The Big Celebration

Tongeren had never seen the like. The people of Tongeren were used to the religious pilgrims that thronged the town every seven years for two weeks in July. But this was something completely different. The day was St. Bartholomew’s Day, Tuesday, the 24th of August bishop of in the year of our Lord 1700, and these were not your typical pilgrims. They included three emissaries of the Prince-Bishop of Liège; three professors from the University of Louvain, the largest, oldest, and most prestigious university in all the Low Countries; and twenty-eight physicians from the principality and neighboring towns. And they were in Tongeren, not looking for miracles, but to examine a spring. But not just any spring. Rather they were all brought to this spot for one reason and one reason alone — to prove, once and for all, that the famous spring that Pliny the Elder had described so long ago in his Naturalis Historia was right here in Tongeren! ¹

In 1700 there were really only two serious claimants to Pliny’s fountain. One was the city of Tongeren where everybody was gathered this day. The other was Spa, a hamlet located across the Meuse River in the Ardennes Forest about eight leagues (a little over 60 kilometers) to the southeast of Tongeren.

There was no doubt that Spa had the edge. In 1700 Spa was world famous for its numerous medicinal springs. Dozens of books had been written about Spa waters. Thousands of foreigners flocked there each year to partake in its health-giving waters. Spa waters were bottled and shipped all over Europe. Every country wanted its own Spa. Indeed, the very word “spa” — derived from the name of the hamlet — had become a generic word in the English language that still persists to this day.

In contrast, only a handful of foreigners attended Tongeren’s spring each year. Tongeren, if it was known at all, was known only for its Roman ruins, but that hardly made it special. The events of this St. Bartholomew’s Day were intended to change that once and for always, to prove beyond a doubt that the Tongeren spring was indeed Pliny’s fountain. It was a matter of scientific fact. It was a matter of civic pride. But maybe even more it was a matter of money.

Tungri civitas galliae

It would have helped if Pliny had been more specific about the actual location of the spring. The phrase Tungri civitas galliae is the only geographical reference that Pliny gives. But with so much time past since Pliny’s time, in 1700 there was no general consensus as to what Pliny meant by Tungri civitas galliae. The educated men in attendance at Tongeren that day would certainly have known their Latin and been familiar with the writings of Caesar, Tacitus, et al., but there was still room for a lot of disagreement based on semantic and historical grounds.

Galliae was pretty non-problematic. Any schoolboy would have known that galliae is genitive singular and modifies civitas– “a civitas of Gaul.” They also would have been familiar with Julius Caesar’s firsthand description of his conquest of Gaul from his Commentarii de Bello Gallia (in English “Commentaries on the Gallic War”), especially the classic lines that stuck in every schoolboy head: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres.” ²

The full passage reads in English:

Gaul is divided in three parts, one is inhabited by the Belgae, the other by the Aquitanians, the third part by those who call themselves the Celts, but those we call Gauls. They all have other languages, institutions and laws. The Gauls are separated from the Aquitanians by the Garonne and from the Belgae by the Marne and the Seine. The bravest Gauls are the Belgae, because their culture and inhabitants are located far away from the rest of the province, because few merchants visit them, and because they are close to Germania, which is across the Rhine and with whom they are at war.

Caesar unfortunately did not mention anything about Tungri.

The first on record to mention Tungri was Pliny the Elder himself. Elsewhere in Naturalis Historia all he notes was that the Tungri were one of the several tribes of Gallia Belgica, one of those three parts that Caesar said Gaul was divided into. ³

Tacitus in his Germania added that the Tungri were a tribe of Germanic-speaking people that the Roman authorities moved west of the Rhine river, after the defeat of Ambiorix and the Eburones. The Tungri thus took over the land formerly occupied by the decimated Eburones in what was Roman Gallia. ⁴

But Pliny seems to have meant something other than “The Tungri people have a spring of great renown.” And that is because he puts Tungri in apposition to the noun phrase civitas galliae that immediately follows Tungri. The noun phrase civitas Galliae clarifies what Pliny meant by Tungri. Tungri is a civitas Galliae.

An interesting point of Latin grammar is that while the subject of the first sentence is clearly Tungri which is nominative and plural (the singular is Tunger), the predicate (verb) habet is third-person singular. If Pliny had wanted to suggest that the people called the Tungri had a spring he would have written Tungri…habent. Rather the verb habet agrees with the nominative singular civitas, contrary to rules of good grammar, whether modern English or classical Latin. In modern English, the rule is that “If there is an appositive in the sentence, the verb agrees with the word it modifies, not the appositive.” For example, we would say “The scissors, only one pair, are already dull,” not “The scissors, only one pair, is already dull.” The verb has to agree with the plural “scissors” not the singular “pair.” ⁵

But agreement with the appositive is not that unusual in Latin construction with certain nouns (e.g., civitas, urbs, oppidum) which refer to a particular place, perhaps because the original names of these places were the names of the tribal peoples who occupied them. Over time the plural tribal name begins to be used in a singular sense, It is similar in essence to saying the “The United States is a great country,” a singular sense of the United States that only emerged after the Civil War. (Before the Civil War, the United States was distinctly a plural noun thus one would have said “The United States are a great country.”)

The biggest dispute was over exactly what Pliny meant by civitas (pronounced kiwi-tahs). The earliest writers on the subject believed that by civitas Pliny meant “city” and thus he was referring to “Tungri, a city of Gaul.” In 1700 translating civitas as “city” would have made perfect sense. Classical writers and later writers in Latin often referred to both the ancient and modern town of Tongeren as well as the ancient tribe by the name “Tungri.” Indeed, this equation of the name of the town and tribe is still preserved in the modern French word Tongres which can refer to the town or tribe. ⁶ Indeed, the French word cité (and by extension the English word “city”) derived directly from the Latin word civitas.

But others, mainly Spa supporters, rejected this interpretation of Tungri civitas galliae. They called for a more historical understanding of Pliny’s use of civitas. They claimed that by civitas, Pliny was not using the later sense of a city but rather an earlier sense of a community, or the collective body of the citizens of a community, the Roman counterpart to the Greek concept of a polis. The community could be as small as a city or as large as a state. By extension, it was abstracted to mean the rights and privileges that went with being a citizen of a community. More concretely, it could also mean the physical territory of the community. Metonymically, civitas later came to mean the capital city of a civitas which was essentially the urban part of the city-state. In the years after the collapse of the Roman Empire, the older meaning of civitas in the sense of a city-state, with urban and rural areas combined, was lost. Eventually the compound phrase city-state would even have to be invented to capture the earlier sense of civitas. ⁷

Indeed, those claiming that Pliny intended civitas in a more general city-state sense had a solid argument. In their conquest of Gaul, the Romans divided up the conquered tribes into numerous civitates (plural of civitas) to serve as administrative units of the Roman Empire that generally corresponded to the territory controlled by each of the conquered tribes. Two or more civitates went to make up a province. The names they used to refer to each civitas were generally the name of the dominant tribe. ⁸

As to where this greater civitas of the Tungri was in the 1st century AD at the time Pliny wrote his Naturalis Historia was anybody’s guess, although there was some evidence that was available in 1700.

Firstly, there were no doubts that modern Tongeren lay within this greater Tungri civitas. Indeed every writer accepted that modern Tongeren was the site of the capital of the civitas. The ancient geographer Ptolemy referred to the capital of the Tungri as Atuatucam, and later writers called it Atuatuca Tungrorum or Tungri. “According to Julius Caesar, the Belgian tribe of the Atuatuci ‘was descended from the Cimbri and Teutoni, who, upon their march into our province and Italy, set down such of their stock and stuff as they could not drive or carry with them on the near (i.e. west) side of the Rhine, and left six thousand men of their company therewith as guard and garrison’ (Gall. 2.29, trans. Edwards). They founded the city of Atuatuca in the land of the Belgic Eburones, whom they dominated. Thus Ambiorix king of the Eburones paid tribute and gave his son and nephew as hostages to the Atuatuci (Gall. 6.27).” ⁹

“During Julius Caesar’s campaigns in this area in the 1st century BC, the Belgae united against Caesar. The Atuatuci were too late for the general Belgic muster and defeat by Caesar; they retreated to their town where the Romans besieged them. They decided to surrender and gave up most of their weapons, but next day sortied against the Roman troops, who defeated them. The day after, the Romans broke down the undefended gates and sold the entire tribe of the Atuatuci into slavery. The Tungri, more friendly to the Romans, took their place. The town grew into a sizeable settlement known as Atuatuca Tungrorum.” ¹⁰

“In the first century AD, the Eburones were replaced or absorbed by the Germanic Tungri, and the city was known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, i.e. the modern city of Tongeren.” ¹¹

The general belief was that Atuatuca Tungrorum was one and the same site as the Atuatuci’s fortress that Caesar called Atuatucam. The Tungri had simply moved in and taken over the fortress after the defeat of Ambiorix. Over time Atuatuca was dropped and modern names for the town emerged–Tongeren in Flemish (the common language of Tongeren); Tongres in French; Tongern in German; Tongue or Tonk in Walloon (the common language spoken to the south of Tongeren). ¹²

But Ptolemy offered additional clues on the location of the Tungri in describing the locations of the various tribes of Gaul in relation to each other, so that it might be possible to draw a rough map of the territory of the Tungri.

“At the time of Ptolemy’s Geography they [the Tungri] occupied the lands of the northern Arduenna Silva (Forest of Ardennes), along the lower valley of the Mosa (Meuse River). They were bordered to the north and east by Germanic tribes, but were bolstered by the Belgic Nervii on the west and by the Remi and Treveri to the south” ¹³

There was also an understanding in 1700 that the borders of Civitas Tungrorum were essentially those of the old Bishopric of Tungrorum. After the Christian church was established in the 4th century AD, the dioceses tended to follow the lines of the civitates and those lines remained pretty much unchanged until the papal bull Super universas issued 12 May 1559 by Pope Paul IV which created fourteen new bishoprics in the Low Countries at the behest of Philip II of Spain. As the capital of the civitas, Tungrorum was the natural seat for this new bishopric and the territory of the bishopric was essentially the same as the civitas. Even after the seat of the bishopric was moved from Tongreren to Maastricht in the 6th century and then to Liege at the end of the 8th century, the borders of the bishopric of Liege up to 1559 were pretty much the same as the borders of the original Civitas Tungrorum. ¹⁴

Carte du diocèse de Liège avant 1559

But knowing what territory would have been part of the greater civitas Tungri did not necessarily help identify where Pliny’s spring might be because this was a huge territory, some 20,000 square kilometers. However, based on these maps there is no doubt that Spa, located approximately midway between Liege and Stavelot, was part of the diocese of Tongeren, and thus part of the Civitas Tungrorum.

Tongeren versus Spa

In 1700 both Spa and Tongeren were under the direct rule of the Prince-Bishop of Liege, Joseph Clemens of Bavaria. The Principality-Bishopric of Liege in turn was part of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. ¹⁵

The Prince-Bishops of Liege had long taken an interest in the development of the resources in the territory they controlled. Clemens lent his authority to Tongeren’s efforts by sending three deputies — Gérard Doyembrugge, comte de Duras, baron de Roost et d’Elderen; Herman François de Matte, seigneur de Vervos et d’Averdes; et Théodore Hilaire — to attend the St. Bartholomew’s Day festivities. Also attending was N. Bémy, physician to the Prince-Bishop.

In 980 , the Roman Emperor Otto II granted secular powers to bishop Notker who would become the first prince-bishop. As part of the system of imperial church, the holder Notger received in the tenth century, from the Holy Roman Empire , the land where he exercised a temporal sovereignty. This area will gradually increase, be emancipated from the Empire and become an independent state, the Principality of Liege, a state that never overlaps, in its maximum extension, more than a third of the diocese itself (except when the diocese was reduced in 1559). ¹⁶

As part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Prince-Bishop of Liège gained secular power over this territory and would continue to rule it for nearly eight centuries until the French Revolution. ¹⁷

La principauté en 1366, en couleur mauve

The Prince-Bishop was not an autocratic ruler. Ever since the Peace of Fexhe ended the revolt of the burghers of Liège against Prince-Bishop Alphonse de La March on 18 June 1316, there had been fairly good relations between the Prince-Bishop and the three estates– “the primary estate (Etat-primaire), made of the Canons, the Noble estate (Etat-noble) made of the Counts of Looz and Chiny, together with 52 Knights and a Squire, and the third estate (Etat-tiers), made of the representatives of the towns.” Under the Peace, which some historians have equated with the English Magna Carta, “the franchises and ancient laws of the Good Towns (bonnes villes) and of the “common country” (pays commun) shall be maintained”; “everyone shall be judged by law and by sentence passed by municipal magistrates (échevins) or feudal men (justice court and feudal court), except in case of homicide, which remains in the Prince-Bishop’s jurisdiction”; the “country sense” (sens du pays), that is the three estates, shall declare if other cases belong to the Prince-Bishop’s jurisdiction; and “the three estates might change the common law if ‘too wide, too strict or too narrow.'” ¹⁸ Indeed, the Prince-Bishop was elected by the canons.

The perron of Liège stands as a symbol for the city rights acquired by the burghers from the prince-bishop

“Although nominally independent, the politics of the Prince-Bishopric was heavily influenced by the dukes of Burgundy and later the Habsburgs.” ¹⁹

“the princes of Europe continued energetically to expand their own territories. They had no qualms about ruling over far-flung realms which had little in common with each other. Bavaria and Holland, or Burgundy and Flanders, were separated by some seven hundred kilometers, but were respectively ‘united’ under one prince. The nobility regarded such combinations as trumps which could be played at the right moment in a high-stakes game: territories could be expanded or traded for holdings adjacent to the nobility’s own centers of power…There were, moreover, always plenty of princely pretenders, often with their own armies, who were willing to take advantage of every opportunity to fuel their own ambition. This made the complex games of action and reaction even more unpredictable” ²⁰

As members of the Wittelsbach dynasty, the Prince-Bishops of Liege were heavily involved in the tumultuous politics and incessant warfare of early modern Europe. Joseph Clemens’ brother, Maximilian II Emanuel, was Elector of Bavaria. Joseph Clemens’ appointment by Pope Innocent XI to become Archbishop of Cologne was one cause of the War of the Grand Alliance. Both brothers allied with France during the War of Spanish Succession.

