The earliest charter to the citizens of Ghent was that granted by Count Philip of Flanders between 1169 and 1191. It did little more than arrange for the administration of justice by nominated jurats (scabini) under the count’s bailli. Far more comprehensive was the second charter, granted by Philip’s widow Mathilda, after his death on crusade in 1191, as the price paid for the faithfulness of the city to her cause. The magistrates of the city were still nominated scabini (fixed at thirteen), but their duties and rights were strictly defined and the liberties of the citizens safe-guarded; the city, moreover, received the right to fortify itself and even individuals within it to fortify their houses. This charter was confirmed and extended by Count Baldwin VIII. when he took over the city from Mathilda, an important new provision being that general rules for the government of the city were only to be made by arrangement between the count or his officials and the common council of the citizens. The burghers thus attained to a very considerable measure of self-government. A charter of 1212 of Count Ferdinand (of Portugal) and his wife Johanna introduced a modified system of election for the scabini; a further charter (1228) fixed the executive at 39 members, including scabini and members of the commune, and ordained that the bailli of the count and his servientes, like the podestàs of Italian cities, were not to be natives of Ghent.
Thus far the constitution of the city had been wholly aristocratic; in the 13th century the patricians seem to have been united into a gild (Commans-gulde) from whose members the magistrates were chosen. By the 14th century, however, the democratic craft gilds, notably that of the weavers, had asserted themselves; the citizens were divided for civic and military purposes into three classes; the rich (i.e. those living on capital), the weavers and the members of the 52 other gilds. In the civic executive, as it existed to the time of Charles V., the deans of the two lower classes sat with the scabini and councillors.
The constitution and liberties of the city, which survived its incorporation in Burgundy, were lost for a time as a result of the unsuccessful rising against Duke Philip the Good (1450). The citizens, however, retained their turbulent spirit. After the death of Mary of Burgundy, who had resided in the city, they forced her husband, the archduke Maximilian, to conclude the treaty of Arras (1482). They were less fortunate in their opposition to Maximilian’s son, the emperor Charles V. In 1539 they refused, on the plea of their privileges, to contribute to a general tax laid on Flanders, and when Charles’s sister Mary, the governess of the Netherlands, seized some merchants as bail for the payment, they retaliated by driving out the nobles and the adherents of Charles’s government. The appearance of Charles himself, however, with an overwhelming force quelled the disturbance; the ringleaders were executed, and all the property and privileges of the city were confiscated. In addition, a fine of 150,000 golden gulden was levied on the city, and used to build the “Spanish Citadel” on the site of what is now the public park.
In the long struggle of the Netherlands against Spain, Ghent took a conspicuous part, and it was here that, on the 8th of November 1576, was signed the instrument, known as the Pacification of Ghent, which established the league against Spanish tyranny. In 1584, however, the city had to surrender on onerous terms to the prince of Parma.
The horrors of war and of religious persecution, and the consequent emigration or expulsion of its inhabitants, had wrecked the prosperity of Ghent, the recovery of which was made impossible by the closing of the Scheldt. The city was captured by the French in 1698, 1708 and 1745. After 1714 it formed part of the Austrian Netherlands, and in 1794 became the capital of the French department of the Scheldt. In 1814 it was incorporated in the kingdom of the United Netherlands, and it was here that Louis XVIII. of France took refuge during the Hundred Days. Here too was signed (December 24, 1814) the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States of America. After 1815 Ghent was for a time the centre of Catholic opposition to Dutch rule, as it is now that of the Flemish movement in Belgium. During the 19th century its prosperity rapidly increased. In 1866–1867, however, a serious outbreak of cholera again threatened it with ruin; but improved sanitation, the provision of a supply of pure water and the demolition of a mass of houses unfit for habitation soon effected a radical cure.
