The institutional framework
1.2 The larger ecclesiastical framework
1.2.3 Horizontal relations: the other ecclesiastical institutions in Ghent
During the boom of the 13th century, many new convents and monasteries were established in Ghent: by Franciscans, Dominicans, Penitents, Augustinians, Carmelites and Cistercians. Beguinages also flourished in this century: Elisabethbegijnhof in 1234, beguinage Ter Hooie in 1268 and Poortakker in 1278.70 The next two centuries brought more religiosity in the form of Carthusians, St John's friars and nuns, Alexians and their female counterparts called the Black Sisters, Grauwe Zusters (Grey Sisters, third order of St Francis), Colettine Poor Clares, Canonesses Regular (Augustinian order), St John’s knights, Brethren of the Common Life and more beguines. Furthermore, medieval Ghent had 11 hospitals and about 40 religious brotherhoods. The churches, abbeys and all these
68 De Clercq, ‘De Kerkelijke Instellingen in Gent in Verband Met de Oudste Stedelijke Geschiedenis’, 129; L.
Reyntens, ‘De S. Pietersabdij En de Gentse Parochiekerken. Ontstaan En Wederzijdse Strijd Om Hun Rechten’, Collationes Gandavenses 2 (1951): 199–202; Walter Simons, Stad En Apostolaat. De Vestiging van de Bedelorden in Het Graafschap Vlaanderen ca. 1225- ca. 1350, vol. 49, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie Voor Wetenschappen, Letteren En Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse Der Letteren 121 (Brussels: AWLSK (Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten), 1987).
69 Jean Dumoulin, ‘La Paroisse Urbaine à La Fin Du Moyen Âge. Le Cas de Quatre Villes de l’ancien Diocèse de Tournai: Bruges, Gand, Lille et Tournai’, in La Paroisse En Questions. Actes Du Colloque de Saint-Ghislain, 25 Novembre 1995, ed. Yannick Coutiez and Daniel Van Overstraeten (Mons, Saint-Ghislain: Cercle royal d’histoire et d’archéologie, 1997), 99.
70 Boone, ‘Een Middeleeuwse Metropool’, 55–56; Johan Decavele, ‘De Geschoeide Karmelieten Te Gent (1272-1796)’, Kultureel Jaarboek Voor de Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen 27, no. 2 (n.d.): 1–37.
initiatives and foundations strongly shaped Ghent and by around the middle of the 16th century, the city was home to about 4500 ecclesiastical figures.71
Again, what is interesting is the intertwinement of lay initiatives and their religious life with many of these institutions’ foundations. The convent of the Augustinians, for example, was financially aided by Gerelmus Borluut, a nobleman of a wealthy Ghent family who had studied with the Augustinians in Paris. This gave him the symbolic title of “founder”, even though the convent had been erected centuries earlier.72 Members of various social groups gathered within the convents of the mendicants. The small guilds came together at the convent of the Augustinians. Gatherings of the smaller towns around Ghent and the castellanies of Flanders were held both at the Augustinians and the Dominicans. The latter order was also in charge of the safekeeping of the privileges of the butchers' guild, while the documents of the town's privileges were kept for a long period of time in the convent of the Franciscans. Both the Franciscans and Dominicans were paid by the magistracy to celebrate a daily mass at the chapel of the schepenhuis (aldermen's house). All four of the mendicant orders: the Carmelites, the Franciscans, the Dominicans and the Augustinians, received gifts and alms, often in the form of food, from the city.73
Whenever a new convent was established in Ghent, an agreement was made with the abbot who had jurisdiction over that area and the bishop. When the Carmelites came to St Michael’s parish in 1272, it was agreed that if they wanted to preach or take confessions, they first had to ask permission from the bishop of Tournai. The agreement also stipulated that only brethren of their own order were to be buried in their churchyard. Furthermore, the church was only allowed one bell, which could be no bigger than that of the Dominicans and Franciscans. They had to be submissive to the abbot of St Bavon and the contract mentioned the annual gift of a golden obool to the abbey. As an obool only had the value of half a denier parisis, and was never in gold, this transaction must be understood figuratively. There were also some regulations governing their behaviour towards the parish of St Michael. Each year, on the feast of the church consecration, they had to assist the priests in the religious services. Besides these
71 Cloet, Het Bisdom Gent (1559-1991). Vier Eeuwen Geschiedenis., 19–20; See also Ruben Mantels et al., eds., Geloven in Gent: Plaatsen van Het Religieuze Verleden (Ghent: Academia Press, 2015).