“This virtual independence it owed largely to the ability of its bishops, under whom the Principality of Liège, placed between France and Germany, on several occasions played an important part in international politics.” ²¹

Also Wittelsbach bishops were heavily involved in the Counterreformation. “L’instruction publique tout entière est dans les mains du Clergé” ²² “La religion catholique est seule reconnue par l’État. Les cultes dissidents sont prohibés, contrairement aux lois de l’Empire” ²³ Despite the ethnic division and the close proximity of the Calvinist lands of the Netherlands and northwestern Germany, the Bishopric of Liege was remarkably untainted by Protestantism. ²⁴

Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, the current Prince-Bishop in 1700, was typical of most of the prince-bishops that ruled throughout the 17th century. Before Clemens, three of the previous four prince-bishops were members of the Wittelsbach dynasty that ruled Bavaria from 1180 to 1918 : Ernest of Bavaria (1581-1612), Ferdinand of Bavaria (1612-1650), and Maximilian Henry of Bavaria (1650-1688). While the oldest sons were destined to become electors, dukes, counts, and kings, the younger sons were reserved for the Church. ²⁵

The Wittelsbach bishops held multiple offices and their priorities usually lay elsewhere. After being elected the Bishop of Liege in 1581, Ernest was later elected Archbishop of Cologne (and thus one of the electors of the Holy Roman Emperor), as well as the Bishop of Münster, Freising and Hildesheim. After Ernest died in 1612, his nephew Ferdinand was named to the same offices (ruling during the tumultuous period of the Thirty Years’ War) and, after Ferdinand died in 1650, his nephew Maximilian Henry kept the tradition up. However, demonstrating that the canons of Liege were not totally docile, when Maximilian Henry died in 1688, the canons did not chose his successor as Archbishop of Cologne, Joseph Clemens, to be the next Prince-Bishop of Liege, at least not immediately. (There was also some controversy about the choice of Joseph Clemens to be Archbishop of Cologne, which is said to be one of the causes of the War of the Grand Alliance.) Instead the canons chose a local, John Louis of Elderen, born in Tongeren. It wasn’t until after John Louis’s death in 1694, that the canons finally chose Joseph Clemens. Although the Prince-Bishop had a palace in Liege, the main residence of these Wittelsbach bishops was in Bonn where the seat of the Archbishopric of Cologne was moved in 1597, and they were buried in Cologne Cathedral. ²⁶

Tongeren

In 1700 the Bishop of Liege possessed “one of the most considerable ecclesiastical Princes in Germany” having within his principality “fifty-two baronies, eighteen walled towns, and four hundred villages, very well peopled, which yield him an annual revenue of three hundred thousand ducats” ²⁷

One of those walled towns was Tongeren. But by 1700 Tongeren had lost much of the prestige that it had enjoyed in Roman times as Liege’s star rose. Perhaps because of its central location, Tongeren had furthermore suffered numerous ravages through its history. “Atuatuca Tungrorum suffered from a destructive fire during the Batavian siege in 70 CE, around the time Pliny was starting to put together his encyclopedia. ²⁸ Tongeren was sacked and plundered by the Salic Franks in 385; by the Alans and Vandals in 406; by the Huns in 450; the Normans in 803, 881, and 891; the Count of Looz in 1180; the Duke of Brabant in 1213; the Burgundians in 1408 and 1468; and by the French in 1677 and 1703. Furthermore, it suffered the ravages of the plague in 1401 and again in 1553, and the town was in a great part destroyed by the terrible fire of 1677. ²⁹

But Tongeren had its ups as well as downs. Following repeated sacks, Tongeren most definitely declined in the 5th century, but reemerged in the Carolingian period, with the building of a monastery. In 980, the German Emperor transferred the town to the Principality of Liège, while the Carolingian monastery was superseded at the end of the XIth century by the Notre-Dame Chapter, made of some 20 canons. In the XIIIth century, Tongeren became one of the bonnes villes of the Principality of Liège, which boosted its development, with the building of a new square and of new walls and the rebuilding of the Notre-Dame collegiate church in Gothic style. ³⁰

The most important towns received the title of bonne ville which gave them representation in the Third Estate and permission to build a wall around their town to defend them from attackers. Of these bonnes villes, Tongeren was second only to Liege in terms of importance. ³¹

“Sous l’Ancien Régime, la ville héberge de nombreux couvents et institutions ecclésiastiques : le béguinage Sainte-Catherine (1243), les couvents Sainte-Agnès (1434) et Sainte-Claire (1469) des sœurs Franciscaines, les Frères Minimes (1626), les Dominicains (1634), les Jésuites (1638), les Sépulchrins (1640), les Célestins (1640-1677) et les sœurs grises (1669)” ³²

In 1700 Tongeren continued to play an important economic and cultural role as the second city of the principality.

LE LOUP (Remacle), Vue et Perspective de la Ville de Tongre. – vers 1735.

Spa

Although both part of Civitas Tungrorum, the diocese of Liege, and the Principality of Liege, Spa’s history was very different from Tongeren’s. No one ever claimed any Roman evidence for Spa and, due to its remote location and insignificance in terms of power politics, Spa never suffered the history of incessant warfare that Tongeren had.

In 898, Zwentibold, king of Lotharingia, ceded to the Church of Liege, his “Villa” of Theux with all its surrounding land. This donation was confirmed by Louis l’Enfant in 908 and a second time by Charles III the Simple in 915. ³³

This small province, six leagues long by four leagues wide, was separated from the rest of the Principality of Liege by land under the control of the Prince of Stavelot. ³⁴

The Bishop later ordered the building of a fortress to serve as “march” to the east and the Castle of Franchimont was completed by 1155. “The ancient territory of Theux was made of the bans of Theux, Sart, Jalhay and Spa, to which was subsequently added Verviers. In 1155, the five bans formed the domain of Franchimont.” From the beginning of the 16th century, this donation began to be referred to as the Marquisate of Franchimont (after the castle) and the Bishop took that title of Marquis of Franchimont. ³⁵

Spa’s celebrity had been on the rise since the mid-1500s. People from across Europe had started traveling to Spa to take the Spa waters. Indeed, the locals were already calling these foreigners Boullins and Boublins, much like the name of the Bobelins that was being used three hundred years later. Already some persons of distinction had been successfully treated at the Spa. “In support, he [Fuchs] cites the healing of some persons of distinction, including Marie de Lara, a Spanish lady, the Dominican Antoine Mendoza, the Venetian Augustino the first doctor of Henry VIII, King of England” ³⁶
“Plusieurs Rois & Princes Souverains y sont venus pour ce sujet” including Marguerite de Valois, Reine de rance & de Navarre en 1577; Henri III, Roi de France & de Pologne en 1585; Alexandre Farnese, Du de Parme, en 1591; Charles II, Roi d’Angleterre; le Roi de Danemark; le Grand Duc de Toscane; Pierre I, Czar de Moscovie in 1717 ³⁷

This was the more amazing because of the difficulty of getting to Spa. “Les environs & les accès du Bourg de Spa font si difficiles & si pierreux, qu’on ne le peut aborder qu’avec beaucoup de peine ; les montagnes qui l’environnent sont si hautes, qu’elles en dérobent la vue , à moins qu’on n’en soit fort près. Il est situé dans le Marquisat de Franchimont , à trois lieues de Limbourg , & à six de Liege , sa Capitale , sur la petite riviere de Wese , qu’on passe en Eté à pied sec, mais qui se grossit très-fort en Hyver ou dans les temps des grosses pluies. Ce n’étoit anciennement qu’un Village peu considérable , que la vertu des eaux minérales a fait agrandir & ériger en Bourg, afin d’y pouvoir loger la grande foule de monde qui y vient de tous côtés pour les boire, aux mois de Juin, Juillet & Août” ³⁸

The Search for Pliny’s Spring

The search for Pliny’s fountain began in earnest in the mid-1500s and Tongeren supporters cannot say that their city had been ignored in this search. From the beginning of the search for Pliny’s fountain, the place to start was Tongeren because of its strong Roman connections. No one disputed that Tongreren was the site of Atuatuca Tungrorum. The knowledge of the Roman past had never been lost. First of all, there was the name. And then there was all the physical evidence in Tongeren of the ancient presence of the Romans. The ancient Roman walls. The Roman roads. The Roman statues. Coins. And the dike that the locals called the Beukenberg.

Indeed, there was an underlying presumption accepted by both Spa and Tongeren supporters that if Tongeren indeed had a spring that matched Pliny’s qualities, then the search could stop right then and there. Even Spa supporters had to admit that Tongeren had first dibs.

But for Spa supporters the antiquity of Tongeren did not automatically qualify it to be the place where the spring was located. They admitted that Spa had never been a Roman village and there was no evidence of even Roman presence at Spa, but that did not automatically preclude Spa from being the site of Pliny’s fountain.

All of the arguments for each place had been pretty much laid down in the late 1500s, over a century earlier, drawing powerful supporters to each side. The basic arguments came down to this.

Tongeren supporters believed that Tongeren had a spring that fully matched Pliny’s description. On those grounds, it didn’t matter what kind of springs Spa had, although some supporters would deny that Spa had Pliny’s qualities or that Spa did not fit Pliny’s geographical description.

Spa supporters claimed that Spa did indeed fit Pliny’s geographical description and that Tongeren either did not have a spring that matched Pliny’s qualities or else Spa waters better fit Pliny’s description. Some Spa supporters acknowledged that Pliny could have been referring to some third, as yet unknown, spring in civitas Tungrorum. But they claimed that of all the known springs, Spa waters fit Pliny’s description the best, so Spa should be considered the best candidate.

Hubert Thomas

The first to announce that Pliny’s fountain had been found was the historian Hubert Thomas in 1541. Thomas was born in Liege circa 1495. He studied at the college of Cologne and in 1520 moved to Heidelberg and entered into the service of Louis VI, électeur palatin, as conseiller and secrétaire. In 1522 Thomas went to work for the brother of the elector, the count palatin Frédéric, then vice president of the imperial commission was was charged with the executive power in the absence of the Emperor, seated at Nuremberg for some translation work. He later worked as a secret envoy travelling to the various courts of Europe, known for his discretion. ³⁹ In his De Tungris et Eburonibus, dedicated to the Bishop of Liege, Corneille de Sevenberg, Thomas wrote that he had located the spring near the modern town of Tongeren although he offered no additonal details. ⁴⁰

Pierre van Bruhezen

More detail was forthcoming a decade later from Pierre van Bruhezen in his book D. P. Bruhezii de thermarum Aquisgranensium viribus… (1555). The book included a letter dated 1550 from Bruhezen to his friend Sauvagius commenting on Pliny’s spring. Contrary to Thomas, Bruhezen suggested that the spring had actually been difficult to find. After quoting the passage from Pliny, Bruhezen noted that after a zealous search for this spring, it had at last been found on a hill to the north of the town of Tongeren, reduced to a third of what it had once been, and having water that turns red and has a ferruginous taste and color. According to Bruhezen, the common people still believed that drinking this water cures fever.

Bruhezen in the same work was also the first writer to mention the springs of Spa, in particular the spring called Savenir. Indeed, far from touting Tongeren, most of the letter is actually focused on explaining the nature and virtues of the springs of Spa waters rather than that of Tongeren. For not only did the Spa waters draw particular strength from the presence of iron as Tongeren waters, the Spa waters were also in Latin aquis acidis or in German Zuerenboern — sour water — which brought a whole other set of medicinal virtues. The most remarkable physical feature of Spa waters was the froth [spuma] on the surface, which Bruhezen associated with sulfur, which made paper dipped into it look like gold.

Although Bruhezen made no suggestion that these Spa waters could possibly be Pliny’s fountain, it is not clear on what grounds he came to this conclusion. It could be simply that Tongeren was still called Tungri in Latin and he just assumed that Pliny’s Tungri and the modern Tungri were one and the same. Or he might have considered that the Tongeren waters matched Pliny’s description better than Spa waters, perhaps because he believed the emphasis on Pliny’s description was on the ferruginous nature of the water. ⁴¹

Gilbert Fuchs

The Pliniusfont controversy truly began in 1559, when Gilbert Fuchs de Limbourg published a book under the pseudonyms of Gilbert Lymborh (for the French edition) and Gilbert Philareti (for the Latin edition) in which he rejected the claim that Pliny was referring to the spring at Tongeren. Rather Fuchs asserted that Pliny must have been referring to Spa waters, in particular the spring called the Sauvenir.

Gilbert came from a very talented family. His brother Remacle was well-known botanist and his brother Jean was a magistrate. ⁴² The family name is both then and now often mispelled as Fusch, perhaps because when it was Latinized the standard spelling was Fuschius.

Gilbert Fuchs, born in Limbourg around the year 1504, was educated at various universities in Germany, earned the title of doctor, and then moved to Liege some time before 1528. An opportunity to make a name for himself came in September 1529, when an epidemic of the sweating sickness that originated in England swept through Liege and much of Germany killing even the healthiest people in the prime of their life in as little as twelve hours. Fuchs diagnosed the nature of this disease and came up with an effective cure that the most eminent scientists had been seeking in vain. This coup brought Fuchs instant recognition at the young age of 25. Erard de la March (1505-1538), the Prince-Bishop of Liege, appointed Fuchs court physician, and Fuchs continued as premier medecin under three successive Prince-Bishops– George d’Austria (1544-1557), Robert de Berghes (1557-1564), and Gerard de Grœsbeek (1564-1580) — until his death in 1567. ⁴³

Fuchs also early on discovered a penchant for writing, publishing in 1541 Conciliatio avicennae cum Galeno and Hippocrates, an important work which sought to reconcile the principles of Avicenna with those of Hippocrates and Galen. A couple of year later in 1543 Fuchs followed with Polybius, “an annotated translation of a pseudo-hippocratic tract on living a healthy lifestyle” and in 1545 with Gerocomice on maintaining health in old age in the spirit of Hippocrates and Galen. ⁴⁴

Fuchs’s great fame brought him numerous offers: from Thomas Crammer, Archbishop of Canterbury, writing on different occasions on behalf of Edward VI, in order to engage him to come to the court of England; from Philibert, Duke of Savoy; and, finally in 1555, from the University of Louvain where they employed every means to get him to accept the chair of medicine. But nothing could get Fuchs to budge. He simply “preferred the quiet and the esteem which he enjoyed at home” to any honors from foreign courts and universities. Jean Stadius, Valere Andre and other biographers have talked about Fuchs as a very clever man, erudite, eloquent, indifferent to riches and honors, trained by long experience, serious in his manner and his conduct and who, by his merit and the success of his cures, had acquired a great credit. Chapeaville describes him as a d’insignis doctor, Van der Linden calls him medicus celeberrimus and Bruin even compares him to Aesculapius.

In the late 1550s, Fuchs turned his attention to local mineral waters. He travelled throughout the Ardennes, attempting to search out as many mineral springs as he could find in the region. In 1559 Fuchs’s work was simultaneously published in Antwerp in three languages: in Latin under the title Gilberti Plilareti de fontibus sylvae Arduennae, praesertim eo , qui in Spa visitur, libellas (Antwerp, 1559); in French under the title Des fontaines acides de la forest d’Ardenne et principalement de celle qui se trouve à Spa. Par M. Gilbert Lymborh, médecin (Anvers [Antwerp], 1559); as well as in Spanish. The book proved a great success, even in France, and contributed greatly to establishing the reputation of Spa. ⁴⁵

It is not clear whether Fuchs was familiar with the work of Bruhezen, but similarities in their descriptions of Sauvenir waters suggest that Fuchs might very well have been. In particular, like Bruhezen, Fuchs stressed the fact that Spa waters, especially the Savenir, are acidulous waters partaking primarily of sulfur, secondarily of iron, with an oily substance floating on top possibly partaking of sulfur or bitumen.

But, in the end, Fuchs rejected Bruhezen’s claim of Tongeren as the site of Plinius’s fountain on two grounds. Firstly, he challenged the assumption that Tongeren would a priori be the site of Pliny’s fountain on semantic grounds. Secondly, and more importantly, Fuchs stated flat out that Tongeren’s spring possessed NONE of the virtues that Pliny described.

