or BEGHARDS, religionists of the third order of St Francis in Flanders. They were established at Antwerp in the year 1228, and took St Begge for their patroness, from whom they derived their name. On their first institution they employed themselves in making linen cloth, each supporting himself by his own labour, and were united only by the bonds of charity, without having any particular rule. But when Pope Nicholas IV. had confirmed that of the third order of St Francis in 1269, they embraced it the year following, and were greatly favoured by the dukes of Brabant, particularly John II. and John III., who exempted them from all contributions and taxes. In the year 1425 they began to live in common, and in 1467 made solemn vows, after having taken the habit of the Terciaries of Liège, religionists of the third order of St Francis; and, in 1472, they became subject to the general of the congregation of Zepperen in the diocese of Liège, to which they were united by Pope Sixtus IV. But Pope Innocent X., having, in 1650, suppressed the general of the congregation of Zepperen, all the convents of the third order of St Francis, in the dioceses of Liège, Malines, and Antwerp, were submitted to the visitation, jurisdiction, and correction, of the general of Italy, and erected into a province, under the title of "the province of Flanders."