ed to make use of this to found a retreat for godly women,
where they could lead in common a life of well-doing. Here he built a
number of little houses, and in the center a church, which was dedicated
to St. Christopher in 1184. Then he presented the whole to some godly
women to be used and owned in common. His earnest words of rebuke
brought persecution upon him from those whose consciences he disturbed,
but he went to Rome and appealed to the pope, who not only protected him
from his assailants, but made him the patriarch of the order he had
founded. Only six months after his return, however, he died, and was
buried before the high altar of the church he had erected in 1187.
Whether he was indeed the founder of the Beguine houses has been called
in question. Be that as it may, fifty years after his death fifteen
hundred Beguines were living around St. Christopher's Church,[18] and
Beguine courts were found throughout Belgium, in the Netherlands, south
along the Rhine, in eastern France, and in Switzerland. The Crusades
made many widows, and both widows and young girls sought shelter in the
community life of the Beguines. As a rule they lived alone, in separate
small houses built closely together and surrounded by a wall. Each house
bore on its door the sign of the cross, and with every Beguine court
there were invariably two large buildings--a church and a hospital; the
one for the worship of the sisters, the other the field of their
self-denying ministrations. At first they were in no wise distinguished
in their dress from other women, but in time they wore a habit which
varied in color with each establishment, but was generally blue, gray,
or brown. The veil was invariably white. The sisters had to earn, or
partly earn, their own livelihood. In the time remaining they rendered
essential service in performing acts of charity. They received orphans
to bring up and educate, taught little children, nursed the sick,
performed the last offices for the dead, and bound themselves by good
deeds closely with the lives of the people. They were in no sense
isolated from the world, but lived busy, useful lives in the midst of
the world. They could leave the community at any time, and after
severing their connection with it were free to marry. They also retained
control of their own property.

There were certainly many points of resemblance between these women who
were so active in the sphere of Christian charity in the twelfth a