Without mentioning any names, Fuchs implied that writers like Thomas and Bruhezen were not considering any spring other than Tongeren’s on the assumption that by the phrase Tungri civitas galliae, Pliny was specifically referring to the town that in later times would be known as Tongeren. But Fuchs claimed that, in Pliny’s time, the name Tungri was also applied to the entire country over which the capital city ruled, much like Polybius used the designation of Achaeans to include all the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus. And since Tongeren had no suitable well at the time he was writing, then Pliny’s spring would have to be located somewhere else in this larger country. After rigorously exploring the qualities of some forty mineral springs in the Ardennes which Fuchs believed would have been part of a greater Tungri civitas, Fuchs concluded that one called the Sauvenir located near the hamlet of Spa fit Pliny’s description perfectly. ⁴⁶

Following in the footsteps of Fuchs, some prominent writers began to throw their lot in with Spa. ⁴⁷ The first was Lodovico Guicciardini (1521-1568), “an Italian writer and merchant who lived primarily in Antwerp. His best-known work, the Descrittione di Lodovico Guicciardini patritio fiorentino di tutti i Paesi Bassi altrimenti detti Germania inferiore (1567) was soon translated into French as Description de Tout le Païs-Bas (Anvers, 1568) and later into English as The Description of the Low Countreys (1593). ⁴⁸ After, in his own words, having made diligents inquests and getting the advice of many, including many local doctors and strangers, he concluded that the Tongeren fountain described by Hubert Thomas did not have the virtues he said it had. Instead, based on “solid reasons” — essentially the same reasons presented a eight years earlier by Fuchs — Guicciardini concluded that Pliny must have been referring to the Savenir. ⁴⁹

Aucuns escrivains veullent qu’en ceste ville soit celle fontaine d’eau excellente, que Pline en son histoire naturelle, livre trente & un, descrit par ces parolles, Tungri civitas Galliæ..rubescit. Et monstrent lesdicts autheurs pour icelle, une certaine fontaine ancienne, avec eau aucunement trouble, affermans estre la mesme, dont Pline faict mention. Toutesfois apres en avoir faict diligente enqueste, &c demande l’advis de plusieurs, entre autres de maintes excellens medecins de ces pais, & estrangers, je ne trouve premierement, que la fontaine mentionnee par le susdict Hubert Thomas, ait celle vertu qu’il raconte, mais bien trouvons nous avec raisons fondees, que la vraye fontaine, par Pline descrite, est loing de ceste ville bien huict lieues, cinq de Liege, deux & demie de Lembourg, & voisine une demie lieue au village de Spa, en un beau bois, qui est une branche de la forest d’Ardenne, auquel estant toutesfois sous le demaine de Liege, sont plusieurs autres fontaines circonstantes d’eaux tres-claires; lesquelles ont diverses proprietez & vertus de guarir certaines maladies : mais la plus estimee, certaine, & universelle de toutes s’appele Savenier, situee sur un haut mont, laquelle guarit principalement de la fiebure tierce, du mal d’hidropisie, de la gravelle, & de l’Etique: nettoye l’estomach, & raffraischist le foye, dont faict tres-grand service a la goute Sciatique, & aux autres gouttes d’espece chaudes. Elle ha aucunement le goust du fer, toutesfois ne se sent si non apres l’avoir avallee : la mettant pres du feu se trouble premierement, apre s’esclaircissant devient de couleur rougeastre, ce que procede (si je ne m’abuse) pource qu’estant le païs plein de minieres de fer, courrant entre icelles, vient a aucunement prendre de sa nature : mais pour cela ne peut nuire aucunement, ains tant a jeun qu’autrement, si on boit a toute heur beaucoup, outre les effects excellens qu’avons dict qu’elle face, elle fait aussi perfaicte digestion, & rend grand appetit. Ainsi ceste eau, comme on peut veoir, se conforme fort bien avec celle dont Pline faict mention, combien quil n’en escrive oas tant de particularitez, quant à la vertu & au lieu: parce que Tungri civitas, comme est notoir, s’entend non seulement pour la ville des Tongres, mais generalement por tous ces peuples, ou pour mieux dire, pour celle communauté, que contenoit leur demaine. De ceste Cité de Tongres font honorable mention, out les Escrivains plus modernes, Cornelius Tacitus, & Julius Capitolinus” ⁵⁰

Writers wish that in this city the fountain of excellent water, that Pliny in his Natural History, book thirty-one, describes by these words, “Tungri civitas Galliae .. rubescit.” And the said authors prove for this, a certain ancient fountain, with water in no way cloudy, affirm it to be the same, which Pliny made mention. Howbeit in after having made diligent inquests, &c. request the advice of many, among others, many excellent doctors from those countries, and strangers, I do not find, first, that the fountain mentioned by the aforesaid Hubert Thomas, has this virtue that he says, but we find ourselves with solid reasons, that the true fountain, by Pliny described, is far from this town about eight leagues, five from Liege, two and a half from Limbourg, and half a league to the nearby village of Spa, in a beautiful wood, which is a branch of the Ardennes forest, which, however, being the region of Liege are several other fountains circumstances water very clear; which have different properties & virtues to cure certain diseases : but most estimated, certain, and universal of all is called Savenier, situated on a high mountain, which cures mainly tertian fever, the sickness of dropsy, gravel, and l’Etique: cleans the stomach, & cools the liver, which has done great service to the gout sciatica, & to other drops of hot species. It has in no way the taste of iron, however it is not sensed if not after having swallowed it : putting it near the fire troubled first, after clearing becoming reddish color, that which proceeds (I think) because that being the country is full of iron mines, running between them, and comes to take of its nature: but it can not hurt any, so as long on an empty stomach than not, if you drink a lot at any time, in addition to the effects said what have excellent face it, it also perfect digestion, and make great appetite. Thus this water, as can see it, conforms well with that which Pliny has made mention, how many that he has not written so many particulars, as to the virtue and the place: because Tungri civitas, as is well known, meant not only for the city of Tongeren, but generally for all these people, or rather, for that community, that their contains their domain. Of this city of Tongeren make honorable mention, in addition to writers the more modern, Cornelius Tacitus, & Julius Capitolinus.

Abraham Ortelius

Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) was “a Flemish cartographer and geographer, generally recognized as the creator of the first modern atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World). He also published Itinerarium per nonnuilas Galliae Belgicae partes (1584), a record of his 1575 journey across Belgium and the Rhineland in which he commented on the Pliny’s fountain controversy. ⁵¹

“In the form of a letter to his friend Gerhard Mercator, Ortelius published in 1575 his “Itinerarium per nonnullas Galliæ Belgicæ partes”, which contains much valuable information as to the old geography of Belgium but which is chiefly valuable on account of its philologico-archæological importance” ⁵²

Sed vulgi is error, temere rebus ignotis nomina affingere : & fortasse in eo quoque falluntur, quod fontem illum, qui non procul a vetere muro est, eundem esse autumant, cuius Plinius lib. suae historiae XXXI meminit, in eo Plinii loco ciuitatis nomen, quo potius vsus videtur in propria significatione, pro oppido accipientese: ut idem sane sit, multum ab eo sapore, quem diserte explicat ille, degeneravit: de efficacia ipsi viderint, nec ad modum movemur, quod eo levatos esse multos refereant: hallucinantur enim homines in applicatione caussarum ut plurimum, & saepe medicinae acceptum ferunt, quod natura sua quadam vi sine oniusquam adminiculo perfecit. Haec fere sunt, quae hac aetate restant ex antiqua illa & famosissima olim Tungrorum urbe, quae quondam principem in Germania secunda locum tenuit, a Tungris illis proculdubio nomen sortita, quos Corn. Tacitus primos fuisse, qui Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint, & se nunc Tungros, nunc Germanos nominasse tradit, novo, & tunc primum addito vocabulo. quod quidem tempore C. Caesaris iam orat vulgatissimum, obliterato priore illo, cuius in suis, commentariis prorsus nullam facit mentionem : sed has ipsas sedes Eburonibus tribuit, quos cum magnis aliquot praeliis superatos, vicinis nationibus direptioni expsuisset… ⁵³

But common people make a mistake, rashly claim wrongly name unknown thing : & perhaps into it likewise are mistaken with respect to that spring, which by no means far off from the ancient wall, the same they say exists, which Pliny in his Historia book XXXI mentioned, in it Pliny place the name of civitas, which better use see in its own meaning, for town [oppidum] accept: while likewise reasonably is, many by it taste, which eloquently explain that, degenerates: from effectiveness itself see, nor to the manner stirs, because it depilates [levatos esse] many they say: talk idly man in application of trial to many, & often popular medicine brings, because its nature whereby strength without oniusquam support perfected. These almost are, which this way the age remains out of antiquity that & famous formerly the city of Tungrorum, which formerly was the first in Germania possessing a favorable place, by those Tungris doubtful far off assigned the name, which Corn. Tacitus first exists, who crossed the Rhine expelled the Gauls, & now itself Tungros, now Germanos bequeath the name, new…]

Tungris Leodium revertimur, & hinc per silvam Arduennam, pagum vulgo Spa dictum, ob fontes acidos celebrem, qui v.distat M. petiuimus. Ad medium fere M. pagus est Cenei dictus, & in eo pons lapideus, ad quem Vesa fluuius Vtam alium amnem recipit, & iuncti Leodium petunt. Hinc Lounegie pagus, & ipse Spa in profundissima valle, praeruptis ab omni fere parte circumcinctus montibus, aedificiis plurimus, etiam ultra quam ferat pagi conditio, excultas, ad excipiendos aduenas, qui e longinquis regionibus ad hos medicatos fontes comfluunt. est que eorum ab initio statim aestivi temporis ad ipsum usque hiemis initium , maxima in eo frequentia. In media foro fons est itidem acidus, quem Sancti Remacli nuncupant, ab episcopo Leodiensi, cui & patet hic locus, opere decoratus marmoreo, & inscriptioe: SANITATI SACRUM. Illi vero fontes omnium celeberrimi in altissimo sunt montis iugo, inter silvas, ad medium fere M. ad quos arduo omnino, & lapidoso itinere ascenditur, vehementi totius corporis exercitatione, quod ipsum ad recuperrandam valetudinem, naturaeque excitandum vigorem non minimi videbatur esse momenti. His fontibus nomen est apud vulgus La Sauiniere, quo & montem nuncupant, e quo erumpunt : aquam vero pohon, quod nobis poison interpretabantur eadem ratione , qua quod ceteri Galli maison, ipsi sua lingua mahon proferunt; rationem que reddunt, quod ante exploratum eius usum & naturam, letalem eam iudicarent: hanc vero suam linguam vernaculam , Romanam adhuc vocant, & Germanos Tischons appellant, vetere scilicet Tuisconum vocabulo. & multas adhuc voces retinent ex veteri illa lingua, suam propius accedente ad originem, quas nostra haec politior iam pridem explosit. Ceterum hos fontes nemo melius descripserit quam ipsis C. Plinijj verbis lib. XXXI. ubi inquit : Tungri civitas Galliae, fontem habet insignem, plurimis bullis stillantem, ferruginei saporis, quod ipsum non nisi in fine potus intelligitur, purgat hic corpora, tertianas febres discutit, calculorumque vitia ; eadem aqua igne admoto turbida fit, ad postremum rubescit.” ⁵⁴

Tungris Liege returned, & from here through the Ardennes forest, a community commonly called Spa, on account of the sour springs [fontes acidos] celebrated, which is distant 5 miles we make for. About almost the middle mile is the community of called Cenei, & to there a bridge of stone, at which the Vesa river Vtam other river undertake, & join Liege we ask for. From here the Lounegie community, & itself Spa in a deep valley, steep by almost all give birth to surrounding mountains, many buildings, likewise beyond that bring the situation of the community, developed, to foreigners relieved, which out of remote regions to this are cured the spring flows. And it is by beginning immediately summer condition to itself up to the beginning of winter, greatest in it crowded. In the middle of the market a spring exists likewise sour, which is called Saint Remacle, from the Bishop of Liege, which & in this place lies open, works decorated in marble, & inscription: SANITATI SACRUM. Those in truth springs all celebrated exist in the high ridge of mountains, among the woods, to almost the middle mile to which steep journey, & rises journey full of stones, violent whole body exercise, which itself to recuprate health, and nature stirred up vigor by no means small appears good this moment. This spring is by common people called La Sauiniere, which & calls the mountain, out of which it erupts. The water truly pohon, which we poison interpret same account, which respect to the others in Gaul maison, itself its language mahon mentioned; and account return which explore it use & nature, deadly it judges: this in truth its vernacular tongue, the Roman thus far called, & Germans call Tischons, one may know in ancient times Tuisconum. & many thus far called retain out of ancient times that tongue, its approached nearer to origin which this our polished already some time ago ejected. Moreover this spring nobody describes better than the very C. Pliny word lib. 31 where he says…

Andreas Bacci

But even with such distinguished support for Spa as that of Fuchs, Guicchardini, and Ortelius, Tongeren was by no means through. One of the most distinguished early writers on mineral springs, Andreas Bacci seconded Thomas and Bruhezen that Tongeren was the site of Pliny’s fountain in his acclaimed book on balneology De Thermis (1571) which went through several editions.

Andreas Bacci was physician of Pope Sixtus V and professor of botany in Rome ⁵⁵ Although Baccio never personally visited the spring, he came to this opinion based on his correspondence with the Cardinal Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle (1517-1586). ⁵⁶

Granvelle was born at Besançon, then in the Imperial territory of the Franche-Comté, the son of Nicholas Perrenot de Granvelle (1484-1550) who would eventually rise to the position of chancellor of the empire under Charles V, Holy Roman Empire. “On the completion of his studies in law at Padua and in divinity at Leuven, Antoine held a canonry at Besançon, but he was promoted to the bishopric of Arras with a dispensation for his age of barely twenty-three (1540).” “In 1550, he succeeded his father in the office of secretary of state; in this capacity he attended Charles in the war with Maurice of Saxony, accompanied him in the flight from Innsbruck, and afterwards drew up the Peace of Passau (August 1552).”

“In the following year he and Simon Renard, the ambassador of Charles V to the Queen Mary I of England, conducted the negotiations for the marriage of Mary and Philip II of Spain, to whom, in 1555, on the abdication of the emperor, he transferred his services, and by whom he was employed in the Netherlands.”

It is not certain exactly when but it is likely that it was during his residence in the Spanish Netherlands in the years 1555-1564 that Granvelle became familiar with the spring at Tongeren.

“In April 1559 Granvelle was one of the Spanish commissioners who arranged the Peace of Cateau Cambrésis, and on Philip’s withdrawal from the Netherlands in August of the same year he was appointed prime minister to the regent, Margaret of Parma. The policy of repression which in this capacity he pursued during the next five years secured for him many tangible rewards: in 1560 he was elevated to the archiepiscopal see of Mechelen, and in 1561 he became a cardinal; but the growing hostility of a people whose religious convictions he had set himself to oppose ultimately made it impossible for him to continue in the Netherlands; and by the advice of his royal master he, in March 1564, retired to Franche-Comté.”

Cardinal Gravelle as first councillor of state was a staunch defender of the divine right of kings as it came under challenge during the Reformation which put him at odds with the other high nobility in the Council of State who for the Governor-General Margaret of Parma to ask Philip II to transfer him from the Low Countries ⁵⁷

“The following six years were spent in comparative quiet, broken, however, by a visit to Rome in 1565; but in 1570, Granvelle, at the call of Philip, resumed public life by accepting another mission to Rome.” It is probably during these visits to Rome that Granvelle made the acquaintance of Bacci and eventually communicated the information that Granvelle had collected on Tongeren waters.

