Medieval Medicine
An exploration of medieval medicine and the effects of religion/superstition on medical practices.
The medical learning and advancements of antiquity were suspended in their course during the middle ages (c 500 - 1500 C.E.). Knowledge of the Greco-Roman era was set aside as an intensely religious age dawned in Western Europe. As Christianity grew to prominence, disease began to be viewed as a punishment from God, caused by personal sin rather than an objective occurrence. During the Middle Ages there were no established standardised methods of medical treatments or practices, instead only superstition, speculation and hypothesis were left from the physicians of centuries previous (BBC, 2014).
What remained were the theories …show more content…
Lectures on anatomy were comprised of readings of ancient Greco-Roman medical texts accompanied by a butcher indicating different body parts. This was the only knowledge available as the Church opposed the dissection of the human body, labelling the practice a crime against God’s creation, halting scientific exploration of the subject. Consequently Medieval doctors were anatomically ignorant and thus unable to treat ailments without large quantities of guesswork - one Italian physician, Taddeo Alderotti, is quoted in claiming that combing of the hair ‘comforts the brain …show more content…
In the early Middle Ages magic/black magic was accepted as a reality of life, it wasn 't until c 1400 A.D. that the idea of witchcraft and the supernatural began to be feared. Home remedies were often thought to be cursed in some way and it was a common belief that a witch could cause a person to become ill simply by looking at them with the ‘evil eye’. Many so called wise women were accused of witchcraft, of devil worshiping, and were executed. This marked the beginning of Europe’s witch hunts. At this point, medieval society witnessed a deadly combination of medical/scientific ignorance and sexism resulting in the executions of near 60,000
An exploration of medieval medicine and the effects of religion/superstition on medical practices.
The medical learning and advancements of antiquity were suspended in their course during the middle ages (c 500 - 1500 C.E.). Knowledge of the Greco-Roman era was set aside as an intensely religious age dawned in Western Europe. As Christianity grew to prominence, disease began to be viewed as a punishment from God, caused by personal sin rather than an objective occurrence. During the Middle Ages there were no established standardised methods of medical treatments or practices, instead only superstition, speculation and hypothesis were left from the physicians of centuries previous (BBC, 2014).
What remained were the theories …show more content…
Lectures on anatomy were comprised of readings of ancient Greco-Roman medical texts accompanied by a butcher indicating different body parts. This was the only knowledge available as the Church opposed the dissection of the human body, labelling the practice a crime against God’s creation, halting scientific exploration of the subject. Consequently Medieval doctors were anatomically ignorant and thus unable to treat ailments without large quantities of guesswork - one Italian physician, Taddeo Alderotti, is quoted in claiming that combing of the hair ‘comforts the brain …show more content…
In the early Middle Ages magic/black magic was accepted as a reality of life, it wasn 't until c 1400 A.D. that the idea of witchcraft and the supernatural began to be feared. Home remedies were often thought to be cursed in some way and it was a common belief that a witch could cause a person to become ill simply by looking at them with the ‘evil eye’. Many so called wise women were accused of witchcraft, of devil worshiping, and were executed. This marked the beginning of Europe’s witch hunts. At this point, medieval society witnessed a deadly combination of medical/scientific ignorance and sexism resulting in the executions of near 60,000