_The Serfs of St. Peter_
Though Lambert Longbeard was the first hereditary Count of Louvain, he
was certainly not the founder of the city of Louvain, or even of the
Castle and its dependencies--the 'Old Bourg of Louvain,' as it was
called in later days--which he made his capital.
The city dates from a much later period than Lambert's day, and there is
a tradition that some Merovingian noble had built himself a home on the
site of the Old Bourg soon after the Frankish invasion. Certainly since
Arnulph's victory over the Danes there had been a fortress there, which,
until Lambert's day, was held in the Emperor's name by a series of
provincial governors, one of whom was Bruno's friend St. Ansfried. This
building, which has long ago disappeared, and of the site of which even
we are ignorant, is said to have stood on an island formed by two
branches of the Dyle, and there is little doubt that it was for a time
at least the home of Lambert I., but the Counts of Louvain did not long
continue to dwell there. Most likely, on account of the frequent floods
and the dampness of the situation, they soon migrated to a new castle,
built on the height now called Cæsar's Hill--some vestiges of it still
remain--and which, in all probability, was built by Lambert II.--Lambert
Longbeard's younger son, Lambert surnamed Balderick. A name to be
remembered this, for the man who bore it was the real founder of
Louvain: it was Lambert Balderick who built and munificently endowed
the great Collegiate Church of St. Peter, the church around which, as we
have already seen, the city grew up, and which in its early days was its
nursing mother. The collegiate chapter was invested with all the rights
and privileges of a great monastic corporation, and the yeomen and serfs
who dwelt on their lands, and who formed what was called St. Peter's
family, participated in their immunities, and were submitted only to
their jurisdiction--no small boon, for the conditions of life on an
ecclesiastical estate were far more conducive to liberty and progress
than were those on lay domains. There was no _taille_, nor _droit de
gite_, nor forced labour for the maintenance of ramparts; Church land
was universally held to be the patrimony of the saint to whom it was
dedicated, to violate it was sacrilege, a crime which the greediest
feudal robber was generally loth to commit, and thus, amid the turmoil
and warfare with which the surrounding country was so often vexed, its
inhabitants for the most part enjoyed the blessing of peace. Further,
justice was administered by themselves, and they were altogether free
from State exactions. Indeed, so jealous was the Provost of Louvain of
this privilege that he would suffer no civil officer to sojourn within
his borders.
Though the landed estate of the collegiate chapter was not a large one,
the 'Petermen' or lay members of St. Peter's family seem to have been
sufficiently numerous. The Provost had the right to admit outsiders, his
conditions were not onerous--a trifling entrance fee, generally two
_deniers_ and an undertaking in the event of marriage to pay a small
tribute, and upon these terms a host of free men and liberated serfs
were glad enough to barter their liberty, to quote the characteristic
phrase of the charters of the day, 'for a servitude freer than freedom
itself.'
[Illustration: Saint Peter's Louvain]
The privileges and immunities of the Church of St. Peter were not
peculiar to that foundation, almost all the great ecclesiastical
establishments of the Low Countries were similarly favoured; but whereas
in other towns which had grown up on Church land the laymen affiliated
to the religious community which originally owned the soil--the
Martinmen at Utrecht, for example, the men of St. Rombold at Mechlin,
the men of St. Bavo at Ghent, when at last they obtained rights of
citizenship, lost the ecclesiastical privileges and immunities which
hitherto they had enjoyed, at Louvain this was not the case: the
privileges of the Petermen survived long after their obligations to the
institution which conferred them had become a dead letter, and for
centuries too after they had obtained full civil rights. Indeed, by the
opening of the thirteen hundreds, perhaps even earlier, their connection
with the Chapter of St. Peter's had ceased to be anything but a nominal
one: they remained exempt from taxation and were amenable only to their
own court, but the Mayor of Louvain had taken the place of the Provost
in all that appertained to their government. They were still a class
apart, but these men who owed their distinction to servile descent had
now become a rich, influential and aristocratic caste, the cream of the
burgher nobility, and thus they continued until the close of the
seventeen hundreds, and then, at last, 'the men of St. Peter' were
ruthlessly swept away, along with so many other interesting and
time-honoured abuses.
Such was the famous collegiate church which Lambert Balderick founded at
'the place called Looven,' and whose rights and privileges every
successive sovereign of Brabant swore to maintain at his 'Joyous Entry,'
until the days of Albert and Isabel.
So completely identified was it with the town which grew up around its
walls that a likeness of the material fabric was graven on the city
seal, its steeple was the city belfry, the gold and silver pieces coined
at the city mint were called 'Peters,' and proof that a man was a
'Peterman' was held to be sufficient proof that he was a burgher and a
patrician of Louvain. Without any further investigation he was at once
admitted to all the rights of citizenship.