In later years, Granvelle “helped to arrange the alliance between the Papacy, Venice and Spain against the Turks, an alliance which was responsible for the victory of Lepanto. In the same year he became viceroy of Naples, a post of some difficulty and danger, which for five years he occupied with ability and success. He was summoned to Madrid in 1575 by Philip II to be president of the council for Italian affairs. Among the more delicate negotiations of his later years were those of 1580, which had for their object the ultimate union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal, and those of 1584, which resulted in a check to France by the marriage of the Spanish infanta Catherine to Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy. In the same year he was made archbishop of Besançon, but meanwhile he had been stricken with a lingering disease; he was never enthroned, but died at Madrid in 1586. His body was taken to Besançon, where his father had been buried. ⁵⁸

Hugh Trevor-Roper calls Granvelle “the dominating Imperial statesman of the whole century.” But besides politics, he was also the “greatest private [art] collector of his time, the friend and patron of Titian and Leoni and many other artists”. ⁵⁹

“Like certainly the preceding but ancient name exists which to Tungri in Gallia Belgica hisce learn Pliny describes libro XXXI. cap. 11. Tungri fontem habet insignem, pluribus bullis extillantem: Cuius aqua igne admoto turbidescit, ad posterum ruffa redit, ferruginei saporis, quod ipsum non nisi in fine potus percipitur. Purgat hæc corpora, tertianas febres discutit, calculorumque; damage [vitia]. As far as this Pliny. While exists Tungri civitas truly famous among the Belgae, where the Moselle River three leagues from Leodium, today Liege. Truly as exists all things mortal, and also magical, continuous change, and vicissitude, Leodium support condition enlarged Tungri remains a town and not obscure certainly name, on account of continuous all things almost a lifetime of that water use when indeed in feverish patients (which by reason of sink down many appropriate things accept) almost none elsewhere cure inhabitant if not that drink of water so that become accustomed to, which its idiom Iserborne, this is called Ferrugineas. Full in truth notice of this water, downwards it virtues give up us the Illustrious and Reverend S. R. E. Card. Antonius de Granvella; truly it answers all things well known from Pliny put down, is the taste of rust [ferruginei saporis], & clear, thickens in the fire, becomes finally near ruffas, purges the body, dissipates fever, & cures the stone. Which noble operation by me confirmed experience, asserts Franciscum de Mendozza, strength equally great order, and S. R. E. Cardinal, spends time on behalf of Charles V Caes. Viscount at Flanders, and itself waters, on account of almost incurable kidneys, and disposition of the bladder, near to that authority of Pliny, drinks; wonderful out of it perceive usefulness, and many itself water add its dignity authority, and light which in it grace Andreas Lacuna, the noble Galen, and Dioscorides Paraphrastes, literary work bequeathed. Formerly out of a distillation experiment, which surpasses diligent in this place today in the Vrbe [City] [what city? Tongeren? Rome?] Pharmacist Hermannus Stassis from Tongri itself originated; thicken these waters draw near fire, from mixture without doubt something or salt, or alum, as the very taste remaining shows. And to become red similarly to limit, to direct under Narnia, out of iron-rust excrement. Cleanse the body drink on account of renuitatem, opens obstructions, sand [harenulas], & bladder stones arise, dropsy water discharges. Out of iron power strength very much purge. All summer useful, also great heat examination employ, which among gold gets back. ⁶⁰

[1571 ed. calls Hermannus Stassius a “myropola”]

myrŏ–pōla , ae, m., = μυροπώλης,

7. a dealer in ointments, essences, balsams, etc., a perfumer (ante-class.), Naev. ap. Fulg. 565, 17; Plaut. Cas. 2, 3, 10; id. Trin. 2, 4, 7.

A Latin Dictionary. Founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary. revised, enlarged, and in great part rewritten by. Charlton T. Lewis, Ph.D. and. Charles Short, LL.D. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1879.

‘The city of Tongeren located on the waters of Geer, three miles from Liege, a city was once very popular in Gaul. Human things are subject to many vicissitudes: Liege has grown, Tongeren became a small town. But its reputation has survived antiquity. She became famous by the water they drink almost any time. By report of people worthy of having faith in people do not use any other remedy for fever than the water of their Yzerborn which means in the local tongue ferruginous spring. The illustrious Cardinal Antoine de Granvelle gives us full knowledge of these waters and their virtue. This he assure that they correspond to those described by Pliny, possess a ferruginous taste, become cloudy on the fire and eventually turn red, purge the body, dissipate the fever and cure calculous affections. To confirm this, he quotes the experience of Francis Mendoza, governor of Flanders under Charles the Fifth. This cardinal was cured there of a disease of the kidneys and bladder that was thought incurable. This cure gave a great reputation to these waters that he had drunk on the authority of Pliny, which gave occasion to André Lacuna to publish their virtues to the republic of letters. He [the cardinal? Lacuna?] then reported the distillation that Hermann Stassius, apothecary of Tongeren, had done of it, who demonstrated that these waters put on the fire thicken by the mixture of some salt or alum that you can see by the taste, that they end by turning red because of the metal particles, that they purge the body, discharge the gravel, cure dropsy, fortify by their ferruginous virtue and finally should be drunk all summer even through the greatest heat. ⁶¹

“Un savant médecin italien, André Baccio, qui vivait vers 1570, dit que de son temps, les habitans de Tongres n’employaient pas d’autres remèdes que l’eau de leur fontaine pour les fièvres.

A l’appui de son assertion, Baccio rapporte le témoignage du cardinal de Granvelle qui lui avait remis une notice sur les eaux de Tongres, dans laquelle ce cardinal établissait qu’elles avaient les mêmes propriétés que Pline leur a reconnues. Dans cette même notice l’auteur citait la guérison du cardinal de Mendoze, gouverneur des Pays-Bas sous Charles-Quint. Mendoze accablé d’un mal de reins [kidneys] et d’autres infirmités qui ne lui laissaient aucun repos, vnt se rétablir à Tongres où son séjour donna une grande vogue aux eaux.” ⁶²

Curiously, Bacci uses almost identical titles for the two entries. The entry on Spa waters is titled “Aqua Tungri, nunc ad Leodium”, and Tongeren waters “Tungri Aquae, quae Hodie Sunt ad Leodium in Belgis.” He mentions Pliny’s quote in both, as if Pliny could have been referring to both although the springs have quite differently qualities, sharing only in common the presence of iron.

[I have not been able to fully identify this Francisco Mendoza. There was a Francisco Mendoza de Bobadilla (1508-1566) who was a Spanish Roman Catholic Cardinal who was sent on different missions by King Philip II. It is possible that he visited Tongeren on one of those missions. “He donated 935 books to King Felipe II for the library of the monastery of El Escorial and wrote several works in theology. An old friend of St. Ignacio de Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, he protected and promoted the order. He opposed Archbishop Bartolomé Carranza y Miranda of Toledo, who was accused of heresy. He is considered one of the leading figures of the aristocratic humanism of Spain. Desiderius Erasmus sought his friendship and Luis Vives dedicated to him one of his works, De ratione vivendi.” See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Mendoza_de_Bobadilla; http://www2.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1544.htm#Mendoza]

Clinching the case, Granvelle describes a distillation experiment performed by Herman Stas, a pharmacist who was living in Tongeren, his native city, circa 1560. Stas found that when the water was put to the fire, it thickened due to being a mixture evidently to some extent of either salt or alum, as the residual taste revealed, and tinged red from an iron-rust excrement [ferruineis excrementis]. ⁶³

As with Bruhezen, Bacci does not praise Tongeren in order to dismiss Spa. Indeed, Bacci notes that Spa waters share much in common with Pliny’s description, since Spa waters are cold, clear, ferruginous, with numerous bubbles, which purges the body and cures urinary calculi.

However, Bacci categorizes Spa waters as gold-bearing waters rather iron-bearing waters like Pliny’s fountain and Tongeren waters. Bacci seems to have been familiar with Bruhezen’s and Fuchs’ descriptions of Spa waters in his reference to the appearaneces of the spider’s web on the surface of the waters and the glittering effect on paper dipped into the water that leads Bacci to believe there is gold in Spa waters.

“Aqua Tungri, today near Liege. Of things especially useful always in the writings of the sages, & themselves the most eminent Aristotelian teachings, is pleasing accustomed repetition. On the contrary if only these waters which under Tungri described among ferratas [iron waters], claimed excellence; second it concluded prerogative, or this nature, & work truly of gold,and marvelous have, or certainly this example is proved, not doubtful in every spring of water, especially medicinal, something belonging to divine, & these are divine. Claim to that great history credit on account of itself water natural, and unique at the same time experiment of expert man Jacob Laurentius Caesar Augustus. Philosopher, and doctor of arts, which for a long time near these waters abided now at Rome, in admiration continuously itself virtues observes, and besides it provides for these our monuments referred. [Sidenote: The nature of the field and place.] Into the first heaven, and besides air it proves a wonderful temper, which great men gave birth to, of a dark color, and ancient to a degree, while in Spa, a small town, where these waters gush out near Liege two Roman miles [mille passuum] have a good number, which a hundredth arrive per year, a few themselves appear which a hundred, & ten, & one hundred and twenty years pass. Land in truth with mountainous region become moreover confita everywhere trees, and also fertile, mines by no means small have iron, & likewise iron furnaces. [Sidenote: Iron mineral.] Water in truth springs of diverse natures, and two among them exist in particular: which one outside of town, where peramena stands open a plateau, the other, this still the second virtue in itself in the middle of town gushes out. [Sidenote: Two fountains.] Both water (as through brief type described by Pliny) is clear, and cold, moreover ferruginous, and strong taste, takes hold when drunken to such a degree is felt, as by a little afterwards which drinks, as if stupid [stolidi], and falls down drunk, whence are accustomed, which they foremost of cures popularity assumes, by no means rests, or walks, but sits to drink, although that in town has mild, less this pain goes away. [Sidenote: Qualities.] Numerous bubbles extillantem, as likewise Pliny; for the vessel only after eight hours part evaporating, totally departed, its bursting the vessel in bottles for holding liquids [ampullas], sustantia itself waters in the same way gold clearly seen stays behind, while moderate bubbles die away all strength and virtue, amd exactly as earlier, attempt chapter. [Sidenote: Gold species.] Whereby & thereby on top of it is suitable record, because where in vessel during four, or more days settle, beautiful in the same way [ceu] as a spider’s web on the surface covers, which a touch of the finger, or on paper sprinkled, out of the spring indeed outward glittering of gold renders luster: out of it truly, which in the town is, variegated, as the likeness of the stone jasper, partly greem partly orange-red [subrubrum] color rendered, which is not gold (in my opinion) but indicates a ferruginous nature without doubt. For instance & out of iron scoria reduced to filings mixed with vinegar in a bowl, so excellent gold seems represented by sight. [Sidenote: Virtutes, et operationes.] Formerly admired as magical these waters are on account of its virtues, purging the body, according to Pliny, & vitiate calculus through urine. From custom, which after the first day customary to the foreign fountain agrees with potions, drunk on occasion, coming, and going, by ten pounds, and twelve, and fifteen, and twenty always scales easily immersed (for water drives out water) and to such an extent plentiful moves purifications, through the stomach first, next through bountiful urine, as into intself the space of two Roman miles [milliarum] returning into the town, is able to move strong go to see carry in, and remove contents of all overflows. [Sidenote: Wonderful effect on dropsy.] Truly wonderful effect on dropsy, yet again confirmed, and also despairing as when dry otherwise harmful is in the habit of a potion of water out of this not only swollen remove contents in the whole stomach diminished; but entirely as yet but also drive thirst, unnatural jars moreover water, moreover ichoris and full of poison [virulentorum] it birth of humor plenty, & through vomit, & through urine, & all that expels. Because the spleen no less, & the other internal organs [caeterorum] swollen condition diminishes, arcquatum, & thence is born obstructions of the stomach, and the swollen wombs, & kidney out of the stone mollifies, present well-trodden experiment. Break especially taking long time make use to menses, or eject stones. [Sidenote: Selection, and use.] Drink on the other hand lifetime in the morning at dawn , & empty stomach, to fiften, and twenty, or beyond daylight stubborn sickness [contumacibus morbis]. Use yet familiar useless or which out of town spring drink stirs up plerunque vomit, which is able to advise, & by foods admits. Have & for amulet in poision; for instead snakes, and toads thrown in the spring are killed, and not yet dogs, if immediately after they drink it, harmful. Thus into the whole world [orbe terrarum] exist no others alike; or certainly admit the others similarly the virtues of the fountain never spread searchable.” ⁶⁴

Bacci explicitly cites the correspondence of Cardinal Granvelle for his understanding of Tongeren waters, but it is not at all clear what his sources are for Spa waters. He does not seem familiar with either Bruhezen or Gilbert Fuchs, the two most prominent earlier writers on Spa waters. He mentions both Tongeren and Spa waters in the context of Pliny’s description of Tungri waters, and notes that both partake of iron, although he actually included the springs at Spa under the category of Aureis Aquis (gold-bearing waters), seemingly due to the shiny scum on the surface. And, although Baccio catalogued numerous acidulous springs across Europe, including Agricola’s Egra, curiously he did not even label Spa waters as acidulous.

Philippe Gerinx

Fuchs met his match in Philippe Gherinx, who launched the most determined effort to date to claim Pliny’s fountain for Tongeren. Gherinx, almost 50 years Fuchs’s junior, was in many ways following in the footsteps of Fuchs. Born in 1549 in Saint-Trond to a patrician family, the son of a physician, began his studies at Louvain and then completed them in France where he took the degree of doctor. In then settled in Liege where he attracted the attention of the Prince-Bishop Gerard de Grœsbeek (1564-1580) who named Gerincx his premier médecin in August 1579, the same position Fuchs was serving at the time of his death in 1567. Gerincx would continue as first doctor under Grœsbeek’s successor, Ernest of Bavaria, who further bestowed on Gerincx the title of intimate advisor. “Gerincx held these offices concurrently until 11 November 1604, the date of his death.” ⁶⁵

Gherinx was not the prolific writer that Fuchs was. He published Description de la fontaine ferrugineuse de Saint-Gille , prés de Tungre, par M. Philippe Gherinx , médecin. A Liège, chez G. Morberius. 1578, in-12. and Description des fontaines acides de Spa et de la fontaine de fer de Tungre , par M. Philippe Gherinx , médecin. A Liège, chez G. Morberius. 1583, in-12. In these two works, Gerincx did not survey all the mineral springs of the Ardennes as Fuchs had. All Gherinx’s research and writing was much more focused on just three mineral springs–Tongres, Pouhon, Sauvenière–and what he found completely turned Fuchs’s intrepretation of Pliny’s spring on its head.

Totally contrary to Fuchs, Gherinx claimed that it was SPA waters that did not partake of any of the qualities that Pliny had described and that TONGREN waters fit the description PERFECTLY. Gherinx was certain that the spring that the Tongeren locals called the Ysserbron was one and the same as the one the Romans would have known in Pliny’s time. Gherinx describes in much fuller detail than van Bruhezen or Baccio the location of the waters that locals called Iserenbron.

“‘The fountain that the Tongrois call Iserenborn,’ says the author, ‘rises from the bowels of a small hill, next to the old walls of the very ancient city of Tungre, removed from modern moat thereof by almost a quarter of a league to the north.'” ⁶⁶

According to Gherinx, taste showed that Pliny was clearly referring to Tongeren waters. Tongeren’s waters tasted of iron, a fact reflected in the very name den Yserenborn given the waters by common accord, a taste that was only sensed at the end of the drink just as Pliny had noted. On the other hand, Spa waters tasted not of iron, but of vitriol which was sensed from the start, “sent through the palate, toward the nostrils, a strong exhaltation, unpleasant and piquant, pleasant, that the waters of Tungre do not do.”

To confirm this, Gherinx distilled Tongeren waters and found the main ingredients of Tongeren waters were iron, nitre, and borax. ⁶⁷ In contrast, Spa waters had no iron. Gerincx did a much thorough analysis of the ingredients of the Spa waters than Fusch had. Gerincx employed the most sophisticated methods of distillation at the time. This was in 1576, that Gerincx distilled the waters of the Pouhon and the Sauvenière, helped by one of his brothers, who held in Spa the office of pharmacist.

“Le docteur Gerinx particularise davantage et dict que celle de Saveniere est participante de rubrique, ocre, cuivre, soulphre, couperose ou vitriol et nitre ou salpestre, ce qui la rend plus légère, forte et spiritueuse et pour ce plus dificile à porter loin, s’évaporant bien tost, si les bouteilles ne sont bien bouchées. Pour le Pouhon, l’eau en est plus grossière et pesante, et plus propre à se transporter pour se conserver plus longtemps; qu’elle participe aussy de tout ce que dessus avec plomb, alum et céruse, mais le tout non en mesme proportion qu’à l’autre; ce qui fait la diférence de ces deux fontaines, ayans bien mesme faculté, mais selon plus et moins, l’une plus tardive à opérer que l’autre, et ainsi ce docteur y met le vitriol que l’autre en oste” ⁶⁸

Gherinx thus noted the presence of both Fusch’s rubrique and Palissy’s ocre among the numerous ingredients in both the Pouhon and Savenir, but mentions neither Tongres waters even though he claims the Tongres waters was ferruginous and find no iron in Spa waters. Gherinx only notes that the Tongres waters was called Iserenborn, ignoring Fusch’s claim that the Pouhon was also called Iserenborn.

