What is "beguines"

Usage examples of "beguines".

In the Beguines they had a sect of their own, a lay order that followed its own religious rule of good works and, when nunneries had no room, provided a place for unmarried women and widows, or, as a bishop wrote in criticism of the Beguines, a retreat from the “coercion of marital bonds.

At street meetings the Beguines read the Bible translated into French.

I will take the Queen some of this holy water, which I will procure from the Beguines of Bruges.

At the same moment a woman, masked, appeared between the curtains, and before the Queen could speak, added, "I am connected with the order of the Beguines of Bruges, and do indeed bring with me the remedy which is certain to effect a cure of your Majesty's complaint.

They stated that they were beguines from a house in the city of Cologne, and they were traveling on passports issued by the archbishop-elector of Cologne.

And as the fisherman casts his net into the stream with intent to take many fish at one throw: so 'tis the main solicitude and study, art and craft of these friars to embrace and entangle within the ample folds of their vast swelling skirts beguines, widows and other foolish women, ay, and men likewise in great number.