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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.72131#0232
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Medieval Monasteries in the Duchy of Brabant I 231
Fig. 14 Leuven, Beguinage church, reconstruction, plan and transversal section, and the chevet from
the southeast
priest. However, because of their local recruitment, labour, and feminine devo-
tions, the Beguines were an integral part of the religious, economic, and social
life of each individual town. When cities expanded during the late fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, most peri-urban Beguinages were integrated into the
second rings of urban walls. The Beguine movement never became a structured
religious order but remained a mosaic of individual and local communities
headed by a 'great mistress' and controlled by men.
Most Beguinage churches and houses in Brabant were rebuilt during the
Counter-Reformation.66 Only a small number of medieval Beguinage churches
survive. The most representative is the church of St John the Baptist in Leuven,
a Beguinage founded in 1234.67 The plan of the church consists of a rectangular
66 Suzanne VAN AERSCHOT/Michiel Heirman, Flemish Beguinages. World Heritage, Leuven
2001.
67 Coomans, Les eglises (as in note 47), pp. 25-41; Anna BERGMANs/Chris De Maegd, De
Sint-Jan-de-Doperkerk van het Groot Begijnhof in Leuven, in: M & L. Monumenten en
Fig. 14 Leuven, Beguinage church, reconstruction, plan and transversal section, and the chevet from
the southeast
priest. However, because of their local recruitment, labour, and feminine devo-
tions, the Beguines were an integral part of the religious, economic, and social
life of each individual town. When cities expanded during the late fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, most peri-urban Beguinages were integrated into the
second rings of urban walls. The Beguine movement never became a structured
religious order but remained a mosaic of individual and local communities
headed by a 'great mistress' and controlled by men.
Most Beguinage churches and houses in Brabant were rebuilt during the
Counter-Reformation.66 Only a small number of medieval Beguinage churches
survive. The most representative is the church of St John the Baptist in Leuven,
a Beguinage founded in 1234.67 The plan of the church consists of a rectangular
66 Suzanne VAN AERSCHOT/Michiel Heirman, Flemish Beguinages. World Heritage, Leuven
2001.
67 Coomans, Les eglises (as in note 47), pp. 25-41; Anna BERGMANs/Chris De Maegd, De
Sint-Jan-de-Doperkerk van het Groot Begijnhof in Leuven, in: M & L. Monumenten en