Behind this is Gherinx’s belief that Pliny’s spring was at bottom ferruginous. But Gherinx does not explicitly mention Pliny’s reddish precipitate.

But more than this list of ingredients, it will be a simple taste test which Gherinx will use to categorize these waters. Gerincx suggested that the waters of Tongres had a distinct ferruginous taste, just as Pliny would have it, whereas the Spa water tasted of vitriol or copperas. [does Gerincx distinguish between vitriol and copperas? green vitriol? martial vitriol?]

“Fifthly. The taste of iron in the fountain of Tungre is discovered only at the end of the drink, as Pliny also observed; on the contrary, the taste of the copperas the waters of Spa is made known, at the commencement when one drinks it and furthermore, sent through the palate, toward the nostrils, a strong exhaltation, unpleasant and piquant, that the waters of Tungre do not do.'” Gerincx concludes by saying that in his time the spring of Tongres still has all the virtues that Pliny recognized in it.” [Gherinx.]

Gherinx also noted that Tongeren waters had the same medicinal virtues that Pliny had noted but many with many more virtues in addition. “According to Gerincx, the water of Tongres purges “through the urine, the stomach and vomiting;” it stops the catharres[?], cures migraines, the éblouissements, stomach aches, jaundice, the gravel, la fièvre tierce and the inflammation of the joints; “it dries out and comforts matrices that are too wet, contempère les intempératures chaude du foy and the kidneys and provides a remedy against the plague as it has a strong power repugnant to the putrefaction of blood and other humors.” The author believes that this spring can still be successful against other diseases, but he is content to indicate the maladies with which he has experience and has tried to good effects. He cites as examples the healing of Gautier Van der Stegen, canon of Notre-Dame de Tongres, suffering from the joints, those few Tongrois and an English gentleman “travaillé de la gravaille, who came to Tungre and has left very happy, claiming to not have found anywhere else such relief.” ⁶⁹

Gerincx also added a few layers of historical evidence to nail the coffin on Spa a bit tighter. (1) Spa was not part of the Roman Civitas Tungrorum, but rather it originated in the land of the Eburrons, a separate people and by a distance of leagues and by the river Meuse and government under a king distinct from the Tungrois. (2) Pliny would not have left the description as vague as the entire state of Tungri. If he had intended Spa, he would have mentioned that the spring was on the left bank or other side of the Meuse River. (3) If Pliny had meant Spa he would have spoken of several springs of the Tungri instead of only one, for Spa was famous for its several springs–the Pouhon, the Sauvenir, the Geronstere, or the Tonnelet–while Tongeren had never had more than one spring. (4) Based on “the common testimony of all of those in the country and specifically the inhabitants of the said village of Spa,” even the medicinal properties of Spa waters were unknown to our ancestors, almost up to his own time.

But Gherinx does admit that the Iserenborn had gone downhill since the time of Pliny. As both van Bruhezen and Bacci had noted, the water were nost as abudant as in times past. Furthermore, “It comes out not through small jets, as it did in the past, but leaves the ground without making a noise” and no longer bubbled. ⁷⁰

“Gerincx attributes the fact to the pillages that Tongres underwent at different times particularly during the wars of Attila and Charles-the-Bold. After these disasters, the land remained for long periods without cultivation and ‘the place where this fountain was was covered with a large pile of rocks, wood, ash and other ruins, which clogged up the source of the the fountain, so in a manner that it blocked its accustomed course and searching for to look elsewhere for suitable passage, could not rise so freely, nor give as much water as it made before these aforesaid obstacles.'” ⁷¹

Charles ayant appris ces événemens, revint en hâte de Péronne, accompagné de Louis XI, roi de France, s’empara de Tongres le 20 Octobre 1468, se fit livrer dix hommes, auxquels il eut cruauté de faire trancher la téte, il ordonna d’abattre toutes les fortifications: la fontaine de Pline fut ensevelie sous les décombres de la ville et resta pendant plusieurs années cachée dans des monceaux de pierres; on prétend même que son cours prit une autre direction.” ⁷²

Charles had learned these events, returned in haste from Peronne, accompanied by Louis XI, King of France, seized Tongeren on October 20, 1468, had delivered ten men, to whom he was cruel in having beheaded, he ordered pulled down all fortifications: the fountain of Pliny was buried under the rubble of the city and remained for several years hidden in piles of stones; it is even said that its course took a different direction.

“Charles le Hardi Duc de Bourgogne ne lui fut pas plus humain : car il la fit ruiner & demolir entierement vers l’an 1468, & la Fontaine merveilleuse , dont Pline parle , fut ensevelie sous ses ruines” ⁷³

“L’origine la plus probable de cette levée, est qu’elle était destinée à protéger la voie romaine, qui passait à ses pieds, contre l’infiltration des marais, qui s’étendaient autour de la source minérale de Pline et qui auraient autrement couvert la route et envahi les terrains se trouvant entre la ville et l’enceinte extérieure. Ces marais se reconnaissent encore dans les terrains humides qui s’étendent entre les routes de St-Trond et e Hasselt, au milieu desquels jaillit maintenant la source ferrugineuse, connue sous le nom de fontaine de Pline, parce que cet auteur a mentionée ses vertus médicales.

Cette fontaine minérale au sujet de laquelle des flots d’encre ont été répandus par les érudits belges qui contestaient ou soutenaient son identité, jaillissait autrefois sur l’Ysserbron, monticule située près des remparts; son bassin fut obstrué par des décombres lors de la démolition d’une partie des remparts de Tongres ordonnée par le duc de Bourgogne Charles-le-Téméraire, après qu’il se fut emparé de cette ville en 1468. La source se fraya alors une voie souteraine et vint surgir à l’endroit où elle se trouve actuellement” ⁷⁴

Sint-Gilliskapel van Mulken

Although the original Ysserbron had declined significantly, Gherinx was excited by the discovery that sometime in the 1500s, a new spring had emerged a half a league to the west of the ancient Ysserbron. He called this spring St. Gilles because it was near the church of that name. This spring also had all the qualities of Pliny’s spring but flowed steadily much like the old Ysserbron. Gerinx believed that after the old outlet at Ysserburn had gotten plugged to all the the destruction, Pliny’s spring had simply found a new outlet, following was later observers might call the path of least resistance. So while the fountain of St. Gilles had not flowed in Pliny’s time, it could certainly be seen as evidence that Pliny’s fountain had indeed been in Tongeren, and not in Spa.

Gherinx’s intention was not to discredit Spa. Indeed, he noted that Spa waters even in his time had already attracted “‘an infinite number of people from the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.’ He gives the results he obtained by distilling these waters, lists the main diseases that they can heal and quotes, with details that reflect an attentive observer, several important and ever quite amazing results. Among others that of a woman who, in drinking the water of the Pouhon, lived up to a hundred and twenty years; despite this great age, the author adds, she was still sprightly.'” ⁷⁵

Gherinx’s book was later translated into Latin by Thomas de Rye. Fontium acidorum pagi Spa et ferrati Tvngrensis accvrata descriptio. Autore Philippo Gaeringo mcdico è gallica latina facta , à Thoma Ryetio , Principis Elecioris Coloniensis , Leodiensis etc medico. Casus et acccsserunt in dcscripiioncm et super natura et usu eorumdem fontium observationes.    Leodii, ex officina Henrici Hovii, anno MDXC. Cum gratia et privilegio. in-12 de 67 pp. (Bibl. de M. C. Jacob, à La Haye).

“Thomas of Rye or del Reye, Ryetius, physician, born, it seems, a noble family, which descended from the Marquis Varambon, was born in Mechelen around the year 1560. His study of the classics completed, he went to Louvain, dedicated himself to the study of natural sciences and received a degree in medicine around the year 1582. The unrest which, at that time, shook the Netherlands, caused him to move to Liège: he was perfectly well received and on him was conferred the Bourgeoisie de la Cité. As we say above, not only did Rye succeed Gerincx, as a close adviser and first doctor of Ernest of Bavaria, but he married his widow with whom he had a daughter who married the famous Henri de Heer. When Rye died is unknown, but it was prior to 1644. The doctor frequented for a long time the waters of Spa; he has left, on these springs, observations that we mention the following the work of Gerincx. ⁷⁶

“Gerincx married on 30 May 1577, Ida Van der Haghen, of Maastricht. From this marriage came a son and a girl who was the grandmother of Charles de Méan, the most famous of our juristconsultes. Ida remarried, the second wife to Thomas Rye or del Reye, the successor to Gerincx as intimate adviser and senior physician to Ernest of Bavaria.” ⁷⁷

The Triumph of Spa

No one seriously challenged Gherinx’s arguments because the argument simply disappeared in the 17th century. Indeed, Gherinx’s was pretty much the last word on the subject until this St. Bartholomew’s Day. The most celebrated writer on Spa waters in the 1600s, Henri de Heer, chose not even to comment on which spring Pliny was writing about. Perhaps that was because de Heer was Gherinx’s cousin, and de Rye’s son-in-law. But last word or not, Gherinx’s efforts had come to nought and has been pretty much forgotten. If Gherincx had the last word, Fuchs got the last laugh.

Despite the efforts of Thomas, van Bruhezen, Baccio, and Gherinx, Spa’s star was on the rise. Spa supporters blithely continued to assume that Pliny MUST have been speaking of Spa. And in 1700 both Tongeren and Spa supporters would have to admit that the weight of opinion of the world had decided in favor of Spa.

As for Tongeren, it remained a backwater. Plans had also gone awry to develop the St. Gilles well. Bishop Ernest of Bavaria (1581-1612) “having experienced the relief from his pain by the use of this ferruginous water, analyzed the water itself, and planned to decorate the fountain of Pliny by a monument of beautiful architecture” but they remained only plans. ⁷⁸

While the remote hamlet of Spa continued to flourish, war continued to take its toll on Tongeren which even at this late date always seemed to be smack in the middle of things, this time the Franco-Dutch War (1672-1678) fought between the Kingdom of France, Sweden, the Bishopric of Münster, the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Kingdom of England on one side, against the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Emperor, Brandenburg, and Spain on the other. ⁷⁹

“The Siege of Maastricht was one of the key elements in King Louis XIV’s plans to attack the Netherlands, in order to revenge the humiliating conditions enforced on him by the Triple Alliance when he tried to fully conquer the Spanish Netherlands. After making a feint for Ghent and Brussels, Louis marched his army past Maastricht, a condominium of the United Provinces and the Bishopric of Liège, in May 1672, not bothering to take the fortress. In 1673, when his supply lines became threatened he decided to capture the city; the siege began on June 11.

Maastricht would be the first major city to be attacked by Sebastien Vauban, the master of siegecraft in his time. In addition to firing upon the city walls with cannon, Vauban ordered the building of trenches, in a zigzag pattern, parallel to the walls. These trenches made it more difficult for the defenders from having a clear shot at the attackers and, in addition, allowed for the protection of military miners to allow them to reach the base of the fortifications and plant mines to make a breach.

June 24 was the feast day of Saint John the Baptist, and so Louis attempted to finish conquering the city in time to celebrate Mass in Maastricht’s cathedral. The trenches were completed, and so the King’s Regiment, and the Company of the Grey Musketeers led the march into the city, under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Charles de Batz de Castelmore, also known as Comte d’Artagnan. The French, after some difficult fighting, crossed the moat and seized a crescent-shaped fortification which would become the scene of the toughest fighting of the siege.

Most of the French were driven out by the Spanish auxiliaries soon afterwards, but about 30 men held out the entire night. James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, tried to take a covered road protecting the moat, and withdrew after suffering the loss of 300 men. The Dutch recaptured the crescent fortification soon afterwards, and when the Duke of Monmouth rallied his troops to a second assault, they were driven back once more, and Count d’Artagnan was killed.

Finally, Louis ordered the artillery back into action, eliciting a surrender from the Dutch within a week.” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Maastricht]

As part of this siege of Maastricht, Louis’s forces seized Tongeren. The city of Tongeren remained occupied by the French garrison until the capture of Maastricht, which took place on July 2 [1673]; on the 4th of the same month, the French began their preparations for departure by tearing down the palisades placed around Tongeren, then they undermined the walls and the gates of the city; the walls were demolished between the gates of Koninxheim and St-Truiden, and the gates of St-Truiden, Hasselt and Maastricht. The old great tower [donjon] of the gate of Visé, resisted the efforts of the powder and men, and the king of France who had come to witness this work of destruction, had to relinquish it after seeing several of his soldiers who lay mines [mineurs] perish; on July 9, the French returned the keys of the city to the magistrates and evacuated the city by denying to repair the breaches made in the ramparts. ⁸⁰

In November, fearing the simultaneous approach of the Dutch, German, and French armies, the magistrates of Tongeren appeared to the Privy Council of Liege asking for a garrison; their request was granted and Colonel Jamart arrived to occupy the city with 300 infantry on 20 November 1673. The French cavalry arrived in the evening at Tongeren, surrounded the city, tore down its pailssades, penetrated the streets, and proceeded to plunder and burn down several houses. ⁸¹

In 1677, the French returned with more fury, under the command of Lieutenant-General Calvo. They entered about midnight on August 28, plundered the whole city, committed a thousand sacrileges & a thousand disturbances, sparing neither age nor sex , & set fire to the Maison de Ville and the Church of Notre Dame, where there was then a very beautiful tower ; the parish churches of St. Nicolas & St. Materne; a few convents, and more than six hundred houses. On September 18, they came to burn the rest which had escaped their fury; over a hundred houses were devoured by flames, with the Dominican Convent. They tried again the 4th, 10th & 18th of October, under the pretext that those of Tongeren had refused to pay the contributions, and they had encouraged the enemies of France. ⁸²

Following this destruction, the population of the city fell from 4,500 to 2,500, and it wasn’t until the end of the 18th century that the population reachd 5,000 inhabitants ⁸³

As for Pliny’s fountain, in such troubled times, that was not such a great concern. The only mentions of the debate were in travel books, some of which echoed the argumentss of Fuchs, others the arguments of Gherinx. ⁸⁴

In the meantime, the relative backwater of Spa continued to flourish. Since the mid-1500s, Spa had been the place to go to take the waters, the most celebrated mineral springs in Europe. Everyone from visiting royalty down to the poorest local imbibed Spa waters. Besides the thousands the flocked to Spa each years, Spa waters were being bottled and exported throughout the Continent and England. The waters of the Pouhon spring, in particular, had the excellent reputation of maintaining their quality even when shipped hundreds of miles. In an era when mercantilism was the prevailing economic philosophy across Europe, there was an intense search in France and England for their own Spa that could keep their people at home rather than spend their money abroad. In England, indeed, Spa became a generic word for any mineral spring that had pretensions of partaking of the virtues of and thus competing with what the English called the “German Spa.”

Revival of interest

Despite this bad news, there were efforts in the late 1600s, a hundred years after Gherinx wrote about St.-Gilles, to make improvements to the spring, which was now often called locally by the name of Schraeffenborn, probably derived from S’graven-born because it was a spring (born) located on the estate of the lord (graven) of Betho. ⁸⁵

There was enough interest in the Schraeffenborn in 1674 to place this chronogram above the basin:

FONS VIVUS MEDICINA POPULI ⁸⁶

The Latin passage by itself read “Living Fountain, Medicine of the People” but, in addition, contained within the letters the date to which the passage pertained, in this case the date most likely that the chronogram was engraved.

“The practice originated in the late Roman Empire and was particularly popular during the Renaissance, when chronograms were often used on tombstones and foundation stones to mark the date of the event being commemorated.” ⁸⁷

To determine the date that a chronogram refers to, separate out the letters from the Latin phrase that also represent numbers in the Roman numerical system (i.e., M, D, C, L, X, V (or U), I). Add them up and convert to Arabic numerals.

Thus in this chronogram we get MDCLVVVVIIII which adds to 1674.

