The Netherlands
sculpture dating from 1574, the date on which the porch was renewed after the great fire of 1421. The word “Begijn” may be derived from the old Dutch beggen or bedgen—saying prayers regularly. Wagenaar, the Town Historian in 1760, believed that the béguinages sprang up in 1170, when a priest of Liége, Lambert le Bègue (Lambert the Stutterer), induced widows and maidens to adopt a religious life without vows, passing their time in needlework and deeds of charity, and that the Dutch Begijnen followed. The word is also said to be derived from Begge, daughter of Pipinius van Landen, Duke of Brabant, who lived at the end of the seventh century. The Begijn Kerk (the English church), in the Begijnenhof, is of particular interest to English and Americans. Its tercentenary was celebrated in February, 1907.
47C
