Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/796

BEGONIA. into the following sections: Fibrous-rooted or winter- flowering, semi-tuberous or Soeotran, tu- berous or summer-flowering, and rex or orna- mental-leaved varieties. Many cultural vari- eties and hybrids of each are known to the flor- ist, some of the hybrids being plants of great beauty, as the 'Gloire de Lorraine," the double- llowered, and some of the single-flowered tuber- ous-rooted varieties, etc. The 'Rex Begonias' are of note on account of- the remarkable coloration of the leaves in some varieties. They are origi- nally of Asiatic origin, and have by crossing and selection yielded many fine forms. The Soeo- tran species have peltate leaves, those of the others being all unequal-sided. The cultivation of begonias was begun about 1777, and there are now hundreds of named varieties of recog- nized merit. Of rather easy cultivation, they do not seem to withstand the burning svniimer sun and frequent droughts of the United States, and they grow better as house-plants than they do in the open. See Plate of Greenhouse Pl. ts.

BEG-SHEHR, beg'sher', or BEI-SHEHR  (named from the city on its shores; Turk, beg, bey -f- Pers. ,Shehr, dwelling). A fresh-water lake in latitude 37° 45' N. and longitude 31° 30' E., in the western part of the Province of Konieh, Asiatic Turkey, and supposed to be the ancient Caralitis. It is about 20 miles long, and from 5 to 10 miles broad, and is connected by a short stream of the same name with the Lake of Soghla.

BEGUINES, bA-genz', BEGUI'NÆ, or BEGUT'TÆ (ME. he(/i/ne, bi/riyii, OF. beguine, Med. Lat. bcguina, bcghina, from Lambert le Begue). The name of the earliest of all non-monastic societies of women united for pious purposes, dating from the Twelfth Century, and in all probability founded by Lambert le B6gue (died 1187), i.e. the stanunerer, a priest of Liege, Belgium. The po])ular tradition of Brabant since the Seventeenth Century, that a Saint Begga, daughter of Pepin, and sister of Saint Ger- trude, founded in 696 the first sisterhood of Beguines at Namur, has no historical basis. An account of their establishment at Vilvorde, near Brussels, is also demonstrably unauthentic. The Beguines were not restricted by vows, nor did they follow the rules of any order, but were united under a sv.perieure for the exercise of piety and benevolence, and lived generally in sepa- rate small cottages, which, collectively, formed the hcgiiwgiuin. or 'vineyard,' as it was Scripturally termed. Their establishments were often en- riched by liberal donations. A church, a hospi- tal, and a house of reception or common enter- tainment generally belonged to every oomnumity of Beguines. The sisters were distinguished from the rest of the laity only by their diligence and devotedness, piety, modesty, and zeal for the purity of youthful education. Societies of Beguines flourished greatly during the Twelfth and Thirteenth centuries, when they spread them- selves over France and Gemiany. Among the most important were those in Hamburg, Liibeck, Eat- isbon, Magdeburg, Leipzig. Goslar, Rochlitz, and Gijrlitz. As the pietists of the Jliddle Ages, the Beguines were often subjected to persecutions by the mendicant orders of friars; but, on ac- count of their practical usefulness, were shel- tered by the Pope and Councils, as well as by secular authorities. In the Tliirteenth and Fourteenth centuries, the Beguines became united with the persecuted spiritualists among the Franciscans, and with the sect of the 'brethren and sisters of the free spirit.' Hence arose certain heresies, which, of course, occa- sioned interference on the part of the Inquisi- tion; and on account of certain immoralities, a synod held at Fritzlar required that all candi- dates must be forty years old before they could enter a society of Beguines. These sisterhoods maintained their position in Germany and the Netherlands longer than in other countries. In Holland, they existed at the close of the Eigh- teenth Century, and in the present day we find here and there so-called Beguinen-hiiuser ; two still exist at Amsterdam and Breda, in Germany; but the}' are now nothing more than almshouses for poor spinsters. In Belgium, at Ghent, there are two e.xtensive Beguinages, Le Grand Be- guinage de Saint Elizabeth and Le Petit Beg3'n- hoven ; the former dates from 1234 and was transferred from near the Porte de Bruges to its present site in the northeast of the town in 1874. It contains about 600 sisters, besides 200 locataires, or occasional inmates. Their houses form a kind of distinct little town, which, though environed by a wall and a moat, is ojien to the visits of strangers. Le Petit Beguinage, in a different suburl), contains about 400 mem- bers and is also inclosed and has many separate houses. It is conducted similarly. Lace-making is one of the industries carried on. There are within the inclosure eighteen convents in which the j'ounger sisters live ; the older ones live in little houses containing two or four occupants. Living here a life of retirement and piety, the Beguines in their simple dark dresses go out as nurses to the hospital, and jierform other acts of kindness among the poor. As above stated, they ai'e under no monastic vow, but, having at- tached themselves to the sisterhood, it is their boast that none is known to have quitted it. Each one paj's an entrance fee and yearly board. There are houses of Beguines also at Antwerp and Mechlin, and in 18.54 one was established in France, at Castelnaudarj', in the Department of Aude. Consult Baedeker, Belgium and Holland, under "Ghent" (Leipzig, 1897).

Similar societies of laymen appeared in Ger- many, the Netherlands, and the south of France in the beginning of the Thirteenth Century, and were kno«m in Germany as Beghards (Ger. begehren, to seek with importunity), in France as Beguines, and in Italy as bizachi and bocasoti; but they never obtained the reputation enjoyed by the Beguine sisterhood. Toward the end of the I hirteenth Century they were commonly stigma- tized as bans g'ir<;ons, honi pneri, 'ministers' men.' 'bedesmen,' 'pietists,' 'vagabonds' — contemptuous titles, which expressed the low estimation in which they were held. On account of heretics of all sorts retreating into these half-spiritual com- munities, they were subjected to severe persecu- tions after 1307, and were gradually dispersed, or joined the orders of Dominicans and Fran- ciscans. In the Netherlands, where they had preserved a better character than elsewhere, they maintained their ground longer, and were pro- tected by Pope Innocent IV. (1245), in Brus- sels by Cardinal Hugo (1254), and in Lifige by Pope L'rban IV. (1261) ; but their communities disappeared in the Fourteenth Century. Con- talt: Mosheim, De Beghardis et Beguinabus