peared in different times and places and were related primarily by
the circumstance that their mysticism was regarded as dangerous
or unsound by ecclesiastical authorities." ¹¹³

So Ad Nostrum was doubly wrong, treating both the beguines and
the beghards ¹¹⁴ on the one hand, and the Free Spirit adherents on
the other, as organized sects, an error Babinsky describes as "cata-
strophic." Thus, the greatest threat to the beguines came not from
the heretical tendencies of some individuals but from the ambiguity
and inaccuracy of the decrees of the Council of Vienne. ¹¹⁵

Negative legislation did not deter the beguines, but it did obscure
their efforts and deny them institutional support. In spite of this
situation, the beguines continued their work of hospitality and shel-
ter for travelers, as well as their care of the sick and the poor.

Further, although Cum de quibusdam multeribus could be read as
prohibiting and disbanding beguinal houses, its ambiguous lan-
guage did not lead to a wholesale closing of the beguinages. In his
bull Racio recta of 1318, John XXII tried to clarify matters by distin-
guishing between "good" and "bad" beguines, but even this docu-
ment allowed broad local discretion. In 1343 Clement VI published a
bull in which he declared he neither approved nor disapproved of
the beguine lifestyle. So, by the fifteenth century there was a papal
policy of toleration for the beguinal movement, but by then the
movement had lost much of its early spontaneity.

The beguines were women of their day. They developed an inte-
grated spirituality by drawing on all aspects of life--religious, social,
artistic, and literary. This is, perhaps, the way in which beguine
spirituality best provides a model for contemporary seekers.

In an age of spiritual awakening, when people from all walks of
life desired to get closer to the human Jesus and live a more authen-
tic gospel life, the beguines emerged as a uniquely woman's move-
ment. Never wholly abandoning life "in the world," they nevertheless
separated themselves from the increasingly materialistic goals that
had come to characterize both church and society in the Middle
Ages.

While not desirous of, or perhaps suited to, monastic life, these
women met their own needs through the establishment of informal
communities where they were free to pursue their spiritual goals
while remaining actively involved in the life of the larger community.

If women today are seeking new ways to express their religious
devotion--and the dramatic decrease in the number of those enter-
ing traditional convents would suggest this is so--they might do well

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