100 Beirut
hostile to their often-privileged relationship with MEN-
DICANTorders. This placed them outside the jurisdic-
tion of the ordinary priests. Moreover, the informal
social and religious networks established by Beguines
were an embarrassment to the institutional church.
Even outside their own communities, the Beguines met,
prayed together, and discussed their experiences with
others. Above all, they read, knew how to write, inter-
preted sacred texts, and translated them into the ver-
nacular. Their immediate and direct relationship with
God, in contemplation and ecstasy, meant no role for
the priests or clergy.
Faced with growth of the number of Beguines, the
institutional church adopted two types of attitude: some-
times, the Beguine experiments were totally rejected and
considered heresy, especially in the Rhineland, where
they were persecuted from the 13th century. This was
even before the declaration pronounced against them at
the council of VIENNAin 1312 and promulgated in 1317.
Sometimes, the church strove to enclose the Beguines
into controlled communities of traditional nuns. Some-
where, however, it left alone to control their own reli-
gious aspirations.
BEGHARDS (BÉGARD, BOGARD)They were named after Robert de Bègue from Liège. Lay
male penitents, the Beghards were never as numerous as
their female counterparts, the Beguines. The first men-
tions of Beghards in FLANDERS, northern FRANCE, and
GERMANYdated from between 1220 and 1250.
As itinerant small communities of celibates, the
Beghards sometimes lived off alms. But many of them
worked, notably in the CLOTHINGindustry. At Brussels,
Louvain, Antwerp, and BRUGES, the Beghards formed
associations of weavers, sharing their time between
work and practices of piety. They were soon at odds
with the ecclesiastical authorities, and were pressured
by urban authorities and restrictive guild corporations,
for whom they were direct rivals. In the course of the
14th century, they fell under the control of guilds and
CONFRATERNITIES.
See alsoPORETTE,MARGARET.
Further reading: Herbert Grundmann, Religious
Movements in the Middle Ages: The Historical Links
between Heresy, the Mendicant Orders, and the Women’s
Religious Movement in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Century,
with the Historical Foundations of German Mysticism,
trans. Steven Rowan with an introduction by Robert E.
Lerner (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame
Press, 1995); Ernest McDonnell, The Beguines and
Beghards in Medieval Culture with Special Emphasis on
the Belgian Scene (New Brunswick: Rutgers University
Press, 1954); Walter Simons, Cities of Ladies: Beguine
Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200–1565
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001);
Joanna E. Ziegler, Sculpture of Compassion: The Pietà and
the Beguines in the Southern Low Countries, c. 1300–c.
1600 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1992).Beirut(Bayrut, Beyrouth) Beirut is a port on the east-
ern coast of the Mediterranean and the capital of modern
LEBANON. In the late Roman period, as Berytus, it was a
major administrative, commercial, and intellectual center,
especially for the study of the law. In 551, it was
destroyed by an earthquake and a tidal wave. The BYZAN-
TINEemperor JUSTINIANtried to rebuild Beirut. The ARABS
easily captured it in 635.ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES
The UMAYYAD CALIPHMuawiya (r. 683–684) repopulated
the town and region, making Beirut part of the province
of DAMASCUSand fostering legal studies there. In 975
Beirut was taken, as were many other towns on the Syro-
Palestinian coast, by the Byzantine general and later
emperor John I Tzimiskes (969–976). The FATIMIDSof
EGYPT, however, retook control of it shortly afterward. It
remained under their rule until the conquest of Syria and
Palestine by the SELJUKTURKSbetween 1071 and 1078.
In 1099, the CRUSADERSbypassed Beirut on their way
to JERUSALEM, but in May 1110 BALDWINI with the sup-
port of a blockade by Genoese and Pisan ships, took it by
storm. Beirut was now included in the kingdom of
JERUSALEM, on the frontier with the county of TRIPOLI.A
Latin bishop of Beirut was restored in 1112.
In 1187 SALADIN captured Beirut, but Aimery de
LUSIGNAN, the King of Cyprus (r. 1194–1205) managed
to recapture it in 1197. He gave it to John of IBELIN, who
rebuilt its fortifications and promoted its commercial
activities. In 1231, the troops of FREDERICKII entered the
city but could not occupy the citadel. The Ibelin family
regained control the following year and held it until July
31, 1291. The town was taken then by the MAMLUKS
shortly after their capture of ACRE. Beirut then became
the seat of a provincial governorship as part of the
province of Damascus.
Further reading:Anna-Marie Eddé, “Beirut,” EMA,
1.162; N. Elisséeff, “Bayru ̄ t,” Encyclopedia of Islam,
1.1137–1138; Nina Jidejian, Beirut through the Ages
(Beirut: Dar el-Machreq, 1973).Belgium In the Middle Ages, Belgium consisted of
numerous provinces that extended through modern Hol-
land, Belgium, Luxemburg, and into northern France.
Belgium was a Roman province at the beginning of the
Middle Ages. In the fifth century, it became part of the
kingdom of the FRANKS, ceasing to be a separate political
and administrative unit. In the ninth century it was
divided into feudal units. Picardy, and FLANDERS
belonged to the nascent kingdom of FRANCE. In 843,
the remainder became part of the kingdom of Lothai I
(r. 840–55) and in 889 the duchy of Lower Lorraine.