BRUSSELS
23
BRUSSELS
disturbed state of that city, directed to the markets
of Brussels. For the same reason Brussels had now
become the seat of the court, and she devoted her
attention to the manufacture of articles of luxury.
Thanks to these new industries the diminution, if
any. of her cloth trade was a matter of little concern
to the people.
Headed by Count Philip of St. Pol, brother of the duke, the best members of the three estates of Bra- bant had joined hands against Duke John IV. who had been led astray by evil counsellors. When all seemed lost, when Brussels was filled with foreign mercenaries, the craftsmen had saved the situation, and received as guerdon an equal share with the pa- tricians in the government and administration of their city. The articles of the new charter were agreed upon in a great assembly of barons and of deputies of the towns of Brussels, Antwerp, and Louvain, 6 February, 1421. The charter itself was signed and sealed by Count Philip who had been ap- pointed regent and its provisions were immediately put into execution. The constitution of 1421 con- tinued to be the legal constitution of the city of Brus- sels until the close of the eighteenth century. The great struggle between the patricians and the crafts- men was never again to be renewed. The former dissociated themselves more and more from trade anil from municipal affairs, and were gradually absorl led in the ranks of the old feudal aristocracy. The dissen- sions in the centuries which followed were not the outcome of class hatred, but of difference of opinion in religious matters, and of the impolitic measures taken to restore religious unity by alien rulers, who had no sympathy with the customs and traditions of the Netherlands.
Chief BUILDINGS. — There is probably no city in Europe which contains grander medieval municipal buildings than those of Brussels, and the greatest of them were built after the craftsmen obtained emanci- pation. The foundation stone of the town hall was laid at the beginning of the fifteenth century, but very little progress was made till after 1421. and it was not completed till 1486; the beautiful Hall of the Bakers opposite, now called La Maison du Rot, dated from the following century; the grand old church of Not re- Dame du Sablon, where most of the trade companies had their chapels, was built in the course of the four- teenth century, the greater portion of it probably after 1421. The church of St. Gudule, dedicated to St. Michael, the grandest church in Brussels, is rather a monument of the Dukes of Brabant, than of the burghers. The foundation stone was probably laid towards the close of the twelfth century, but it was not completed till lfi53. Its stained glass (sixteenth to nineteenth century) is famous, especially that in the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, donated (1540-475 by Beveral Catholic kings ami queens in honour of tin Miraculous Hosts preserved in St. Gudule since 1370 when (on Good Friday) sever.il Jews stole from the tabernacle of the church of St. Catherine a number of consecrated Hosts and sacri- legiously transfixed them in their synagogue. The Hosts, it is Baid, bled miraculously; eventually some of them were deposited in the church of St. Gudule, while others were kept at Notre-Dame de La ( 'hapelle, whence they disappeared in 1.579. But the guilty parties were discovered, some were burned alive. and others were banished from Brabant for ever. An annual procession on the Sunday after 15 July, per- petuates the memory of this event, and on this oc- casion the identical Hosts are exposed in St. Gudule for the veneration of the faithful (Corblet, "Hist, de
lT.Ueharistie". Paris, 1SX.-,. II, 485-486; P.alleydic.
"Hist, de Ste-Gudule et du St-Sacrement de Miracle",
. 1859; Matagne, "Precis historiques",
Paris, 1870). Other noteworthy churches are: the
Chapelle de l'Expiation built in 1436 on the site of
the above-mentioned synagogue, in expiation of the
sacrilege; Notre-Dame de La Chapelle (1216-1485),
a Gothic and Romanesque building, after St. Gudule
the finest of the medieval churches of Brussels; Notre-
Dame-des-Victoires or du Sablon, Flemish Gothic,
founded in 1304 by the Guild of Crossbowmen; the
barocco church ot the Beguines (10.57-76). The
other churches of the city proper are: St. Catherine,
Sts. Jean ct Etiennc, Notre-Dame du l'inistere, St.
Jacques sur Caudenberg, St. Nicholas, Riches-Claires,
Notre-Dame de Bon Secours, St. Josse-ten-Noode
(Bruyn, Tresor artistique des eglises de Bruxelles,
Louvain, 1882). The famous guild houses in the
market place, of which there are no less than seven-
teen, were not erected until after the bombardment
of 1695, when the old guild houses were all destroyed.
which proves, that at the close of the seventeenth
century the masons of Brussels were still cunning
workers.
Brussels is noted for its magnificent system of boulevards. The Place Royale is one of the noblest squares in modern Europe, while the Grand Place in the heart of the old town is equally remarkable as a medieval square. Around it are gathered the Hotel de Ville, said to be the noblest piece of civil archi-
Hotel i>
tecture in Europe, the Maison du Roi, or former gov-
ernment-house, and the seventeen famous guild
houses or halls of the industrial corporations (butchers,
brewers, tailors, carpenters, painters, etc.). These
guild houses were erected after the bombardment of
169.5, when the old buildings were destroyed. The
modern Palais de Justice is the largest architectural
work of the nineteenth century, it rises on a massive
basis that measures 590 by 560 feet, and recalls by
its imposing bulk some vast Egyptian or Assyrian
structure.
RELIGIOUS Life.— There are three episcopal edu- cational institutes, among them the Institul Saint
-Louis (about loo teachers), with departments ol philosophy, letters, natural sciences, and a com- mercial school. The city is divided into four dean- St. Gudule and three in the faubourgs. Then- are 37 parishes in the city and faubourgs, and in the city proper 72 priests, II parishes, and 16 churches. The religious orders are numerous, among them Do- minicans, Capuchins, Minor Conventual . Jesuits, Redemptorists, Carmelites, Servites, Barnabites, Alexians, etc. There are also si inities
of teaching brother-, principally Christian Bro1 The religious houses of women in looo numbered about 80, divided among many orders and congrega- tions, and devoted to various education J
table works. The Hospital Saint-Jean (1000) has
600 i" d , th.it ..i Saint Pierre 635. I hi n ire M ho - pices and refuges for the aged, poor, and insane,
