Des « gens de métier » à la tête d’un hôpital

Enjeux de la fondation et de la gestion hospitalière à Bruxelles et Malines au XIVe siècle

Samenvatting

Craft Guild Members at the Head of the Hospital. Questions Surrounding the Establishment and the Management of Hospitals in Brussels and Mechelen in the Fourteenth Century. During the first half of the fourteenth century, the cities of the duchy of Brabant witnessed profound transformations. The economic prosperity offered numerous opportunities to the thriving urban societies. Among the characteristic developments of this period, one can highlight the progressive emancipation and organisation of tradesmen on one side, and a renewal in the hospitals foundations on the other. One might think that these two trends are only loosely connected, but they are – for some part – deeply intertwined. This article explores the participation and the investment both in terms of time and money of tradesmen for short term stays in several hospitals or gasthuizen. In Mechelen, the hospital of Saint Julian founded by a textile worker maintained the link with this trade through its later administrators. The origin of Saint Jacob in the same city is more obscure; however, the hospital fraternity, chairmen and debtors showed close ties with the fishers’ and boatmen trades. Many different skills from weavers to dyers and butchers gathered round the foundation of Saint Jacob in Brussels. The meat workers took on an important role in the administration of the hospital and its fraternity. The same trade was also later involved in the foundation of Saint Cornelius on the other side of the city. The founders of Saint Julian in Brussels, two tanner brothers, brought their social and trade network along while building their hospital and legacy, which strengthened the ties within their tanners’ neighbourhood. The hospital administrators indeed ensured the continuity of the mission defined by the founders. In these hospitals, the (mostly) unpaid position was always held by tradesmen. If we analyse their collective profile, we can demonstrate that they belonged, however, to an elite within this social class. They were an elite within their respective profession, occupying (for example) the most stalls in the ducal butcher’s hall in Brussels. They also belonged to the wealthiest part of society, giving the most substantial contributions to the restoration of the patron saint’s shrine in Mechelen. They also rose high above their co-workers in terms of political representation in the city councils. Their involvement in hospital foundation and administration might answer several goals. First, it was a personal religious gesture as well as a public ostentatious one. The hospital could also serve the administrator and its group through mutual help and also in terms of rents and loans. It might have enabled a cohesive and political power for the tradesmen group trying to emerge. The hospital appears to be a very convenient tool to use according to various economic, political or social purposes.