Tongeren’s leaders also started making plans to develop the spring in the late 1600s to improve the city’s prosperity by attracting outsiders and started embellishing the spring as early as 1690. ⁸⁸

But the real push to revive interest in Tongeren waters seems to have been the work of the lawyer Philippe de Germeau. The story goes that Germeau, descended from one the ancient patrician families of Tongeren, was suffering from phthisis (i.e., consumption, tuberculosis). Following the advice of one of the doctors of Liege, de Germeau went to Spa in 1697 but found no relief. By happenstance Germeau came across a copy of Gherinx’s book on St. Gilles’ spring and he decided to try instead the waters of his native town which he did over the course of 1698 and 1699 and was completely cured. Pleased with the results, Germeau encouraged the magistrates of Tongeren to republish Gherinx’s book and develop the spring. ⁸⁹

There may have also been some opportunism involved in the timing because the 1690s was also a particularly bad decade for Spa waters. The massive earthquake of the 18th of September 1692 had almost dried up its mineral springs and derogatory rumors started spreading abroad about Spa waters. As Pöllnitz reported the story in 1734,

The great Earthquake we felt on the 18th of September 1692, gave some Persons a Handle of decrying these Waters, and of spreading a Report that they were quite alter’d, and had lost their Virtue. This Scandal was rais’d on a Supposition that the Earthquake had disturb’d our Springs, and mix’d them with those of common Water ; and they pretended to prove it by the new Crevices and Clefts which were really made in the Mountains and Rocks towards the South, where the Pouhon takes its Rise, about a Musquet Shot from hence. The Troubles and the Wars which afflicted this Country of late Years, having render’d the Passage dangerous, and the Journey insecure, because of the hostile Parties, the Discredit of the Waters gain’d Ground, and they were thought less wholesome because less frequented. ⁹⁰

As a result, the number of visitors to Spa started dropping. Germeau’s experience perhaps reflected this growing perception. The burgomasters of Tongeren may have seen an excellent opportunity to squeeze into mineral water market.

University of Louvain

Along with emissaries sent by the Prince-Bishop, the main celebrities attending the festivities in Tongeren that St. Bartholomew’s Day were the Laurentius Peeters, H. Somers, and Philippe Verheyen, doctors of medicine as well as professors at the University of Leuven (Louvain in French), the oldest university in the Low Countries, founded in 1425. Among the most famous alumni of the University of Leuven were the father of modern anatomy, Andreas Vesalius; the “Prince of the Humanists,” Desiderius Erasmus; and the cartographer Gerard Mercator, the good friend and mentor of Ortelius. From its founding, Latin was the sole language of instruction. Verheyen himself ⁹¹

Besides being distinguished in their own right, these professors had helped train many of the other physicians in attendance that day. Even though many of these physicians had gotten additional training in France, Italy, and Germany, almost all of the thirty-one had received their basic medical training at the University of Leuven.

“Before the French Revolution, medical men in the Austrian Netherlands were separated into three groups: the doctors and licenciates in medicine, the surgeons, and the apothecaries.” ⁹²

“The doctors and licentiates in medicine received a university education which set them apart from the other groups of medical practitioners. The University of Louvain had a monopoly in granting medical degrees in the eighteenth century until 1787, when the degrees of other Habsburg universities became equivalent” ⁹³

“The majority of the students graduated as licentiates after 4½ years of study” ⁹⁴

“One and a half years for the degree of BA and three years for the degree of licentiate in medicine” ⁹⁵

“University graduates were authorized to practise internal medicine throughout the country…The majority of the physicians settled in urban areas. In towns with a collegium medicum, the physicians had to be licensed to practice medicine” ⁹⁶

Physicians

The regular physicians in attendance came from all over: eleven physicians from Liége, six from Maastricht, four from Tongres, and others from Tirlemont, Huy, Ruremonde, Diest, and Visé. ⁹⁷ They had travelled far and wide to attend the ceremonies. Liege was 18.7 km SSE; Maastricht 19.3 km ENE; Tirlemont 49.6 km W; Huy 40.7 km SW; Ruremonde 67.1 km NE; Diest 49.1 km NW; and Viset 20 km ESE. As if to assure a bit of additional objectivity, some of these physicians came from outside the Principality of Liege. Tirlemont and Diest were in the Duchy of Brabant, and Ruremonde in the Duchy of Limburg, both duchies being in the Spanish Netherlands. Maastricht a condominium, with both the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the Dutch Republic holding joint sovereignty. ⁹⁸

Collège des Médecins

Several of the physicians from Liege were quite eminent in their own right, many coming as representatives of the newly formed College des Medecins, instituted the previous March 1699 by Prince-Bishop Joseph-Clément of Bavaria. ⁹⁹ Bimy was the Prefect of the College des Medecins. The College des Medecins was an organization created to establish some order to health care in the Principality by bringing together not just physicians, but also surgeons and apothecaries. The events this August day would also give the College of Medecins a chance to demonstrate the power to resolve long-standing medical disputes.

“the eighteenth century collegia medica were mixed bodies, composed of physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries” ¹⁰⁰

“Surgeons, together with barbers, belonged to the surgeons-barbers guild. Unlike the physicians, surgeons were not university-trained, and acquired their skills mainly by apprenticeship” ¹⁰¹

“Apothecaries belonged to the wealthy grocers or mercers company” ¹⁰²

Surgeons and barbers are brought together in the Society of St. Cosmas and St. Damian, which has existed since the Middle Ages. Apothecaries belong to the profession of Haberdashers, corporation rather heterogeneous, in addition to Colt, gathers grocers (spice merchants), apothecaries, booksellers and printers. ¹⁰³

“As seems to have been characteristic of early modern Europe, three separately organized medical groups can be distinguished in Belgium: the doctors and licentiates in medicine, the surgeons, and the apothecaries. Each of these groups was differentiated from the others in terms of the legal status of its members and the education and training which they had received. They performed different functions: the doctors and licentiates in medicine diagnosed complaints, prescribed treatments and attended and advised; the surgeons offered craft and manual skills, and the apothecaries provided material agents supposed to cure. Moreover, there were differences in corporate organization. The formal regulations suggested a hierarchy, with the doctors and licentiates in medicine at the top, and the surgeons, especially the rural surgeons, at the bottom. This hierarchy was reflected in the rules governing the practice of the different groups. For example, a medical prescription was needed for bleeding and purging, and when serious and complicated surgical operations were carried out, the doctor’s presence was required. A medical prescription was also needed for the sale of compounded drugs, and doctors were supposed to supervise the quality of the drugs. As in other European countries, there are strong indications that the formal divisions did not coincide with divisions in day-to-day practce. Rural surgeons in particular, the most important practitioners in the countryside, combined with various branches of medicine, including pharmacy. Some also engaged in non-medical activities to supplement their meagre incomes. It is probable that the formal medical hierarchy reflected not only or not mainly a division of labour within the profession, but also a form of social hierarchy’ ¹⁰⁴

“The collegia medica had considerable formal powers. They granted licences to practise medicine, surgery, pharmacy, and midwifery, and examined surgeons, apothecaries, and midwives. They drew up lists of registered practitioners and apprentices. The collegia medica supervised medical practice and some even obtained the right to discipline offenders for not respecting the established division of labour and for disloyal behaviour towards other practitioners. They were responsible for implementing public health measures, such as acting against contagious diseases and epidemics. Finally, they were obliged to supervise the provision of medical care for the indigent. However, there were limits on their powers. Collegia medica were established in only ten Belgian towns. The scope of their power was essentially local. They initially had no legal power to enforce their regulation beyond the town borders. In the eighteenth century, attempts seem to have been made to give the collegia medica influence over neighbouring rural areas, but with few practical results. Even in the towns, their influence seems to have been rather ineffective. For example, the chronicles of the colleges in Brussels and Antwerp make it clear that that apothecaries and surgeons resented control by the collegia medica, and successfully resisted encroachment into their affairs. Conflicts between the collegia medica and the apothecaries were more than once settled simply because the collegia medica had insufficient funds to prosecute” ¹⁰⁵

In years to come, the College of Physicians would continue to play a role in settling disputes over mineral waters. For example, in 1711, Mr. Lawrence Chession captain Beaufays, asked the College of Physicians to undertake the analysis of mineral water from a fountain named Gadot, located in the valley of Chaudfontaine, south of the town. The doctors Bresmal and F.-W. Burdo (1), delegated for that purpose, went to the site on 5 November and acknowledged that the warm water was permeated with sulfur and iron. The College then ratified the analysis and in a declaration dated November 13 recommended the spring of Gadot to the public. That’s where things stood until 1714 when Chrouet in his work Connoissance des eaux, in which he criticized the analysis of his colleagues and asserted that not only did the spring of Gadot not have anything of sulfur or iron, it wasn’t even warm.

The College of Physicians, believing its honor challenged, appointed a commission composed of the prefect Bresmal, and the assessors Loncin, Burdo, Rorive, and Lhommart to take appropriate measures to mitigate the ill effect that the work of Chrouet might have on the public. This eventually led to Bresmal publishing Defence des eaux minérales de la fontaine de Gadot scituée dans le valon de Chaud- Fontaine. Lettre a M. Dubar , docteur en médecine à Maestreck, contenant leurs incontestables principes. Par J.-F. Bresmal , docteur en médecine, préfet du collège des Médecins de Liège (Liège, 1714). But these events happened over a decade after those of this St. Bartholomew’s Day, 1700, and the College of Physicians was just getting started.

Edmond Nessel

Bresmal was also in attendance this St. Bartholomew’s Day, and along with his colleague Edmund Nessel, brought a degree of objectivity to the affair. Both were from Liege, members of the College of Physicians, and were experts on mineral water analysis. Furthermore, they had each recently published a book lauding the qualities of Spa waters. In case there was any suspicion that this affair would be prejudicial in favor of Tongeren, these two should have helped set aside such concerns.

Nessel was born in Liege in 1658 of a patrician family. He began his medical studies at the University of Leiden, after which he went to Reims, where he obtained a university degree 16 July 1680. After traveling in France and Germany for eighteen months, he settled in his hometown. Nessel soon acquired a great reputation. He was Registrar of the College of Physicians from 15 April 1699 until 1 June 1700, and later he served as Assessor. Later the Prince-Bishop Georges-Louis de Berghes chose Nessel for his first physician, but he appointed him as well Judge of the freehold Court. Nessel kept this up until February 24, 1731, the date of his death. ¹⁰⁶

We learn much more about the reputation Nessel enjoyed in an anecdote recounted by Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Pöllnitz in his Les Amusemens de Spa, recalling a conversation he had at Spa in July 1729 with “Sieur Salpeteuere Chemist and Apothecary at Liege.” Jean Salpeteur, was received as an apothecary by the Brotherhood of St-Come and St-Damien l October 1695, and was called in 1699 to be part of the College of Physicians of Liege. ¹⁰⁷ At Spa where he had “accustomed himself to come every Summer…for more than thirty years,” Salpeteur had “a Shop pretty well furnish’d with necessary Drugs” which was “frequented like a Coffee-House.” ¹⁰⁸ When Pöllnitz was “surpriz’d at his Insight into these Waters, which we judg’d exceeded his Profession,” Salpeteur told them modestly, “that he ow’d his little Stock of Knowledge to Mr Nessel, Physician at Liege ; and that he had gain’d it in attending that Doctor in making his Experiments on the Waters in 1698”, which Nessel carried out in response to all the rumors about Spa waters that had circulated following the great earthquake of 1692.

“Upon these Considerations le Sieur Edmund Nessel, Physician at Liege, who was well acquainted with our Springs, came hither to examine on the Spot if these Reports were founded on Reality. He engaged me, says the Apothecary, to assist in this Examen, persuaded that I might help his Inquiries, since my constant Attendance at the Waters for fifteen or sixteen Summers must have made me more sensible of the pretended Diminution of their Qualities. This Doctor did me the Honour to admit me in his Observations ; we went together to all the Fountains, we tasted them, and found them very near the same as before the Earthquake. The only sensible Change was in the Pouhon Spring. Dr. Nessel could hardly remember [believe?] it. But instead of losing their Qualities by this Alteration, the Waters were impregnated with a double Quantity of Mineral. And one curious Observation we made, which was, that altho’ these Waters were much fuller of Mineral than before, yet they were always clear and transparent, whereas before the Earthquake they were muddy in tempestuous and rainy Weather” ¹⁰⁹

“We did not content ourselves with these general Remarks, we confirm’d them by the Coction, Distillation, Fermentation, and Evaporation of the Waters of every Spring, and by every Method which Chemistry has invented to undress Nature. We found the Quantity and the Quality of their Salts, Sulphur and Mineral the same as before the Year 1692. We even prov’d the Produce of our Operations with the Loadstone, and found them equally full of Steel. Dr Nessel drew up an Account of our Observations, which he presented to his most Serene Highness Clement of Bavaria, then Bishop of Liege ; and by Order of his Highness it was printed, who to undeceive the World had engrav’d in Letters of Gold over the Pouhon Fountain the ingenious Inscription which you see there” ¹¹⁰

“We went out of his Shop to read it, for hitherto it had escap’d our Notice. We explain’d it to the Ladies, who wonder’d that I took a Transcript of it since they perceiv’d nothing extraordinary in it. It is indeed more curious than elegant, because of the Chronological Design of it forced the Use of Words whose Numerical Letters might express the Time of the Earthquake in 1692 ; as is easily seen by adding the Numerals according to their Value in this Inscription, which I have faithfully transcrib’d.

Jean-François Bresmal

Bresmal was born in Tongeren around 1660. His undertook his medical studies first at the University of Louvain for four years and then went to Pont-à-Mousson, where he obtained his doctorate 4 June 1686. After visiting several universities in France and Germany, he settled in Liege, and soon acquired a certain vogue. He contributed greatly to the erection of the College of Physicians, which he was one of the first called to join, and later served as Prefect. ¹¹³

Early on Bresmal discovered a passion for writing, especially about the mineral springs of country around Liege, and kept it up until his death 14 June 1724. His first book Lettres sur les eaux minérales d’ Aix et de Borset was published at Aix-le-Chapelle in 1687 and over the course of his life he would write about the springs at Huy , Gadot, Chaudfontaine, Brée, Niveset, Chevron, Bouleau, as well as Spa and Tongeren. Later critics praised Bresmal for the quality of his chemical and medical analysis, but found much to criticize in his wretched prose and poetry. Apparently Bresmal could be equally adept at butchering French and Latin. ¹¹⁴  In 1700 he published a major work in three volumes La Circulation des eaux ou l’hydrographie des minérales d’Aix et de Spa, divisée en trois parties…Par J.-F. Bresmal, docteur en médecine (Liège, 1700), dedicated to Jean Ferdinad de Méan, doyen of the Cathedral of Liège. In this book, totally contrary to what he will conclude after the St. Bartholomew’s Day activities, Bresmal asserted that Pliny was talking about Spa waters. ¹¹⁵

Preparations

Whether back in the 1500s or in August 1700, the problem for Tongeren supporters was always that some people did not believe that Tongeren even had a spring, and, if it did have a spring, it certainly did not match Pliny’s description. The purpose behind convoking all these authorities on this St. Bartholomew’s Day was to end those suspicions forever, to prove once and for all time that, the waters of Tongeren did indeed match Pliny’s description — perfectly.

