Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/43

 BRUSSELS

21

BRUSSELS

fertile plain at the foot of Mount Olympus, it became one of the chief cities of Roman Bithynia and re- ceived at an early date the Christian teaching. At least three of its bishops, Sts. Alexander, Patritius, and Timothy, suffered martyrdom during the persecu- tions (Lequien, I, 615-620, numbers only twenty- two bishops to 1721, but, this list might be increased easily l. The see was first subject to Nicomedia, metropolis of Bithynia Prima; later, as early at least as the thirteenth century, it became an exempt arch- bishopric. In the neighbouring country and at the foot of Mount Olympus stood many monasteries; from the eighth to the fourteenth century it shared with Mount Athos the honour of being a principal centre of Greek monachism. In 1327 it was taken by Sultan Orkhan after a siege of ten years ami remained the capital of the Ottoman Empire till 1453. Brusa is to-day the chief town of the Vilayet of Khodavendighiar. It is celebrated for its numer- ous and beautiful mosques and tombs of the Sultans. Its mineral anil thermal waters are still renowned. The silk-worm is cultivated throughout the neigh- bouring territory; there are in the town more than fifty silk-mills. Brusa has about 80,000 inhabitants, of whom 6000 are Greeks, 9000 Gregorian Armenians, 2500 Jews, 800 Catholic Armenians, 200 Latins, and a few Protestants. The Assumptionists conduct the Latin parish and a college. The Sisters of Charity have a hospital, an orphans' institute, and a school. Brusa is still a metropolis for the Greeks. It is also a bishopric for Gregorian and Catholic Armenians; the latter number about 4000. S. Vailhk.

Brussels (from Bruk Si I, marsh-castle; Flem. Brussel, Ger. Brussel, IT. Bmxelles), capital of the Kingdom of Belgium. Its population at the end of 1905 (including the eight distinct communes that make up its faubourgs or suburbs) was 612,401. The city grew up on the banks of the little River Serine, one of the affluents of the Scheldt, whose course through the old town is now arched over and covered by the inner boulevards. The medieval city gained steadily in importance, owing to its position on the main inland commercial highway between the chief commercial centres of the Low Countries and Cologne. It is now connected with the Sambre by the Charle- roi Canal, and with the Scheldt by the Willebroek Canal which has been considerably enlarged since 1901 and is destined to justify the title of "seaport" that Brussels has borne since L895.

History. — The earliest settlement of Brussels is attributed by tradition to S. Gery (Gaugericus) , Bishop of Cambrai at the end of the sixth century; he is said to have built a village on an island in the S. nne (Place Saint-Gery), also a small chapel ("Ana- leeta Bollandiana" 1888, VII. 387 398; L. Van der Essen, "Les 'Vitse' des saints merovingiens", Lou- vain, 1907; 1!. Flahault, "Notes et documents relar tifs an eulte de S. Ge>y", Dunkerque, 1890). From the eighth century it was one of the villas or tem- porary residences of the Prankish kings, but is first mentioned in history towards the end of the ninth century as Broselia (dwelling mi the marsh). It was later a part of the dower (if Gerberga, sister of Em- peror Otto the (Ireat (936-973) on her marriage to i liselbert of Lorraine. Duke Charles of Lorraine, the last but one of the direct descendants of Charlemagne, I to have been born at Brussels. He certainly made it his chief place of abode, and brought thither from the Abbey of Mortzelle, which hail fallen into

the hands of a robber chut", the bones of his kins- woman, St. Gudule (979), who has ever since been regarded as tin' patron -ami of the town.

Upon tin' death of Charles' only son Otto (1004)

without direct li<ir~. tin castles of Brussels, Vilvord,

Louvain, and all the adjoining estates, the nucleus of the territory which later on formed the Duchy of

Brabant, fell to his brother-in-law Lambert Balderic, who sometimes in his charters styles himself Count of Brussels and sometimes Count of Louvain, the man to whom the Dukes of Brabant traced their descent. There remain of the Brussels of this period the nave anil aisles of the old parish church of St. Nicholas, the chapel of the Holy Cross in the church of Notre- Dame de LaChapelle, some fragments of the forti- fications with which Lambert Balderic surrounded the city in 1040, and, most important of all, the sub- terranean church of St. Guy at Anderlecht which remains to-day as the builder planned it.

From the twelfth century the Dukes of Lower Lor- raine and Brabant, and later the Counts of Louvain, made Brussels their residence and though it suffered, like most medieval cities, from pestilence, fire, and pillage, it grew to lie a populous centre of life and commerce and followed all the vicissitudes of medie- val Brabant, with which it fell to the Dukes of Bur- gundy, and on the death of Charles the Bold (1477) to his heirs, the Austrian Hapsburgs. In the fif- teenth century the Dukes of Burgundy, heirs of both Brabant and Flanders, held court at Brussels, and being French in speech and habits and surrounded by French knights, courtiers, and civil servants, gradually introduced at Brussels and elsewhere the French language until it became the speech of the local nobility and the upper classes, much to the detriment of the native Flemish. The latter, how- ever, held its own among the common people and the burghers, and remains yet the speech of the ma- jority of the citizens. Charles V made Brussels the capital of the Low Countries, but under Philip II, it was always a centre of patriotic opposition to Spanish rule. In 1577 was signed the peace known as the "Brussels Union" between the Spanish au- thority and the rebellious Belgians; in 1585 the city was besieged and captured by the Spanish general Alessaiiilni Farnese.

In 1695 it was almost entirely consumed by fire on occasion of the siege by Marechal Villeroi. In the seventeenth ami eighteenth centuries it was under Austrian rule, with brief exceptions. From 1794 to 1814 it was incorporated with France by Napoleon, as head of the department of the Dyle. In the latter year it became with The Hague a capital of the new Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1830 it was the seat of the Belgian Revolution against Dutch misrule, and in the same year was made the capital of the new Kingdom of Belgium. (See BELGIUM.)

Government. — The municipal organization of Brussels was at first of a very simple character. It consisted of an unpaiel magistracy, a College of Al- dermen appointed by the sovereign for life from among tin- chief freeholders of the city, of which they u.re held to lie representatives. It was presided over by a paid officer who bore the title of Amman, was the direct delegate of the sovereign and in all things the representative of his authority. Alongside the College of Aldermen was the Merchants' Guild. Probably this corporation had legal existence before the institution of the magistracy; it is certain that by the end of the twelfth century it was firmly es- tablished. It exercised from the first much influence on public affairs, and contributed in great measure to the full expansion of municipal self-rule. With the increase of the population, the old machinery no longer sufficed for the maintenance of public peace and the regulation of trade, and the burghers, united as they were in the powerful organization of their guild, were strong enough to take the matter into their own hands. Hence was formed the Council of Jurors, a subsidiary body annually elected by the people for policing the city and managing municipal affairs. The members also participated with the

College of Aldermen in the administration of justice. Though there is no record of the Council of Jurors be-