Democratic and Secular Tendencies 77 known to travellers. The Beguines of today still respond to every call. They were, for instance, active in the late war. A similar order of women was the Sisterhood of the Common Life, founded in Flanders in the four- teenth century. These Sisters special- The order ized in visiting nursing. There was a of the brotherhood by the same name, not, Common . 'Life however, for nursing, in which appear the names of some of the noted "Humanists" of that day, who corresponded to our modem intellec- tual progressives. An important secular nursing order of men arose in the twelfth century in Montpellier. It was a free brotherhood founded by Guy de The order Montpellier about 1180, and came to of Santo be especially identified with the large Spirito general hospitals of towns and cities which from that time on were more and more taken under the control of the civil authorities, or built anew inside of city walls, as towns grew in importance and in self-government. There was a related order for women nurses in the Santo Spirito organization, but historians have overlooked it in their interest in the men's branches, which seem to have been of much importance. These had a flourishing career for more than a century, retaining their free char-
