Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/367

 BEGHARDS AND BEGUINES. 35I The motives were numerous which impelled multitudes to de- sire a religious life without assuming the awful and irrevocable vows that cut them off absolutely from the world. This was es- pecially the case among women who chanced to be deprived of their natural guardians and who sought in those wild ages the protection which the Church alone could confer. Thus associa- tions were formed, originally of women, who simply promised chastity and obedience while they hved in common, who assisted either by labor or beggary in providing for the common support, who were assiduous in their religious observances, and who per- formed such duties of hospitality and of caring for the sick as their opportunities would allow. The :N'etherlands were the na- tive seat of this fruitful idea, and as early as 1065 there is a char- ter extant given by a convent of Beguines at Yilvorde, near Brus- sels. The drain of the crusades on the male population increased enormously the number of women deprived of support and pro- tection, and gave a corresponding stimulus to the growth of tlie Beguinages. In time men came to form similar associations, and soon Germany, France, and Italy became filled with them. To this contributed in no small degree the insane laudation of pov- erty by the Franciscans and the merit conceded to a fife of beo-- gary by the immense popularity of the Mendicant Orders. To who devoted themselves to the care of the sick and insane, and specially to the burial of the dead, supplying the funds partly by labor and partly by begging. The name was derived from the low and soft singing of the funeral chants" but they called themselves Alexians, from their patron, St. Alexis, and Cellites from dwell- ing in cells. They were also known as Matemans, and in Germany as Nollbru- der. The word Lollard gradually grew to have the significance of external sanctity covering secret license, and was promiscuously applied to all the mendi- cants outside of the regular Orders. The Cellite associations spread from the Netherlands through the Rhinelands and all over Germany. Constantly the subject of persecution, along with the Beghards, their value was recognized by the magistrates of the cities who endeavored to protect them. In 1472 Charles the Bold obtained from Sixtus IV. a bull receiving them into the recognized re- ligious orders, thus withdrawing them from episcopal jurisdiction ; and in 1506 Julius II. granted them special privileges. The associations of Alexian Brothers still exist, devoted to the care of the sick, and have flourishing hospitals in the United States, as well as in Europe. (Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 461,469.— Martini Append, ad Mosheim pp. 585-88.— Hartzheim IV. 625-6. — Addis & Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, New York, 1884, p. 886.)