72 Ambrosius Keelhoff, Geschiedenis van Het Klooster Der Eerwaarde Paters Eremyten Augustynen Te Gent (Ghent, 1864), 4–41; Simons, Stad En Apostolaat. De Vestiging van de Bedelorden in Het Graafschap Vlaanderen ca. 1225- ca. 1350, 49:153-154*; See for more information on the family Borluut in Ghent: Frederik Buylaert, Eeuwen van Ambitie. De Adel in Laatmiddeleeuws Vlaanderen, vol. 21, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie Voor Wetenschappen, Letteren En Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse Der Letteren (Brussels: Lannoo, 2010), 290–93. *Indeed Keelhoff misinterpreted this title of “founder”.
73 Rogghé, ‘Gent in de XIVe En XVe Eeuw. De Geestelijkheid En Haar Tijd’, 128–32.
conditions, financial arrangements were made to compensate the parish church for the loss of income due to parishioners offering or leaving their legacy to the Carmelites.74
Other ecclesiastical institutions were also found within the boundaries of the St James parish. The abbot of the abbey of Baudeloo, which was situated outside Ghent near Sinaai, was allowed a refuge in the city near the Ottogracht from the second half of the 13th century onwards.75 From the beginning of the 14th century, the St James parish housed a cloister of the Grauwe Zusters, a congregation of St Catherine also called the penitents.
After a move to the parish of St John, they returned to St James at the beginning of the 15th century. The nuns followed the rules of poverty and focused on prayer and needlework, only accepting alms for their livelihood. They had a strong tie with the parish church as they washed the church linen and repaired the robes and other textiles.
The churchwarden accounts are proof of this relationship. Another cloister in the parish in the 15th century was the convent of the Poor Clares. They lived in Goudstraat. Except for an occasional reference to a funeral of a parishioner in this convent, the Poor Clares are not mentioned in the accounts.76,
The many different institutions did not always live peacefully alongside each other.
The Franciscans, for example, came into conflict with the abbey at various times.77 Some form of rivalry could also be seen between the mendicant orders and parish priests.78 Even the peaceful Grauwe Zusters managed to come into conflict with the abbot of St Peter.
When they built a chapel in 1462 without permission from the abbot, claiming the pope had given his consent 20 years earlier, a long discussion followed. In the end, the abbot allowed the nuns to build the chapel, but demanded they met specific conditions. They could not have a separate graveyard, nor build a bell tower, and the nuns had to make sure the parish church was not disadvantaged by their services. Furthermore, they had to visit the church of the abbey on the feast day of St Amalberga and offer a candle with a silver denier in it. Moreover, the contract between the abbot and the abbess stated that the sisters had to pray the Miserere at the grave of the last deceased abbot and pray and sing prayers at the funeral of every abbot and monk of the abbey.79 Clearly, the abbey had
74 Decavele, ‘De Geschoeide Karmelieten Te Gent (1272-1796)’, 5.
75 Verstraeten, De Gentse Sint-Jakobsparochie, 25–27, 83–85, 258-261(I).
76 Verstraeten, 86, 263-266 (I). State Archives Ghent (RAG), Oud archief van de kerkfabriek en parochie Sint-Jacobs te Gent (OKA St Jacobs Gent), no 362 (Churchwarden account), folio (fo) 15 recto (ro): “Ontfaen voor vier tortsen ghelevert inde uuijtfaert ende begravijnghe van de weduwe Straetmans tsente Claren begraven – VIII schellingen grooten”. Documents numbered 341 to 514 are churchwarden accounts.
77 Reyntens, ‘De S. Pietersabdij En de Gentse Parochiekerken. Ontstaan En Wederzijdse Strijd Om Hun Rechten’, 203–4.
78 Rogghé, ‘Gent in de XIVe En XVe Eeuw. De Geestelijkheid En Haar Tijd’, 132.
79 Verstraeten, De Gentse Sint-Jakobsparochie, 264.
an important say in most ecclesiastical matters and as the parish churches were an important source of income the abbey took measures to safeguard the central position of the parish church.
Another important institution in the parish of St James was St John’s hospital, situated across from the church on Vlasmarkt. This was however not a purely ecclesiastical initiative but a mainly civic institution with some ecclesiastical ties. A limited number of poor, sick people and mentally ill people were taken care of by nuns and friars. In the oldest document of St John’s, dating from 1196, both magistrates and clergy were mentioned as responsables.80 The magistracy had a say in the workings and regulations of St John and they would sometimes take disciplinary measures. In the 14th century, the magistracy decided that only four friars and eight sisters would be allowed to work in the hospital. The practical organization was in the hands of one of the nuns, who was called the meesterigghe. The nuns had their own chapel in the hospital, but attended mass in the church of St James on Sundays.81