If the conversion to the Catholic faith was mainly the task of the missionaries, the introduction of civilization was mainly the task of the monasteries. Here the Benedictine monks played a very large part, both as civilizers and as colonizers. Their monasteries were, from the sixth century on, centers of economic and intellectual life. While some of their monks attacked the thick forests of Southern and Central Belgium with axes, others engaged in literary labors in the monasteries’ libraries, transcribing the ancient Greek and Latin manuscripts, composing hymns and Lives of Saints, and opening schools for the education of the people. They planted in the very hearts of the people the roots of that strong religious spirit, which has steadily developed, and which has become one of the characteristics of the national spirit of Belgium. Each monastery became a kind of model farm, where the population of the neighborhood could learn the best agricultural methods. In the monastery, too, they could find physicians who knew how to take care of the sick. The monastery, being protected by the respect that was inspired by the saint to whom it was dedicated, was also a place of safety in time of danger. Consequently, dwellings became more and more numerous around the monasteries, and villages developed under their influence and protection. It is not, then, surprising that in the course of time tales and legends developed wherein the founders of those monasteries became the heroes of poetical and sometimes extraordinary adventures. In this manner did the people of mediaeval times express their gratitude for all they owed to those early pioneers of culture and civilization. CHAPTER II THE PERIOD OF FEUDALISM Charles the Great died in 814. His son, Emperor Louis, was a weakling, and after his death the mighty empire of Charles was destroyed by internal troubles and civil war (840). Lotharius, the eldest son of Emperor Louis, endeavored to seize the empire for himself. To prevent this, both his brothers, Louis and Charles, leagued themselves against him and defeated him in the terrible battle of Fontanet, which has been characterized by contemporaries as a “judgment of God.” The peace that was later concluded between the three brothers led to the famous Treaty of Verdun (843), an event of the utmost importance in the history of Belgium.