Essay Series 2.4: Some women had economic independence during Europe’s Middle Ages.

The Middle Ages in Europe⁹⁹ began after the Roman Empire broke apart and ended with the beginning of the Renaissance as it spread across Europe. During the Middle Ages, a middle class of merchants formed along with money economies, and lay people began taking on more of a role in religious life.¹⁰⁰

During the Middle Ages, women were merchants, textile makers, book illustrators, and ran shops.¹⁰¹ They also worked with men at building sites. Women expanded their roles when European men began departing in waves for Christian military campaigns¹⁰² with the goal of “liberating” the “Holy Land.”¹⁰³ This exodus of men from about 1100 to 1300 CE led to women having to take over some of their work, such as farming and property management.¹⁰⁴ Many men never came back.

The Beguines’ Independent Communities

The Beguines took available opportunities for independence. They were women who chose to worship, live, and work together and to be chaste while doing so. The Beguine communities began forming in parts of Europe around 1200 CE, and some lasted for hundreds of years. They arose in present-day Scandinavia, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, and Germany.¹⁰⁵

Women in Beguine communities could be single, widowed, or married. Those who had children before joining these communities raised their children there. Women who were old or poor lived there, as did country women who came to towns and cities for jobs.¹⁰⁶

Beguines lived by themselves or in communities, which ranged in size from a house for several women to a walled community of townhouses with over 1,000 Beguines. Experts have identified 111 medieval Beguine communities in Belgium alone.¹⁰⁷

These communities were largely non-hierarchical and created their own rules about how to live together. The rules governed worship and how to leave the community. Women had to remain unmarried while they were Beguines and could leave their communities at any time for any reason. Sometimes women were able to join the Beguines while separated from their husbands.¹⁰⁸

Beguine communities were economically self-sufficient and did good works. Beguines owned property, collected rents, operated small businesses, engaged in finance, and sometimes were registered merchants or textile producers. They visited the sick and dying, bringing food, health care, and basic sanitation. Beguines also cared for outcasts, such as lepers and sex workers. Beguines educated themselves and children.¹⁰⁹

Backlash Against the Beguines

The Beguines experienced backlash for several reasons. Merchants envied their business success and feared competition. The Roman Catholic Church opposed them because Beguines spoke independently about their relationship with God, and people left their assets to these women. People did so partly because the Beguines cared for the dying. Many Beguine communities suffered from false accusations of sexual impropriety because society considered single women to be immoral. Also, Beguines helped sex workers to establish new lives away from this type of work.¹¹⁰

Some Beguines died as a result of the backlash. Marguerite de Porete was a Beguine who suffered death by burning in Paris in 1310 because of her “heretical” work. She had written a mystical religious book called the Mirror of Simple Souls.¹¹¹ The thesis of this work is that nothing separates a person’s soul from God. Love is the basis of this relationship. She asserted that the Church isn’t necessary for a direct relationship with God.¹¹²

The Roman Catholic Church suppressed the Beguines. For example, in 1311, the Church condemned the Beguines because they weren’t part of the Church’s formal structure. Also, the powerful aristocratic and church-based elites tried to control the Beguines by requiring them to join religious orders. In the 1500s, the Spanish Inquisition suppressed the Beguines (Beatas in Spanish) due to their independent prayer and ministries.¹¹³

While religion played a role in the suppression of the Beguines, in my opinion, the larger context was that elite men wanted to maintain control of women. The societies men dominated couldn’t tolerate the Beguines living independently.

Beguines in Decline

The number of Beguine communities decreased in the 1400s and 1500s as Beguines joined religious orders or their communities dissolved. Some of the larger communities survived into the 20th century. And in the 21st century, over 100 groups of women have adopted the Beguine approach to service in North America and Europe.¹¹⁴

Reflections

Beguines took advantage of the spiritual and economic opportunities available to them and created thriving communities that did many good works. These included helping poor people and sex workers to have better lives. These independent communities could serve as role models for women today.

Backlash occurred due to the Beguines’ success and men’s anger at women’s independence. In fact, the Beguines were rivals to men in terms of economic, religious, and charitable achievements.

Women creating their own spaces and successes in the Middle Ages is consistent with independent women in some countries deciding to live their lives without men as partners. This is true in present-day South Korea’s 4B movement. Many Korean women see serious disadvantages to being wives and mothers. Like the Beguines, many younger Korean women are choosing not to be in traditional marriages or to have families.¹¹⁵ There is increasing discussion of women in the United States remaining single to avoid the disadvantages they can experience during marriage.

What kinds of backlashes have you observed after women make social and economic progress?