ABSTRACT
In many of the cities of the Rhineland, northern France and the Low Countries, Beguinage remained an established and respected institution, providing a home for the sick and destitute as well as for the sisterhood. The order of St Gilbert grew out of his efforts to meet the needs and aspirations of a small group of young women in his parish who sought a refuge in the monastic life. The escalating demand by women both for nunneries and for alternative forms of ascetical life indicates a population imbalance. Cistercian nuns ceased to be humble handmaids servicing communities of men, and became fully fledged religious communities with ends of their own. Flemish abbey of Arrouaise had a large community of canonesses attached to the Norbertines during the years of its expansion under the dynamic direction of Abbot Gervase.
