History
Alix Rosoit and Arnould IV Oudenaarde are prominent figures in the 13th century and they leave important traces in the region: the hospital and the ramparts in Lessines (there still is a tower along the Dender, near the hospital, while another tower and a walkway are visible behind the new post office), in Oudenaarde on the right bank of the Schelde, opposite St. Walburga, the small church Our Lady of Pamele, jewel of the transition from Romanesque to Gothic.
Lord Arnold IV, over 60 years of age in 1242, was probably hoping for a peaceful end to his life. The King Louis IX of France, at war against King Henry III of England, took advantage of the treaty of allegiance signed earlier by the Flemish lords to call for help. Arnold IV was thus forced to return to war despite his age. He took care to draw up his will and to include a provision in it on behalf of the poor: the rich and powerful were in the habit of providing for a substantial donation of money to be distributed to the poor on the day of their funeral, in the hope of redeeming their sins and entering paradise.
Wounded at the Battle of Taillebourg near Poitiers, in 1242, Arnold died a few weeks later. His wife Alice, inheriting a considerable fortune, would undertake to fulfil her husband’s last wishes. Rather than distributing the money, she probably had the idea of “investing” in founding a hospital for the poor.
The hospital of Lessines is contemporary of the whole hospital movement which developed in Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. As a matter of fact, many hospitals were created, at the end of the 12th century, in the earldoms of Flandres and Hainaut. The St. John’s Hospital in Bruges, founded around 1180, was one of the first, one of the most famous and one of the best preserved. The hospitals of St. John of Damme, the Hospice Comtesse of Lille, Our Lady of the Bijloke in Ghent, the hospitals of Tournai and Brussels etc. are also worth mentioning. The Hospices of Beaune were founded only much later, in the middle of 15th century.
These hospitals were intended to accommodate the poor indigent patients, the needy of society. At the time, populations in the towns, sheltered within the circle of ramparts, were experiencing substantial demographic growth. Yet there was no form of social security, the small craftsmen of tradespeople who got sick very quickly lost their livelihoods and risked being left on the street, forced to beg to survive.
This social situation soon posed problems for the city governors who attempted to solve the problem by creating hospitals. Those institutions received whoever was unable to pay for “private medicine” at home, reserved for nobility and middle classes.
Our hospital therefore emerged in a period when Lessines was triving, having experienced a certain amount of development since the 12th century. The cloth industry was booming and trade was expanding owing to the building of a convered market and especially on account of the Dendre, the river which flows under the hospital and which enables cloth and other products to be transported abroad.
Nonetheless, that development and the increase in population in Lessines were going to foster the outbreak of diseases and epidemics. Since the leper quarters and the Beguine convent were insufficient to cater for the needs or the poor, it became necessary to open a hospital shelter.
The oldest document in the hospital records is a charter (June 1243) of John d’Oudenaarde (son of Alix and Arnould) allocationg 100 pounds of annual income to the hospital, a considerable amount to be taken from the estates of Maubeuge an Feignies belonging to Alix. The institution of the hospital is certanly prior to that.
When Alix de Rosoit founded this hospital by establishing a religious community there, her intention was twofold: to provide for prayer for the eternal rest of the soul of her husband, Arnould of Oudenaarde, and to do an act of charity by welcoming “the sick whose health is such that they are unable to go and beg from door to door…”.
In the Middle-Ages, religion and everyday life were closely intermingled. For the founder, behind the act of charity was hidden her concern to redeem the sins of the lineage in order to enter paradise.
In actual fact, the hospital created solidarity on two levels: on the one hand between the benefactors of the institution and the poor people who were housed there, on the other hand, between the spiritual elevation of the suffering of the sick and the moral destitution of the well-off donors.
Perhaps Alix de Rosoit also thought about strengthening the position of the Oudenaarde family, by gaining the favour of the bishopric and the recognition of the people of Lessines.
For centuries, the hospital of Lessines was to have the benefit of donations and financial privileges of all kinds, it would be protected by kings, princes, dukes, popes and bishops.
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