Cities of Ladies

Simons, Walter

doi:10.9783/9780812200126

Cited by 222 publications

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“…Marie is identified as 'benigna' (pleasant or kind) seven times in the liturgical office, as Goswin rather transparently replaces the term 'beguine' with a preferable affirmative placeholder (Simons, 2001: 185 n. 1). 8 'Beguine' was an ambiguous term at best, with various circulating theories as to its origins (Simons, 2009: 322;2014: 14).…”

Section: Marie Of Villersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marie of Oignies, of Nivelles, or of Villers: The Multiple Textual Identities of a 13th-Century Holy Woman

Spencer-Hall

2017

Open Library of Humanities

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Section: Marie Of Villersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marie of Oignies, of Nivelles, or of Villers: The Multiple Textual Identities of a 13th-Century Holy Woman

Spencer-Hall

2017

Open Library of Humanities

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“…Charitable work was also a central element of the beguines' activities, enabling them to marry their spiritual ideals with pressing social needs. 41 Some beguinages were founded as hospitals for sick, elderly, or needy women, and among the kinds of work that beguines did outside their beguinages, it was common for them to work as nurses for individual women in their homes or in hospitals. Moreover, the religious reform movements of the 12th century and the aspiration to lead an apostolic life gave new energy to the long-standing tradition of religious women serving as care-givers.…”

Section: Gendered Charitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social and Religious Meanings of Charity in Medieval Europe

Davis

2014

History Compass

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There is considerable evidence that during the 12th and 13th centuries, Latin Christendom experienced a charitable revolution. This period witnessed the foundation of large numbers of leprosaria and hospitals for the sick and poor, as well as the creation of confraternities and religious orders engaged in intensive charitable work. Some historians have argued that this charitable outpouring was principally spurred by economic and material forces, as well as a burgeoning urban culture. However, others have suggested that developments in spirituality and devotional culture are central to understanding what medieval charity meant to its practitioners. For still other scholars, medieval charity was primarily a way to elevate one's social status and affirm existing hierarchies of power. This essay surveys different historical interpretations of the social and religious meaning of charity during the Middle Ages, including how historians of medieval and early modern Europe have periodized charitable practices and how they have used charity as a window into the interactions between the rich and poor, powerful and powerless.Twelfth and thirteenth-century Europe witnessed a rapidly growing population and the rise of an urban, commercial, monetary society in which there were increasingly visible manifestations of both structural and conjunctural poverty and other forms of suffering. Since the 1960s and 70s, with the rise of social history as a sub-discipline, medieval historians have shown an intense interest in writing 'history from below' and learning more about the experiences of marginalized social groups. This can be seen not only in some of the classic work on the medieval poor but also in more recent studies of lepers and the disabled. 1 Social historians have been especially interested in the daily lives and standards of living of the poor and powerless. They have used a variety of sources in trying to recover the voices and experiences of the miserabiles themselves, unmediated by any filter that might instead ref lect the perspective of clerical elites or benefactors. A criticism that is sometimes leveled against the sources employed for the study of medieval charity is that they rarely yield much information about the recipients of charity, focusing almost exclusively on the benefactors. Testaments, for example, are one of the most useful sources for studying charitable practices, but even when such sources provide clues about the survival patterns of the poor, this information is often mediated by the testator or notary responsible for drafting the will. 2 Still, the study of charity helps illuminate not just the kinds of assistance provided to the needy but the nature of the relationship between rich and poor, powerful and powerless. The subject of medieval charity has provided a valuable window into the experiences of the powerless by examining social attitudes toward them and the different ways they were treated. How could lepers be the objects of social scorn and yet also be depicted as valuable spiritual i...

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“…36 This example, of course, calls to mind the fact that the bequest patterns emerging in wills were always highly influenced by the testators' social status and wealth. 37 Moreover, will-writing was only really relevant to those who had possessions to bequeath. Most of the beguines (and lay single women) central to this study, in other words, most probably came from the upper and middling strata of society.…”

Section: W I L L -W R I T I N G I N S I X T E E N T H -C E N T U R mentioning

confidence: 99%

Replacing the family? Beguinages in early modern western European cities: an analysis of the family networks of beguines living in Mechelen (1532–1591)

Overlaet

2014

Cont. Change

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In many early modern towns of the southern Low Countries, beguinages gave adult single women of all ages the possibility to lead a religious life of contemplation in a secure setting, retaining rights to their property and not having to take permanent vows. This paper re-examines the family networks of these women by means of a micro-study of the wills left by beguines who lived in the Great Beguinage of St Catherine in sixteenth-century Mechelen, a middle-sized city in the Low Countries. By doing so, this research seeks to add nuance to a historiography that has tended to consider beguinages as artificial families, presumably during a period associated with the increasing dominance of the nuclear family and the unravelling ties of extended family.

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Cities of Ladies

Cited by 222 publications

References 0 publications

Marie of Oignies, of Nivelles, or of Villers: The Multiple Textual Identities of a 13th-Century Holy Woman

Marie of Oignies, of Nivelles, or of Villers: The Multiple Textual Identities of a 13th-Century Holy Woman

The Social and Religious Meanings of Charity in Medieval Europe

Replacing the family? Beguinages in early modern western European cities: an analysis of the family networks of beguines living in Mechelen (1532–1591)

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