The name Beghards was commonly given in the 13th and 11th centuries (just as "Pietist" and "Meth- odist" were afterward used) to persons who opposed or revolted from the worldly tendencies of the Roman Church. The Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Lollards, in Trance and England, were so named. See Nean- dcr, t'li. //>'. iv, 303; Mosheim, De Beghard.et Begum. (Lips. 1790); Mosheim, Ch. Hist. cent, xiii, pt. ii, ch. ii, § 40. Other treatises on these orders have been written bv Beier (Jen. 1710), Bruhns (Lub. 1719), Gotze (ib. 1719), Houston (Antw. 1628). See Be-
<;riNi;s ; BbGUE.
Beginning (rvl:X^2, "in the beginning," liter- ally ui the head, Gen. i, 1 ; Sept. and New Test. iv Cipxjl)i besides its ordinary import, was with the He- brews an idiomatic form of expression for eternity, q, d. originally. In this sense it is employed alike by Moses and (in its (.reek form) by the evangelist John (i, 1 1. See Creation.
Our Lord is also emphatically styled the Beginning
BEGUARDS
121
BEHEMOTH
('ApY;,) 1'oth by Paul and John (Col. i, 18; Rev. i, 8 ; (1318) and Italy (132G). The Reformation put an end iii. 11), and it is worthy of remark that the Greek phi- to nearly ;ill the beguinages in Germany and Switzer- losophers expressed the First Cause of all things L.y Laid; but all the larger towns of Belgium except Brus- the same word. See Logos. I sels have still beguinages, the largest of which is that
Beguards. See Beghards. ' at Ghent, which in 1857 counted about 700 inmates.—
Begue, Lambert, a Trench heretic, lived toward Mosheim, Be Beghardis et Beguinabus (Lipsise, 1790); the close of the 12th century. Man, he said, is able to j Kallmann, Geschichte d< s Vrsprunges der Belgixken Be- attain to the highest degree of perfection, and may guinen (Berlin, 1843). See Beghards. then accord to his body all he wants. He also denied j Behead ("?", aruph' , applied to an animal, to the adoration of the consecrated wafer. He is also break the neck, Deut. xxi, G ; like ttiXocuoj, Rev. xx, said to have preached against the corrupt life of the but rf ^^ ^ amKtfaXifrt to take
clergy. See Beghards and BEGUiSES.-Hoefer, B, : ■ ^ J ^
ooranhie &t m rale, v, lo.. „„ „„ T , ' . „. ' ' , ,. ' ' li"1,\ *i
- 10, 2,1 ; Luke ix, 9), a method of taking away life,
Beguinage (Beguinarum domus), the residence of a society of Beguines (q. v.).
Beguines, a female association in the Reman Church. The origin of I oth the name and the associ- ation is doubtful. A Belgian writer in the beginning of the 13th century derives it from a priest of Liege, Lambert le Begue. Later some beguinages traced their origin to St. Begga, daughter of Pipin of Landen, though without historical grounds. Other writers!
known and practised among the Egyptians (Gen. xl. 17-19). This mode of punishment, therefore, must have been known to the Hebrews, and there occur in- dubitable instances of it in the time of the early He- brew kings (2 Sam. iv, 8; xx, 21, 22; 2 Kings x, 6- 8). It appears, in the later periods of the Jewish his- tory, that Herod and his descendants, in a number of instances, ordered decapitation (Matt, xiv, 8-12; Acts 2). The apostle Paul is said to have suffered
have derived the name from be, a, ii, to bet;, though the
-r, . , . •JJ. . , , 4. martyrdom by beheading, as it was not lawful to put
Beguines have never been mendicants. A document T, J . .i.-7 . . .5'. . .„ .'
e j ■ .i i-.li .. t-i i a 4. n t. i ! a Roman nti/.en to death bv scouriung or cruci ixion.
found m the 1 , th century at V llvorde dates the estab- p J a &
lishment of a beguinage at 105G, and seems to over-] feee * UNISHMENT-
throw the hypothesis of priest Lambert being their Behem. See Boheim.
founder; but more thorough investigations have proved Be'hemoth (Ileb. behemoth', iliEilSi, Job xl, 15;
it to be spurious. The pretended higher age of some1 gept# $l}oia . m Coptic, according to Jablonski, Pehe-
German beguinages rests on their being confounded mm(t) ;s regarded as the plural of n^-2, behem,,)/
witn similar institutions. I, „ , , ... .,, ., ... ,.NT 7 =
The Beguines, whose number at the beginning of (usually rendered "beast or "cattle ); but commen- ce thirteenth century amounted to about 1500, spread tators are bJ' no, means *&*** as to !,ts true meaning. rapidly over the Netherlands, France, and Germany. Among those who adopt ehphant are Lrusms, Grotius, There" were often as many as 2000 sisters in their Schultens, Michaelis, etc., while among the advocates beguinages (!r q„h„«ri,r, beaninarue), occupying in of M1WP >t«mus are Bochart (Hteroz. ii, 754 sq.), Lu- couples a small separate house. A hospital and church dolf (.But. ^>><">P- h U), and Gesemus (Thes. Heb. p. form the central points of the beguinage. The Be- ls3>- 'lhc arguments of the last in favor of his own guines support themselves, and also furnish the chest view may be summed up thus : (1.) The general pr.r- of the community, and the support of the priests, the Pose and plan of Jehovah s tw o discourses with Job re- officers, and the hospitals, by their own industry. The q,lirc that the allll11il1 whlch ™ tllls second discourse is president of a beguinage is" called maglstra, and is as- dassed with tllc crocodile should be an amphibious, sisted by curators or tutors, usually mendicant friars. »ot * terrestrial animal, the first discourse (xxxviii, The vows are simple, viz., chastity and obedience to xxxix) havlnS 1)een hmlted to hmd-animals and birds. the statutes; and any beguine can be freed by leav- 02-) Tllc crocodile and hippopotamus, being both na- ing the community, after which she is at liberty to fives of Egypt and /Ethiopia, are constantly mentioned marry. As to dress, each beguinage chooses its "par- together by the ancient writers (see Herod, n, 69-71 ;