Editing Soignies (section)

===The age of the canons===
At the end of the 9th century, a general decline in religious life led to a chapter of powerful [[Canon (priest)|canons]] &ndash; who did not take any vow of poverty &ndash; taking the place of the monks. These canons would remain in power for eight centuries, until the [[French Revolution]]. By the 10th century, the canons started the construction of the Church of St. Vincent (Madelgaire), which was to be completed during the following century in the prevalent [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] style of the period. The first known charter by [[Baldwin IV, Count of Hainaut]] was granted to Soignies in 1142. The fame of the Church of St. Vincent grew in the 13th century, when the [[bishop of Cambrai]] granted a 40-day [[indulgence]] to every visitor to the church. The settlement grew to urban proportions at around the same time, coinciding with the development of the textile industry and the building of a [[defensive wall]]. The first stone quarries mentioned in the archives date from around 1400, but several clues suggest that local stone was already quarried much earlier. The cut-stone industry, however, started only around 1700.