If the conversion to the Catholic faith was mainly the task of the missionaries, the introduction of civilization was mainly the task of the monasteries. Here the Benedictine monks played a very large part, both as civilizers and as colonizers. Their monasteries were, from the sixth century on, centers of economic and intellectual life. While some of their monks attacked the thick forests of Southern and Central Belgium with axes, others engaged in literary labors in the monasteries’ libraries, transcribing the ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts, composing hymns and Lives of Saints, and opening schools for the education of the people. They planted in the very hearts of the people the roots of that strong religious spirit, which has steadily developed, and which has become one of the characteristics of the national spirit of Belgium.
Each monastery became a kind of model farm, where the population of the neighborhood could learn the best agricultural methods. In the monastery, too, they could find physicians who knew how to take care of the sick. The monastery, being protected by the respect that was inspired by the saint to whom it was dedicated, was also a place of safety in time of danger. Consequently, dwellings became more and more numerous around the monasteries, and villages developed under their influence and protection.
It is not, then, surprising that in the course of time tales and legends developed wherein the founders of those monasteries became the heroes of poetical and sometimes extraordinary adventures. In this manner did the people of mediaeval times express their gratitude for all they owed to those early pioneers of culture and civilization.
CHAPTER II
THE PERIOD OF FEUDALISM
Charles the Great died in 814. His son, Emperor Louis, was a weakling, and after his death the mighty empire of Charles was destroyed by internal troubles and civil war (840). Lotharius, the eldest son of Emperor Louis, endeavored to seize the empire for himself. To prevent this, both his brothers, Louis and Charles, leagued themselves against him and defeated him in the terrible battle of Fontanet, which has been characterized by contemporaries as a “judgment of God.” The peace that was later concluded between the three brothers led to the famous Treaty of Verdun (843), an event of the utmost importance in the history of Belgium.
The empire created by Charles the Great was divided into three parts: the central part, including the largest portion of Belgium, Holland, Italy, and the eastern part of France, was allotted to Lotharius, together with the title of Emperor; the western part of the empire, embracing the largest part of France, and Flanders to the west of the Scheldt, became the share of Charles; the eastern part, which included nearly the whole of Germany and certain parts of Austria-Hungary, was given to Louis. The Treaty of Verdun practically cut the territory of Belgium into two parts, separated by the Scheldt, and gave each of them to a different ruler. These two sections of Belgium remained separated during the Middle Ages, and were not reunited until six centuries later.
After the death of Emperor Lotharius (855) the northern part of his central territory, located between the North Sea and the Jura Mountains, was given to one of his sons, Lotharius II. That section which included the entire eastern part of Belgium to the Scheldt embraced peoples of very different race and origin: Frisians, Franks, Alamans, Walloons. As it was impossible to name the territory after its inhabitants—they were of too many different origins—it was named after its sovereign: regnum Lotharii, “Lotharingia,” “the realm of Lotharius.”
In 870 the Treaty of Meerssen, whereby Charles, King of France, and Louis, King of Germany, divided between them the realm of Lotharius II, ended the existence of that state. The second Treaty of Verdun in 879 finally settled the status of Lotharingia: the boundary between France and Germany was declared to be the river Scheldt, and the whole of Lotharingia was incorporated in Germany. Of course, all the parts of the former empire of Charles the Great were once again united by the Emperor Charles the Stout, but after all kinds of internal struggles, Lotharingia was again—and this time for many centuries—annexed to Germany in 925.
Belgium is thus divided into two tracts by the Scheldt: the western part, Flanders, belonging to France and politically influenced by that country; the eastern part, Lotharingia, which was a dependency of Germany. As in the establishment of the bishoprics, so here, no attention was paid to the racial differences of the inhabitants. Both Lotharingia and Flanders included peoples of different origin: Flanders had inhabitants of Teutonic origin in the north and inhabitants of Romance origin in the south; Lotharingia included Flemings in the east, the center, and the north, and Walloons in the south.