vast abundance of salvation. She is entirely consumed with total fullness of heart and She loses Her mind completely in Love. Her heart melts completely, She cannot feel Her body and she is totally powerless. So far overtaken by Love is she, that she hardly can control herself, often having no control over her limbs or senses.
Then, like a barrel full to the brim, if She is suddenly stirred up, she will overflow and flood immediately. She will be completely overcome by the fullness of Her heart, so that she has no choice but to lose herself completely."
Various restrictions were placed upon the Begijns and by 1300, the calling had become similar to traditional monasticism. Most Begijns lived communally in a Begijnhof, following a strict rule and requiring permission to leave. However, a few Begijns continued to assert their autonomy and freedom of movement. One was Marguerite Porete, a French mystic who was burned as an heretic in 1310.
She was called before the inquisitors on suspicion of promoting the heresy of the Free Spirit. This was the belief that it is possible for a human being to attain spiritual perfection in the present life, and that once an individual has attained such a state there can be no sin. The inquisitors equated the Free Spirit heresy with all Begijns. In 1312, the Council of Vienna formally condemned the Heresy of the Free Spirit and the Begijn way. Pope Clement V's decree, "Cum de quibusdam mulieribus", censured women "commonly known as Begijns".
After an outcry about this general censure, Pope John XXII attempted to clarify the definition. A "good" Begijn was a woman who stayed in her house and did not dispute about the Trinity - someone completely different from the original Begijns. After a few years it was felt that they had reformed, and in 1321 they were allowed to resume their way of life. But it is clear that by then, the way of life of the Begijn was vastly different from that of a century earlier. The Begijnhofs in Belgium had a revival in the seventeenth century. In 1969, there were eleven Begijnhofs in Belgium and two in Holland.
Notes: It's normally accepted that the formative writers were Beatrix of Nazareth (ca 1200 - 1268), Mechthild of Magdeburg (ca 1212 - ca 1282), Hadewijch of Brabant, and Marguerite Porete (died 1310). I'll try to put some links up in a bit...