Hierarchy classification:

1. top of the aat hierarchies
2. Agents Facet
3. People (hierarchy name)
4. people (agents)
5. [people by occupation]
6. [people in the humanities]
7. [people in religion and related occupations]
8. people in religion
9. religious (people)

Anotations

Scope note:

Female unmarried or widowed members of religious, ascetic or philanthropic lay societies, devoted to religious life, but not bound by strict vows of a religious order, and who may marry. Beguines often lived in communities called beguinages. This way of life first appeared in Liège toward the end of the 12th century, and use of the term was established by the 1230s. By this time the movement had spread throughout the Low Countries, Germany, and northern France.