polilogues

Veerle Fraeters 0102

(continued)

One person who played a key role in getting the early beguine movement accepted in the Low Countries was Jacques de Vitry. He was a canon who had heard of the fame of a certain Marie d’Oignie, a woman from the region of Liège, who was famed as a spiritual leader and who lived there as a recluse. She did not live in total seclusion, but rather confined herself to a kind of chapel next to a church, where she could be found and visited by members of the community, who would ask her for spiritual advice. Jacques de Vitry wrote about the life of Marie d’Oignie and other religious women in the region of Liège.

His description was really very positive. He allowed himself to be spiritually guided by her: she became his spiritual advisor. This is actually the first time in the religious history of the Middle Ages that we see a relationship between men and women like this. It is very interesting to see a canon so explicitly accepting a woman as his spiritual guide. He went on to report this to the Pope, which led to the acceptance of the early beguine movement in the Low Countries, or rather the way of life of these mulieres religiosae. Almost a century later, however the beguine and begard movement was condemned by another pope, Pope John XXII. The movement in the Low Countries had already been endorsed a century earlier, which is why the beguinages are such a typical phenomenon in the Low Countries.