To win over public opinion, the burgomasters of Tongeren revived the voices of those like Thomas, Bacci, and Gherinx who over a century earlier had championed Tongeren’s cause. The war of words were placed first and foremost in the promotional announcements that preceded the ceremony, with posters mentioning Thomas and Bacci by name. ¹¹⁶ The burgomasters also accepted Germeau’s proposal to reprint Gherinx’s treatise of the fountain of St. Gilles. Canon J. A. Cuypers, rector of Val-S^te-Lucie, was given the responsibility to produce a new edition of the book which appeared under the title Description de la fontaine ferrugineuse de S^t-Gille , ditte Scraeffborn , près de Tongre. Par M. Philippe Gerinx , médecin. Seconde édition revue et corrigée — eCCe Do fonteM — aCCeDe fonteM — aCCeDaM.   A Liège, chez J. L. de Mdst. MDCC. in-12 de X et 25 pp. Sur le verso du titre , les armes de la ville de Tongres, gravées sur bois. ¹¹⁷

The burgomasters and council also authorized two separate official examinations of the waters, one carried out by Gilles Lambert de Rorde and Pierre Mariane, physicians from Liege, on 8 July 1700, and the other by Bresmal, Mariane, and Rolans on 19 July 1700, each time with the assistance of physicians from Tongeren, including Minten and Muyssen. De Rorde et al. unanimously attested that S’gravenborn waters had their ferruginous taste with some oily film. They also found that the mountains that surrounded the the spring had iron-rich minerals which the bottom of the fountain is also filled with which when smelted yields a ferruginous matter. ¹¹⁸ Bresmal et al. found that the S’graven-born was filled with “the magister of Mars, which gives it the right to be called ferruginous without suspicion of acid, rendering an alkaline virtue; which is not to be found possibly in any fountain of Europe; not doubting that experience teaches that they chase away and heal all chronic diseases caused by severe acid; offering to reiterate his statement as often as needed etc.” ¹¹⁹

The affidavits these physicians signed mentioned nothing about Pliny’s fountain. The burgomasters and magistrates of Tongeren knew that to reclaim once and for all time Pliny for Tongeren would require much more than a couple of affidavits. These were in effect practice runs. There would be no surprises a month later on St. Bartholomew’s Day when all these physicians would again be in attendance along with over twenty more. With confidence then the burgomasters began making plans for the greatest gathering of physicians that Tongeren or Spa had ever seen. The original date was set for August 10, but as it got closer to that date and things were not quite ready, the event were pushed back to August 24. ¹²⁰ So confident were the Bourgemeisters in the results that in their advertisements for the St. Bartholomew’s Day’s events, they pretty much let people know the outcome was assured. ¹²¹

St. Bartholomew’s Day

Finally, the day arrived. Tuesday, the 24th of August in the year of Our Lord 1700. St. Bartholomew’s Day. ¹²² Today, St. Bartholomew’s Day is most remember in the Western world for the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre when thousands of Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) were killed in a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence in France which began on the eve of St. Bartholomew’s Day in France in 1572. ¹²³ But in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Bishopric of Liége, there were few thoughts of Hugenots murdered over a hundred years earlier.

From the very early Christian custom of annually commemorating martyrs on the date of their death and at the same time celebrating their birth into heaven, the practice of feast days emerged. Over the years, as the number of saints increased, the entire calendar became filled with feast days, each feast days associated with a particular saint. Traditionally, in the western church, the feast day of St. Bartholomew is celebrated on August 24. ¹²⁴

A feast day did not mean engorging oneself on food, but it did mean that eating was allowed in contrast to a “fast day” which demanded some sort of abstinence from food. ¹²⁵ Over time, other customs emerged associated with particular feast days. In Smithfield, London, St. Bartholomew’s Day since the Middle Ages became associated with the famous Bartholomew Fair. In Portugal, the feast of St. Bartholomew is the day when peasants from Oporto march in a grande “romaria” to Mathosinhos on the ocean to bathe. “St. Bartholomew’s day (August 24th) was marked, in the Middle Ages, by the custom of distributing small knives among the people, in memory of St. Bartholomew’s death, who was supposed to have been flayed alive.” ¹²⁶

“In medieval days it was a common custom, especially in Brittany and Belgium, for epileptics to spend the night before St. Bartholomew’s feast-day dancing in or around their parish church as this strange activity was held to be an infallible cure for fits. In the fifteenth century Franciscus Florentinus, a Franciscan inquisitor, condemned those sufferers who danced all day long on St. Bartholomew’s day in the hope that they would be free from seizures for the rest of the year. Instead of this happy result, he said, some of the dancers became so exhausted that they died and went to Hell immediately. It is not certain why St. Bartholomew (first century) was invoked by epileptic patients. He was one of the Twelve Apostles and legend states that he travelled to India, and was martyred there or in Armenia. His association with convulsions probably results from his power of casting out devils. The Golden Legend tells of his freeing the daughter of an Indian king from a devil which so troubled her that she bit anyone who approached her, and had to be kept in chains. Bartholomew was also invoked against twitching and other involuntary movements. This association may have been due to his being flayed alive during his martyrdom. Knowledge of his having been subjected to this torture was widespread in medieval Europe, and later Michael Angelo, in his Last Judgement, painted Bartholomew carrying his skin hanging over his arm” ¹²⁷

Church of Notre Dame

This St. Bartholomew’s Day began with a solemn messe du Saint-Esprit in the ancient church of Notre Dame of Tongeren. ¹²⁸ Traditionally, a mass in honor of the Holy Spirit was celebrated to beg God to help in the work of some group, as in this case the magistrates of Tongeren, or some other important circumstance. ¹²⁹

In the 13th century, when Tongeren became a bonne ville of the Principality, the city experienced a revival accompanied by many improvements, including the building of new walls, several new churches and cloisters, the beguinage, and the rebuilding of Notre Dame in a Gothic style to replace the older Romanesque structure (although the cloister was preserved). ¹³⁰ The building of the choir was begun in 1240, with nave, transepts, and side chapels added between the 13th and 15th century. The final touch, the replacement of the the original Romanesque tower by the present Gothic bell tower was completed in 1541. ¹³¹

Tongeren took pride in being the first and oldest place of worship devoted to the Virgin Mary north of the Alps. The pride and joy of the church was its rich collection of treasures. The showpieces include a piece of the Holy Cross from the second half of the 12th century and and a fragment of the veil of the Virgin Mary from the first half of the 14th century. ¹³² “The best known piece of art [was] without a doubt the statue of Causa Nostrae Laetitiae” [http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Belgium/Provincie_Limburg/Tongeren-347858/Things_To_Do-Tongeren-BR-1.html[/ref]

“On June 22, 1479 the chapter granted the Brotherhood of Our Lady the privilege to order a new altar and a statue of the Virgin Mary for that altar. The statue, depicting Mary as ‘Cause of Our Joy’ is cut from walnut, is 1.60 m high and weighs 70 kg. In her right hand, the Mother of God holds a bunch of grapes, which she offers to her Son. The Divine Child on her left hand has a grape between his left thumb and index finger. The head of Our Lady is decorated with long locks of hair, pushed back at the temples and hanging down on her right shoulder and the middle of her back” ¹³³

Even to this day, the statue is “fervently venerated for its healing power” ¹³⁴

“In Tongeren from the 14th century onwards, every seven years the relics were displayed during 16 days. From July 2 on, the Wednesday after the Celebration of Our Lady Visitation, the relics were shown to the pilgrims who came here. It was probably Rodolf van den Beek who organised the first septennial display of relics in 1390. This took place in the central gallery of the tower. In 1608, the date of the pilgrimage was modified. The starting date was changed into July 11, the displays lasted for fourteen days and were concluded with a solemn procession in which the relics were carried around the church” ¹³⁵

Procession

After the mass concluded, the congregation filed out into the Grote Markt or Market Square over which the 64-metre-high bell tower of the Church of Notre Dame towered. ¹³⁶ The tower was so high that it could be seen from several kilometers from out of town. ¹³⁷

Basilica of Our Lady, Tongeren

From the square, the thirty-one physicians, accompanied by the three deputies sent by the Prince-Bishop of Liége, the magistrates of Tongeren, companies of bougeois and suburban militia, the different societies of the city, the crafts (les métiers), and finally thousands of people who flocking from all around to see the astonishing spectacle. They formed an impressive cortege as they proceeded north, some on foot, some in carriages, along Hemmellingenstraat with great pomp and circumstance to “the sound of bells, and the thud of boîtes d’artillerie.” ¹³⁸ Boîtes d’artillerie were mortalets, small caliber mortars intended primarily for public rejoicing, charged with a balon (a large cartridge sometimes of iron, sometimes of cardboard), filled with serpentaux (a sort of flying rocket, which goes snakelike in the air) and two or three small saucissons (a kind of firecracker) which when lit caused the balon to burst with a very loud noise. ¹³⁹

The throngs stayed to the left taking the road that led to Hasselt and exited through what was left of the medieval gate, contined along Hassellsesteenweg. As they past the ancient Roman walls, they could see the road that headed up to the monticule the locals called the Ysserbron but few if any gave any thought to the the spring that used to flow from its foot. Again they took the branch to the left staying on the road to Mulken.

Behind the Chateau Betho they could see people already congregated around the fountain. Gherinx had called it the fountain of St. Gilles after the small church dedicated to that saint which lay a little farther up the road. Like the church of Our Lady in Tongeren, St. Gilles was also a frequent stop on the pilgrimage trail. ¹⁴⁰

The Schraeffenborn was located in a pleasant, quite spacious valley, surrounded by a cordon of small mountains in the shape of an oval, giving the place a rather rustic and pleasant feel. There was the mountain of Colmont to the north and those called Ysserborn and Hoogheyde to the east. It was these hills, rich in iron, which gave the Schraeffenborn waters their ferruginous quality, as the preliminary analyses had already affirmed. ¹⁴¹

The Test

Waiting until the last processioners had a chance to catch up, the doctors got down to business at 10 am. They were reported to have taken thirty pots of S’gravenborn water and boiled them to dryness, which they tasted, sniffed, and otherwise analyzed. ¹⁴² They measured the quantity of fixed matter, which they determined was one scruple per bottle. ¹⁴³ Among the other things they tested for was the presence of a volatile principle, an earth that would ferment with acids, iron, and a soluble salt, all of which they found to be present in the water. After each operation the doctors Bresmal of Liege and Verheyen of Louvain proclaimed the expected results aloud, alternately in Latin, French and Flemish, to the cheers of the crowd. And, in the end, the doctors unanimously declared that the S’gravenborn clearly had all the same properties as the spring described so long ago by Pliny. Upon that news, a huge cheer rose in the air, which was answered suddenly by the muskets of the guards, cannon, and the bells of the city.

The procession then returned to the great church to attend the Te Deum and afterwards attended a banquet in one of the rooms at the ancient hospice of St. Jacques. Three days of popular festivities followed. Nicolas Buxhon, the abbot [priest?] of St. Jacques in Liege recounted an anecdote that so great was the crowd that flocked to Tongeren to see this spectacle that the local bakers were not able to furnish enough bread to feed them all. ¹⁴⁴

While at the hospice, the physicians signed a proclamation, “Approbation des Eaux Minerales Ferrugineuses de S. Gilles proche de Tongre,” in which they once again affirmed that after having examined all things necessary with great exactitude, they judged unanimously that the spring of St. Gilles agreed totally with those described by Pliny in his Historia Naturalis, Book 31, Chap. 2.

Nous les soubsignez Docteurs Primaires de la Faculté de Medecine dans la celebre Université de Louvain, & Professeurs Royaux; les Prefects & les Collegues du College de Liege ; les Docteurs ou Licentiez de Hui, de Maestrecht, de Tirlemont, de Visé &c. tous les Medecins pratiquans, expressement convoquez & requis par Messieurs les Bourguemaîtres & Conseillers de la Ville royale de Tongre, pour analyse & reconnoître la Fontaine nommée de saint Gilles proche cette Ville: Ayant examiné toutes les choses necessaires avec grande exactitude; nous jugeons unanimement qu’elles quadrent en tout avec la Fontaine que Pline décrit dans son Histoire naturelle au Livre 31, chap. 2 En voici les paroles:

Tungri Civitas Galliae Fontem habet insignem plurimis bullis stillantem, ferruginei saporis, quod ipsum non nisi in fine potûs intelligitur. Purgat hic corpora, tertianas febres discutit, calculorumque vitia. Eadem aqua igne admoto turbida fit, ad postremum rubescit.

Nous affirmons & nous attestons que cette Source est minerale , principalement ferrugineuse, tenant de la nature de l’alkali, & que par-là elle est tres-efficace pour combattre les maladies provenantes de l’acide diversement vicié; comme sont celles que Pline a dénommées, & celles que nous specifions : à scavoir, la mélancholie hypochondriaque , le scorbut, les pâles couleurs ou suppressions des mois, la passion hysterique, la cachexie, & la leucophlegmatie, les gouttes, fort souvent les douleurs de tête & plusieurs autres maladies provenantes de l’obstruction des visceres. Ce qui nous a été verifié par les témoignages de plusieurs personnes, qui ont été gueries par leur usage. Fait à Tongre le 24. Aoust de l’an 1700.

Etoient signez,

…

Lieu † du Séel

de Messieurs du College de Liege.” ¹⁴⁵

In addition, the physicians added a few more details: that the waters mineral, principally ferruginous, taking the nature of alkali. Although they didn’t mention it, this finding made St. Gilles waters quite distinct from the generally assumed martial, acidulous nature of Spa waters. The physicians believed that it was this alkaline nature which helped to cure various diseases caused by acid variously corrupted such as those mentioned by Pliny: the hypochondriac melancholy, scurvy, pale colors, suppression of menses, hysterical outbursts, cachexia [wasting syndrome], leucophlegmatia [anasarca], cephalagy [headache] and several other disabilities that come from the obstruction of the viscera. They further asserted that these medicinal virtues had been verified by the testimony of several persons who had been cured by using the waters. ¹⁴⁶

The three deputies of the prince also joined in an affidavit that the analysis had been done according to all the rules of the art and that they had witnessed the approbation. ¹⁴⁷

The Day After

The next morning to gives thanks to God once again a solemn high mass was performed with the Te Deum sung amidst the firing of the cannons on the walls, ending in the ringing of all the city bells. About 9 am have such of the Doctors with all the magistrats ending in a great number of common people, meeting again found by the fountain, where, all were in silence, Mr. Bresmal under the declaration proclaimed first in Latin, then in French, using Mr. Colette, Doctor of medicine from Maestricht has observed them proclaimed in Dutch, end as do all with joy [vreught] end joy [blydschap] ended [voleindicht]; which shall to shew to have HH. Doctor with all the HH. of the magistrates and the congratulations [proficiat] joyful [blijdelijk] in cheerful [lustig] drunk with water from [uit] the prescribed fountain. ¹⁴⁸

‘T’sanderdaghs s’morgens is tot dancksegginghe aen onse Heere Godt wederom een solemneele Hoogh-misse met den Te Deum gesonghen onder het afbranden van het geschut op de vesten, ende het luyden [luiden] van alle de stads-klocken. Omtrent 9 uren hebben sich de HH. Doctooren beneffens [benevens] de geheele Magistraet ende eene groote menigte van volck, wederom bevonden by de Fonteyne, alwaer, alles in stilte synde, den Heer Bresmal de ondergestelde declaratie eerst afgelesen heeft in t’latyn, daerne in t’fransch, ende de Heer Colette, Doctoor medicus van Maestricht heeft deselve voorgelesen in het nederlants, ende alsdoen [als doen] is alles met vreught ende blydschap voleindicht ; om welck te betoonen hebben de HH. Doctooren met alle de HH. van den Magistraet den proficiat blydelyck [blijdelijk] en lustigh gedroncken met water uyt [uit] de voorschreve Fonteyn'” ¹⁴⁹

The following morning at 9 in the morning or thereabouts, Bresmal and Collette posted at the fountain the official statement by the physicians in Latin, French, and in the presence of the Burgermeisters and Council of Tongres and a crowd that included nobles as well as commoners. ¹⁵⁰

“Le lendemain, Englebert Blondel, pensionnaire d’Aix et médecin privé du Comte de Manderscheit, ayant vu réitérer les expériences, souscrivit à l’approbation qui fut publiée le même jour près de la fontaine, en latin, français et flamand. Après cela, ou se rendit en ville, un Te Deum fut chanté et plusieurs jours se passèrent en réjouíssances” ¹⁵¹ [is the J. Minten (from Tongres?) different from the J. Minten from Diest?][33 with Blondel and Minten, but Minten around counted in 31?]

