ABSTRACT
Although new nunneries continued to be founded well into the thirteenth century, many laywomen and -men were inspired to a life of penance and service within more informal communities. As was seen in the example of Verona above, already in the eleventh century such penitents coming from all levels of society joined together into small communities or anchorholds to lead exemplary lives, often without formal rules. In Italy these communities were often urban ones and many were of women; these female religious recluses (sometimes called beatae or pinzochere) with their male counterparts were often transformed in the early thirteenth century into communities of the new mendicant (begging) orders, most notably the Franciscans and Dominicans. These mendicant groups sought to mix a life of prayer and contemplation, “the contemplative life,” with a more active mission, “the active life.” In both groups, men quickly became preaching and teaching brothers (and eventually inquisitors), as well as wandering from place to place living by mendicancy. Associated houses of nuns soon appeared, but their participation in the practice of begging for their subsistence was always more limited.
