noun
definition
A ballroom dance, similar to a slow rumba, originally from French West Indies and popularized abroad largely through the song "Begin the Beguine"; the music for the dance.
Examples of beguines in a Sentence
In 1322 some prisoners declared to the inquisitor Bernard Gui at Toulouse that the Franciscan order was divided into three sections - the Conventuals, who were allowed to retain their real and personal property; the Spirituals or Beguines, who were at that time the objects of persecution; and the Fraticelli of Sicily, whose leader was Henry of Ceva (see Gui's Practica Inquisitionis, v.).
The lay societies of the Beghards and the Beguines (for men and women respectively) date from the end of the 12th century, and soon became extremely popular both in the Low Countries and on the Rhine.
In the 15th century a legend arose that both name and organization were traceable to St Begga, daughter of Pippin of Landen, who consequently in 1630 was chosen by the Beguines as the patron saint of their association.
In 1630 a professor of Louvain, Erycius Puteanus (van Putte), published a treatise, De Begginarum apud Belgas instituto et nomine suiragium, in which he produced three documents purporting to date from the i ith and 12th centuries, which seemed conclusively to prove that the Beguines existed long before Lambert le Begue.
It is now universally admitted that both the institution and the name of the Beguines are derived from Lambert le Begue, who died about the year 1187.
About the year 1180 Lambert gathered some of these women, who had been ironically styled "Beguines" by his opponents, into a semi-conventual community, which he established in a quarter of the city belonging to him around his church of St Christopher.
The district was surrounded by a wall within which the Beguines lived in separate small houses, subject to no rule save the obligation of good works, and of chastity so long as they remained members of the community.
The Beguines did not beg; and, when the endowments of the community were not sufficient, the poorer members had to support themselves by manual work, sick-nursing and the like.
All this tended to lower the reputation of the Beguines.
The Beguines wear the old Flemish head-dress and a dark costume, and are conspicuous for their kindness among the poor and their sick nursing.
The situation was embittered by the hatred of the secular clergy for the friars, with whom the Beguines were associated.
Matters came to a climax at the council of Vienne in 1311 under Pope Clement V., where the "sect of Beguines and Beghards" were accused of being the main instruments of the spread of heresy, and decrees were passed suppressing their organization and demanding their severe punishment.
Richardson the novelist, in Sir Charles Grandison, wishes there could be a Protestant nunnery in every county, " with a truly worthy divine, at the appointment of the bishop of the diocese, to direct and animate the devotion of such a society "; in 1829 the poet Southey, in his Colloquies (cxiii.), trusts that " thirty years hence this reproach also may be effaced, and England may have its Beguines and its sisters of mercy.
This charitable activity, however, distinguishes the modern sister from the nuns of primitive and medieval times, who were cloistered and contemplative, and left external works to deaconesses, or to laywomen of a " third order," or to the freer societies like the Beguines.
Similarly, John XXII., in his bull Sancta Romana et Universalis Ecclesia (28th of December 1317), condemns vaguely those "profanae multitudinis viri commonly called Fraticelli, or Brethren of the Poor Life, or Bizocchi, or Beguines, or by all manner of other names."
It is occupied by some 700 Beguines, women devoted to good works (see Beguines).
Before this time, and in all probability at Strassburg, where he appears to have been for some years, he had come in contact with the Beghards (see Beguines) and Brethren of the Free Spirit, whose fundamental notions he may, indeed, be said to have systematized and expounded in the highest form to which they could attain.
The meaning changed in French to that of "religious hypocrite" through the application, in the feminine bigote, to the members of the religious sisterhoods called Beguines.
The decrees were put into execution by Pope John XXII., and a persecution raged in which, though the pope expressly protected the female Beguine communities of the Netherlands, there was little discrimination between the orthodox and unorthodox Beguines.
Resolutions were also adopted on the Beguines and their mode of life (see Beguines), the control of the hospitals, the institution of instructors in Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldaic at the universities, and on numerous details of ecclesiastical discipline and law.