“Guillaume Van Limbourgh, professeur de la faculté de médecine à l’université de Louvain, assura dans une lettre aux magistrats de Tongres (31 Août 1700) qu’elles lui avaient déchargé les reins de beaucoup de gravelle, fortifié l’estomac, ouvert la râte et purgé la bile” ¹⁵²

“le 4 October, J. Minten, médecin royal de Diest, fit connaître son adhésion à la déclaration de ses collègues” ¹⁵³

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the St. Bartholomew’s Day events, the burgomasters and council of Tongeren authorized the printing of a couple of placards in French and probably in Flemish as well.

This proclamation with its thirty-two signatures was printed in broadsheets in several languages and distributed widely. ¹⁵⁴

“Approbation des docteurs licentiez et médecins assemblés à Tongre le 24 août 1700 au sujet des eaux ferrugineuses de Tongre. Liége, de Milst, 1700, placard in-fol.” ¹⁵⁵

“Règles et usages pour les étrangers qui viennent boire les eaux minérales de Tungre. Liége, de Milst, 1700, placard in-folio.” ¹⁵⁶ They also asked Bresmal to publish at their expense a more elaborate description and defense of the Saint Gilles waters, which he did later that year. Published first in Latin under the title Descriptio seu analysis fontes S. Aegidii [Saint Giles] mineralis ferruginei propre Tungros (Liege, 1700), dedicated to the magistrates of Tongeren. Bresmal followed this up the next year with, again at the city of Tongeren’s expense, a French translation Description ou analise des eaux minérales ferrugineuses de la fontaine proche de la ville de Tongre. Où l’on prouve qu’elle convient en tous ses points avec celle que Pline a décrite ; on rapporte l’analise qui en a été faite; on enseigne ses vertus dans la médecine, etc. Par J.-F. Bresmal, docteur en médecine (Liège, 1701), which he dedicated to the burgomasters of Tongres, Gisbert Germeau and Severin Vander Maesen. ¹⁵⁷ There was also a separate Flemish edition written by Henricus Pisart, Kort verhael van de nieuwe ondeckte kennisse der krachten : des seer oude ende hoogh-gepresen fonteyne der stadt Tongeren, met eenighe onderrichtinghen aengaende het ghebruyck des waters deser fonteyne, ende een korte beschryvinghe van de vermaerde stadt Tongeren (Roermond : P. Vallen, 1701) ¹⁵⁸

“In the foreward, Bresmal starts by retracting what he had written some months earlier [in La circulation des eaux ou l’hydrographie des minérales d’Aix ou de Spa] regarding the interpretation of the famous passage of Pliny: Tungri civitas Galliae foniem Habel insignem ….. More enlightened, he recognizes that this naturalist had not in mind the springs of Spa, but rather the fountain of Tongeren. “It may seem strange,” he said, “to see here the retraction of what I have said, but I then have to assure that I am pleased to bring the justice that I owe to the truth.” ¹⁵⁹

The Death of a Dream

The leaders of Tongeren followed the St. Bartholomew’s Day festivities with efforts to develop the Schraeffenborn. Salaried musicians were hired to entertain the visitors every morning. A doctor was attached to the spring to give care and advice to the sick. ¹⁶⁰

Tongeren had some success swaying opinion. Some history books asserted Tongeren’s claim to the passage from Pliny. ¹⁶¹ People from Brussels, Anvers, Malines, and elsewhere came to Tongeren to drink the waters. Tongeren also had its share of celebrities, including Louis XV in 1748, Mirabeau in 1787, and Napoleon in 1803. ¹⁶²

Tongeren waters were also exported in jugs to Liege, advised by several of the senior doctors there, including Bresmal. ¹⁶³ Pharmacists of Liege and other cities retailed pills of Tongeren made from the minerals extracted from the waters. ¹⁶⁴

Nevertheless, unfortunately Tongeren’s dream of a Pliniusfont revival was not to be. In 1720, reflecting back twenty years after the St. Bartholomew’s Day festivities, Bresmal could not help but be disappointed. Despite the efforts of local authorities, despite the certifications of the principal doctors of the country, despite the publicity which was made in his favor in both the principality and abroad, the source remained almost abandoned. ¹⁶⁵

Most travel books in the mid-18th century noted Tongeren only for its Roman ruins, not its spring. ¹⁶⁶

Quite typical of attitudes from the scientific community were the entries on “Spa” and “Tungrorum Fons” in the first edition of Diderot’s and d’Alembert’s classic Encyclopédie. Chevalier Louis de Jaucourt (1704-1779), “the most prolific contributor to the Encyclopédie,” having written some 18,000 articles on subjects ranging from chemistry to political history, wrote both articles. He states emphatically that “Personne ne doute que Pline ne parle de la fontaine si connue aujourd’hui sous le nom d’eaux de Spa, & qui se trouve dans le diocèse de Liége, pays qu’habitoient les anciens Tongres” (No one doubts that Pliny speaks of the fountain so known today under the name of the waters of Spa, which is found in the diocese of Liege, country that inhabited by the ancient Tongres.) ¹⁶⁷

“SPA, (Géog. mod.) bourg du pays de Liége, sur les confins du duché de Limbourg, à environ cinq milles de la ville de Liége. Ce bourg est toujours renommé par ses eaux minérales ; elles étoient déja célebres du tems de Pline, & vous trouverez la belle & simple description qu’il en fait dans son Hist. nat. liv. XXXI. ch. ij. au mot Tungrorum Fons. (D. J.)” ¹⁶⁸

“TUNGRORUM FONS, (Géog. anc.) eaux minérales dans la Gaule belgique, au pays des Tongres, selon Pline, l. XXXI. c. ij. qui en parle en ces termes : Tungri civitas Gallioe, fontem habet insignem plurimis bullis stillantem, ferruginei saporis ; quod ipsum non nisi in fine potus intelligitur. Purgat hic corpora, tertianas febres discutit, calculorumque vitia. Eadem aqua igni admota, turbida fit, ac postremo rubescit. Personne ne doute que Pline ne parle de la fontaine si connue aujourd’hui sous le nom d’eaux de Spa, & qui se trouve dans le diocèse de Liége, pays qu’habitoient les anciens Tongres. (D. J.)” ¹⁶⁹

So why had it all been in vain? Why was even twenty years later Spa still considered to be Pliny’s fountain, and Tongeren waters almost completely ignored. That was something that Bresmal had had a lot of time to ponder.

“These attempts by the regency to make Tongeren a rival of Spa, failed by a series of unfortunate circumstances which prevented the fountain from gaining the popularity that fashion and caprice granted to so many other places that fashion visits annually still.” ¹⁷⁰

Bresmal placed the blame in part on several persons from the dregs of society who without any conscience had been selling inferior foreign waters and claiming them to be from the Fountain of Tongeren. The Bourgemeisters and Directors of the Fountain, after learning of this abuse, ordered the bottles filled with Tongeren water to be taxed each a sol [an old French coin worth 12 deniers] and to carry a special seal so the public could be assured that the waters were truly those of Tongeren.

Bresmal also noted that the war then raging in Europe had prevented people from traveling to Tongeren. The War of Spanish Succession exposed the country again to the ravages of armed belligerents. In 1703, Tongeren was occupied by a body of the allied army, which the Marshal de Villeroi determined to relieve: on May 9 of this year, he marched towards Tongeren, where the allies withdrew at his approach, leaving only two Hollandais battalions to guard the city; the French arrived before Tongeren commenced to batter the place with their artillery, and as the city was not tenable, the two battalions which formed the garrison had to surrender unconditionally the following day. The French occupied the city until 1714, when the Treaty of Baden returned his states to the Bishop Joseph Clemens of Bavaria ¹⁷¹

Les Aiwes di Tongue

But, utimately, Bresmal placed most of the blame on a satirical poem written in la langue Liegeoise (the language of Liège) which had mesmerized the ignorant populace who could not tell the difference between satire and reality and convinced them that the Tongeren waters had absolutely no medicinal virtue. Bresmal was referring to the anonymous Les Aiwes di Tongue (The Waters of Tongeren), which started appearing in the form of placard shortly after the St. Bartholomew’s Day activities. ¹⁷² Bresmal apparently never knew who the author was, but later historians will identify with certainty the author as Lambert de Ryckman (1664-1731), an attorney from Liege, “membre du Conseil ordinaire de la Principauté de Liège, conseiller de l’Électeur de Trèves, figure important du monde économique et politique liégeois.” ¹⁷³

Les Aiwes di Tongue is a classic example of the Walloon paskeie (in English pasquinade), one still included in anthologies of Walloon literature. ¹⁷⁴ The Walloon term paskeie derives from the Italian pasquinata, a type of anonymous lampoon posted in a public place that became quite popular in early 16th-century Italy, and spread from there to other European countries. Among the Liegeois, the paskeie will prove so popular that it will come to called “la véritable poésie nationale des Liégeois” (the true national poetry of Liege). ¹⁷⁵ In the particular Walloon form of the paskeie, each line contains six to eight syllables. Les Aiwes di Tongue with its 382 octosyllables comprising 191 rhyming couplets was thus quite typical in structure. ¹⁷⁶

But what made Les Aiwes di Tongue special was the power of its satire. Whether or not the Walloons had a particular gift for satire, as Bresmal and others over the centuries believed, there is no denying that their pens were quite sharp. ¹⁷⁷

The point of view of Les Aiwes di Tongue is that of a native of Tongeren ridiculing the pretensions of his hometown. ¹⁷⁸ The suggestion is that the magistrates of Tongeren hoped that by laying claim to Pliny and thus proving their spring’s great antiquity that they could steal some of Spa’s star (and clientele!) and turn Tongeren into a major health resort. ¹⁷⁹ As for the thirty-two physicians, they were bribed to their support this ruse.

The few last lines, almost readable in the Walloon with a schoolboy’s knowledge of French, pull no punches in comparing the magistrates to Herod and the St. Bartholomew’s Day events to the Massacre of the Innocents.

The narrator ridicules Tongeren waters as medicinally worthless. He praised this water that, unlike that of Spa, “does not hurt anyone” (v. 26), “spoils in three days of carriage” (v. 38) and “chases away all disease from the Market Square to Perron” (v. 53-54), thus not far, when we know that the Perron is in Liege on the Market Square. ¹⁸¹

“There follows a list of twenty-six “miracles”, all incredible and funny, which took place since Easter and of which the narrator “only tells the little ones” (v. 204); the smut is not lacking, as in this “real-life” case: On djansénisse èt ine tchafète / rôlint tos deûs djus d’ine tchèrète; / onk aveût l’ niér fwért sitindou, l’ ôte ine grande plâye wêre lon dè cou. / D’on seû côp d’êwe li nièr si r’mèta / et l’ plâye dèl tchafète si r’sèra (“A Jansenist and a bigot both fell from a cart; the one had the very high-strung nerve, the other a large wound near the anus. From a single swig of water, the nerve recovered and the wound of the bigot closed up”) (v. 217-222).] ¹⁸²

“The reputation of the fountain is such that many now seek to find other healing waters, like the doctor from Pont d’Île, at Liege, who boasts of the water of its well, calling it “<mineral>>, when it should be called “shit-al”, as its well n’ djont qu’ à tos privés (“is only connected with toilets”) (c. 353-358)” ¹⁸³

The narrator also ridicules the physicians. In listing the benefits that Tongeren waters were supposed to provide, De Ryckman took the opportunity to single out particularly seven of the more important physicians from Liege for particular ridicule incorporating puns of their names into the Walloon verse.

Les médecins liégeois désignés dans ces vers sont : J. Jamotte, J.-F. Bresmal, G.-F. de Loncin, P. Marianne, G. -H. Oms, E. Nessel et N. Bemy. ¹⁸⁴

After they got back to town, the physicians all became drunk like animals. The narrator tells the story of how they fought over the honor of signing the official document, until it was realized that they lacked ink and paper as well as the stamp of the Faculty, for which it was necessary to go to Liège to search.” ¹⁸⁵

Bresmal had to begrudgingly recognize that Les Aiwes di Tongue was well-crafted and the author intelligent and witty. ¹⁸⁶ He also believed that the author possibly only intended, as he said, to entertain, but his bit of merriment was quite harmful to the common good of the Principality. For while the audience was laughing, they were blinded to the just merits of Tongeren waters. The trouble is that the ignorant populace could not tell the difference between satire and reality. What had possibly been meant in jest had left the people with the idea that the waters themselves were without merit. For Bresmal it was one thing to make fun of the physicians, but making fun of the waters was harmful not just to Tongeren but to all the people who might possibly benefit from the spring. There is always a little truth in good satire, but it is hard to know how much is truth and how much exaggeration. And the ignorant masses are unable to distinguish the two. If the satirist had meant no ill will, then why did the author choose to remain anonymous? And if the satirist meant only to entertain, he should have recognized that taunts are only appropriate in areas that do not affect the public good. His satire damaged the reputation of Tongeren waters, a national treasure.

As for the accusation that he himself had sold his approval for so much silver, Bresmal complained that, in fact, the people of Tongeren had paid back his efforts on behalf of their spring only with ingratitude. But even that had not prevented him speaking the truth that the evidence bore. ¹⁸⁷

In retrospect, it seems amazing that one pasquinade, even as celebrated a one as Les Aiwes di Tongue, could have destroyed all the work of Bresmal and others to champion Tongeren waters. And, Tongeren’s loss did not automatically lead to Spa’s gain. The pasquinade says nothing that would second Spa’s claims. Indeed, the same arguments used to belittle the fountain of Saint Gilles could easily have been aimed at Spa or any other mineral spring. Physicians like Nessel, Bresmal, and others were recommending Spa and other waters in the same kind of language they had recommended Tongeren waters. And yet Spa’s star continued to rise in the 18th century. For the very reason that physicians and patients were still very interested in taking Spa waters.

The fact was that everybody acknowledged that Spa waters were quite different from Tongeren waters. Although Fuchs and Gherinx could assert the two waters had absolutely nothing in common, by 1700 almost all observers would accept that both waters had iron in some form, but for Tongeren waters iron was the chief if not only basis for its medicinal virtue. As for Spa waters, the chief virtue was always something other than iron. Fuchs said Spa waters were acidulous. Gherinx said Spa waters partook primarily of vitriol. In the 18th century the special quality associated with Spa will increasingly become equated with the bubbles that the waters gave off. But whatever it was, both common and scientific opinion was sure that Tongeren waters did not have it.

Furthermore Spa waters will continue to be at the center of debates in medicine and chemistry in the 18th century while Tongeren waters were nary mentioned. Indeed, ever since the beginnings of writing about Spa, it was always at the center of debates in chemistry and medicine. And whatever the understanding of what made Spa waters special was always at the heart of those debates, whether it was because the water was acidulous, vitrioline, or effervescent. It will be description of Spa whether as part of claims to Pliny’s fountain or not that will set the standard for mineral waters.

Pliny’s fountain will continue to be important to these debates even when there is no interest in the actual location of the spring. What scientists were interested in was in current springs that had the same characteristics as those described by Pliny and what caused them to have those characteristics. From the 16th century on, numerous springs with these characteristics will be discovered, rediscovered, developed, and some will become quite famous in their own right. While Spa was the star in Western Europe and Great Britain, other Spa-like fountains were being championed in Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe.

It will be this search for Pliny-like fountains which will play an important role in the development of medicine and chemistry. Just as Charlie the Tuna was disappointed that StarKist didn’t want him — “Sorry, Charlie. StarKist wants tuna that tastes good, not tuna with good taste” — physicians and chemists were not so interested in a spring with a great pedigree (Pliny’s actual spring) as springs that had the qualities described in Pliny’s passage. And, just like the debate over the location of the actual fountain, they will be much disagreement as to the causes and effects of those qualities. ¹⁸⁸