The spirit of the Flemish burgesses, ordinarily inclined to be jeering and satirical, nevertheless inspired the greatest poet of thirteenth-century Flemish literature, Jacob Van Maerlandt, called “the father of all the Flemish poets.” He founded in Flanders the didactical _genre_, adapted to the practical and sensible character of the nation. His object was to give to laymen access to the knowledge hitherto monopolized by the clergymen. His writings were in the field of natural history, politics and ethics, and sacred and profane history. He enjoyed great success and achieved the honor of seeing his works translated into French. Maerlandt, although he seemed to despise the French poets because he found their work too frivolous, was not a political writer. His greatness lay in the fact that he exercised a decisive influence on Flemish culture. He brought the Flemish language to the rank of a really literary language and developed it into an instrument capable of expressing the national genius. The soul of Flanders lives in Maerlandt’s poems. There yet remains to be considered the artistic development during the early period of the communes. French influence was prominent in the thirteenth century in the southern and western parts of the country. Tournai, of course, remained the artistic center of Flanders, and it was through Tournai that Gothic art was introduced into Belgium, just as Romantic art had earlier been introduced through Liège. The new choir of the cathedral of Tournai (_ca._ 1250) is remarkably French in its plan and methods of construction. But, on the whole, the school of Tournai does not merely copy the French style. It possesses its own originality; its type is full of charm and elegance. Its influence, thanks to the use so frequently made of the stone of Tournai, is overwhelming in Flanders, especially in Ghent and Bruges and in Hainaut. Brabant, on the other hand, has a style of its own, owing to the fact that it uses its own local materials, found in its numerous quarries. There is a wide difference between the style of St. John’s Church at Ghent and St. Gudula’s Church at Brussels, although their choirs are nearly contemporaneous. In the course of the fifteenth century the school of Brabant became dominant. In another region--that part of Flanders near the sea and known as “maritime Flanders”--stone from Tournai was not used because of the difficulty of access, and here there is also to be found an independence of style. There brick was made use of in place of stone, and, although the inspiration of the architecture came from Tournai, the style of that school underwent some change, owing to the difference in the materials employed. The houses of Bruges reveal the ornaments in brick peculiar to that style.