04454nam 22008535 450 991078173490332120220318235640.01-283-21060-697866132106090-8122-0012-810.9783/9780812200126(CKB)2550000000050875(OCoLC)51478963(CaPaEBR)ebrary10491939(SSID)ssj0000122486(PQKBManifestationID)11135168(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000122486(PQKBWorkID)10123897(PQKB)10350300(SSID)ssj0000648560(PQKBManifestationID)12295830(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000648560(PQKBWorkID)10597472(PQKB)10826940(DE-B1597)448874(OCoLC)979970032(DE-B1597)9780812200126(MiAaPQ)EBC3441482(EXLCZ)99255000000005087520190708d2010 fg engur||#||||||||txtccrCities of Ladies Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200-1565 /Walter SimonsPhiladelphia :University of Pennsylvania Press,[2010]©20021 online resource (352 p.)The Middle Ages SeriesBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph0-8122-1853-1 Frontmatter --Contents --Illustrations and Maps --Preface --1. Women,Work, and Religion in the Southern Low Countries --2. The Formation of Beguinages --3. The Contemplative and the Active Life --4. The Social Composition of Beguine Communities --5. Conflict and Coexistence --6. Conclusion --Abbreviations --Notes --Bibliography --Appendix I: Repertory of Beguine Communities --Appendix II: The Population of Select Court Beguinages --IndexSelected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic TitleIn the early thirteenth century, semireligious communities of women began to form in the cities and towns of the Low Countries. These beguines, as the women came to be known, led lives of contemplation and prayer and earned their livings as laborers or teachers.In Cities of Ladies, the first history of the beguines to appear in English in fifty years, Walter Simons traces the transformation of informal clusters of single women to large beguinages. These veritable single-sex cities offered lower- and middle-class women an alternative to both marriage and convent life. While the region's expanding urban economies initially valued the communities for their cheap labor supply, severe economic crises by the fourteenth century restricted women's opportunities for work. Church authorities had also grown less tolerant of religious experimentation, hailing as subversive some aspects of beguine mysticism. To Simons, however, such accusations of heresy against the beguines were largely generated from a profound anxiety about their intellectual ambitions and their claims to a chaste life outside the cloister. Under ecclesiastical and economic pressure, beguine communities dwindled in size and influence, surviving only by adopting a posture of restraint and submission to church authorities.RELIGIONbisacChristian Church / HistorybisacBeguinesHistoryMiddle Ages, 600-1500Benelux countriesMonasticism and religious orders for womenHistoryMiddle Ages, 600-1500Benelux countriesChurch historyReligionHILCCPhilosophy & ReligionHILCCChristianityHILCCGender Studies.History.Medieval and Renaissance Studies.Religion.Religious Studies.Women's Studies.RELIGIONChristian Church / HistoryBeguinesHistoryMonasticism and religious orders for womenHistoryChurch historyReligionPhilosophy & ReligionChristianity274.92/05/082Simons Walter1956-1521014DE-B1597DE-B1597BOOK9910781734903321Cities of Ladies3759877UNINA