See L. A. Warnkönig, Flandrische Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte bis 1305 (3 vols., Tübingen, 1835–1842), and Gueldorf, Hist. de Gand, translated from Warnkönig, with corrections and additions (Brussels, 1846); F. de Potter, Gent van den oudsten tijd tot heden (6 vols., Ghent, 1883–1891); Van Duyse, Gand monumental et pittoresque (Brussels, 1886); de Vlaminck, Les Origines de la ville de Gand (Brussels, 1891); Annales Gandenses, ed. G. Funck-Brentano (Paris, 1895); Vuylsteke, Oorkondenboek der stad Gent (Ghent, 1900, &c.); Karl Hegel, Städte und Gilden (Leipzig, 1891), vol. ii. p. 175, where further authorities are cited. For a comprehensive bibliography, including monographs and published documents, see Ulysse Chevalier, Répertoire des sources hist. Topo-bibliogr., s.v. “Gand.”
GHETTO, formerly the street or quarter of a city in which Jews were compelled to live, enclosed by walls and gates which were locked each night. The term is now used loosely of any locality in a city or country where Jews congregate. The derivation of the word is doubtful. In documents of the 11th century the Jew-quarters in Venice and Salerno are styled “Judaca” or “Judacaria.” At Capua in 1375 there was a place called San Nicolo ad Judaicam, and later elsewhere a quarter San Martino ad Judaicam. Hence it has been suggested Judaicam became Italian Giudeica and thence became corrupted into ghetto. Another theory traces it to “gietto,” the common foundry at Venice near which was the first Jews’ quarters of that city. More probably the word is an abbreviation of Italian borghetto diminutive of borgo a “borough.”
The earliest regular ghettos were established in Italy in the 11th century, though Prague is said to have had one in the previous century. The ghetto at Rome was instituted by Paul IV. in 1556. It lay between the Via del Pianto and Ponte del Quattro Capi, and comprised a few narrow and filthy streets. It lay so low that it was yearly flooded by the Tiber. The Jews had to sue annually for permission to live there, and paid a yearly tax for the privilege. This formality and tax survived till 1850. During three centuries there were constant changes in the oppressive regulations imposed upon the Jews by the popes. In 1814 Pius VII. allowed a few Jews to live outside the ghetto, and in 1847 Pius IX. decided to destroy the gates and walls, but public opinion hindered him from carrying out his plans. In 1870 the Jews petitioned Pius IX. to abolish the ghetto; but it was to Victor Emmanuel that this reform was finally due. The walls remained until 1885.
During the middle ages the Jews were forbidden to leave the ghetto after sunset when the gates were locked, and they were also imprisoned on Sundays and all Christian holy days. Where the ghetto was too small for the carrying on of their trades, a site beyond its wall was granted them as a market, e.g. the Jewish Tandelmarkt at Prague. Within their ghettos the Jews were left much to their own devices, and the more important ghettos, such as that at Prague, formed cities within cities, having their own town halls and civic officials, hospitals, schools and rabbinical courts. Fires were common in ghettos and, owing to the narrowness of the streets, generally very destructive, especially as from fear of plunder the Jews themselves closed their gates on such occasions and refused assistance. On the 14th of June 1711 a fire, the largest ever known in Germany, destroyed within twenty-four hours the ghetto at Frankfort-on-Main. Other notable ghetto fires are that of Bari in 1030 and Nikolsburg in 1719. The Jews were frequently expelled from their ghettos, the most notable expulsions being those of Vienna (1670) and Prague (1744–1745). This latter exile was during the war of the Austrian Succession, when Maria Theresa, on the ground that “they were fallen into disgrace,” ordered Jews to leave Bohemia. The empress was, however, induced by the protests of the powers, especially of England and Holland, to revoke the decree. Meantime the Jews, ignorant of the revocation, petitioned to be allowed to return in payment of a yearly tax. This tax the Bohemian Jews paid until 1846. The most important ghettos were those at Venice, Frankfort, Prague and Trieste. By the middle of the 19th century the ghetto system
