Lotharingia, the eastern part of Belgium, possessed, of course, no cathedrals comparable with those of Worms, Speyer, and Mainz. However, the literary movement developed by the Lotharingian bishops was accompanied by an artistic revival. As most of the Lotharingian bishops were of German descent, the direction of the work was intrusted to German architects. The oldest examples of romantic architecture in the regions of the Meuse reveal German influence. Not only the architects, but also the sculptors, the painters, etc., were Germans, though sometimes recourse was had to Italian artists, who came over the Alps to seek their fortunes. The frescoes on the walls of St. James’s Church at Liège are the work of a painter called Giovanni.
The Lotharingian artists soon began to imitate the German methods and to use material native to the country. Supplies for walls and columns were no longer brought from Germany, but from the valley of the Meuse. Until the twelfth century, German traditions, however, prevailed in architecture, and at no time prior to the beginning of that period can there be said to have been any Lotharingian style.
If the valley of the Meuse was the artistic center of Eastern Belgium, in the western part of the country—in Flanders—it was the city of Tournai which dominated artistic development. The cathedral of Tournai, the only large Romance basilica of Belgium, rivals the cathedrals of the Rhine in majesty and harmony of form. The plan reveals the work of an architect influenced by the German school. But in the architectural details are to be found motifs inspired by the large French cathedrals of Normandy. The double German and French influence resulted in the founding of a local school of architecture at Tournai, which exhibited great activity throughout Flanders. Tournai, the religious capital of Flanders, became also the artistic capital. The stone of Tournai was famous. Thanks to the Scheldt, material was easily transported, and in the locality where it was used it was, of course, architects of Tournai who drew the plans of the buildings. There existed also at Tournai a local school of sculptors, whose members were very active and who may be regarded as true artists.
There remains only the literary life in both parts of Belgium during the feudal period to be considered.
Dating from the ninth century, there were many to be found among the ecclesiastics and the upper classes who spoke both languages, Romance and Teutonic, equally well. In the monasteries Flemish and Walloon monks lived together, and in the Abbey of St. Amand, in Southern Belgium, there has been found, written by the same hand, the oldest poem of French literature, the Cantilène de Ste. Eulalie, and also one of the oldest products of Teutonic literature, the Ludwigslied. The bishops and abbots knew both languages; the abbots of Lobbes, a Walloon monastery in the tenth century, spoke both Flemish and French. In the diocese of Térouanne (later Saint-Omer) the bishops were obliged to know “barbarian,” i.e., the Teutonic language. During the eleventh century, many preachers were able to address the people of the Walloon and Flemish sections, and abbots who knew both languages were preferred. The lay princes were obliged at least to understand Walloon and Flemish, for Flanders, Brabant, and Limburg included people of both races. When the army of the crusaders started for the Holy Land, the Lotharingian prince Godfrid of Bouillon was appointed as their leader, because, according to the chronicle of Otto von Freising, “brought up on the frontier of the Romance and the Teutonic people, he knew both languages equally well.” During the twelfth century, the knowledge of French was regarded as a necessary element of perfect culture. On the common people, however, French civilization had no influence at all; they knew and spoke only Flemish.
The French influence was especially strong from a linguistic point of view; the German influence was overwhelming in the literary domain, especially in Lotharingia. The bishops were, generally speaking, the sole possessors of literary and scientific culture, and in Lotharingia most of them were strongly Germanized. The center of literary life in Lotharingia was the school of Liège, founded by the Saxon bishop Everachar. It became a center of study, where not only Germans, but also French, English, and Slav students were to be found. The curriculum of the school, known as the school of St. Lambert, included grammar, rhetoric, poetry, music, mathematics, and theology. This institution was the means by which many new ideas were circulated through France and Germany, as its teachers were in close touch with all the scientific tendencies of the time. In Western and Southern Belgium we find the influence of the school of Cambrai as paramount. Although a Romance region, Cambrai belonged to the German Empire, and was therefore a center of German influence. The dominating genre in literature is history, and that is an especially Belgian genre; history has always been much cultivated in Belgium. The historical work of a monk, Sigebert of Gembloux, is recognized as the center of that activity.
The Struggle for the Investitures, which destroyed the power and the influence of the German imperial and feudal church from a political and religious point of view, destroyed also its influence in literary life. The schools of Liège were abandoned and, from the first quarter of the twelfth century on, students turned their eyes toward Paris.
In Flanders, literary influence, as was the case with artistic movements, was French rather than German. Tournai, the artistic capital, was also the intellectual center, and Tournai was a Romance bishopric. The school of St. Mary had only French teachers and contributed in spreading a knowledge of the French language among the Flemish clergy. Essentially theological and dialectical, however, the teaching of St. Mary was less important than the teaching of St. Lambert of Liège.
Thus, during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the civilization of Belgium was influenced by the culture of its powerful neighbors. Nevertheless, the elements of German and French civilization were not simply absorbed; they were transformed, adapted, and nationalized, and became a real part of the life of the nation.