Beguines sound awesome, like twelfth-century lesbian separatists.
It looks as if they've been reclaimed by feminists in the literature. Reading into it a little further, it also looks as if there were quite a number of them who had children or who strayed in from bad (abusive) marriages. I'm getting a "scarlet letter A" vibe (this is pre-pennyroyal tea, even), which might explain why they were accused of being prostitutes as well--where did these children come from if these women weren't married? This would have been a big deal I imagine. A perfect angle for the Church's smear campaign as well. (And to think this was only about 700 years before we developed more humane methods, such as asylums and "vacation" camps for unmarried pregnant women!)
I prefer imagining Beguines as fallen women who decided to redeem themselves by worshiping a God whose Church hated them, anyway, with guilt playing a dual role as a powerful vehicle for social constraint but also for social progress (or the prefiguration thereof).