1. Lay Spirituality and the Beguines

2. The perception that an ordinary person did not have to be a monk or a nun to have a relationship with God was a threat to Church control and power.

3. Joachim of Fiore Joachim divided time in to three stages: the age of the Father, the Age of the Son, and the Age of the Holy Spirit.

4. A Belgium Beguinage

5. Marguerite Porete Most Beguines lived in community, but some traveled around alone or in small groups. The solitaries proved to be more of a challenge to Church authorities.

6. In France, Beguines took on a more traditional role of women religious, but they maintained some of their freedoms, such as the freedom to leave.

7. Mechtild of Magdeburg (1207-1282) “Dear love of God, embrace this soul of mine, for it would grieve me bitterly to be parted from you, for my works are dead if I am not conscious of you.”

8. Hadewijch of Antwerp Hadewijch (mid 1200’s) was a Flemish Beguine who poured out her ecstatic love for God in mystical love lyrics. She was one of the first mystics to do so.

9. Marguerite Porete She was condemned for teaching that when the soul is united with God it does not merely become one spirit with God; the soul becomes God.

10. Modern Beguines