History Essay

History Essay

In the Middle Ages there was little development in Medicine. This was due the people’s outdated
beliefs and traditions that contradicted the reasons for the causes of disease and due to the lack of
education and the government’s little help with matters other than warfare and the monarch.

One of the substantial reasons for little progress in medicine was the attitudes that people had
during the Middle Ages. Religion and traditions were seen as very important and the people’s strong
beliefs in God meant that most teachings in the Bible were perceived as true. In the Bible it states
that God controlled every aspect of life and when illness struck it was obvious that it’s cause was
supernatural. This stopped a more rational way of thinking and made people pray to be healed
instead of searching for natural treatments meaning that there was no need to look for other
causes. These attitudes were enforced by the Church that was extremely powerful. The Church had a
Bishop in every region and a priest in every village who told people that everything in the Bible was
true and that challenging it would result in going to hell. This fear further stopped the search for new
medicine and prevented new ideas from emerging. The Church also supported Galen and
Hippocrates’ ideas due to their belief in one God controlling illness. Their ideas stated that there are
four humours (liquids) in the body that must be equally spread in order to stay healthy. Due to the
fact that these ideas were supported by the Church, people thought that disease was always caused
internally and not from external bacteria. This was an important reason for the lack of development
in medicine during the Middle Ages.

Another critical reason why there was little change in medicine during the Middle Ages was due to
the atrocious education. In the Middle Ages there were very few physicians (fewer than 100 in the
1300s). This was because education was very expensive and it took 7 years to complete a degree in
medicine. Physicians mainly learnt from reading the books of Hippocrates and Galen and were
taught that they were correct in every aspect. This meant that doctors were not encouraged to think
for themselves about the cause and treatment of disease. Another way physicians learnt was by
watching the dissection of a human body whilst a section of Galen’s book was read out loud. These
classes occurred in order to prove that Galen’s descriptions of the human body were correct and not
to try to make new discoveries. This slowed down the progress of medicine majorly. Furthermore,
the average person wouldn’t have the time or money to invest in an education. People would spend
most of their time on harvesting crops and on attending Church meetings in which they were taught
about the Church’s strict rules on religion, including the reason for disease being God punishing
sinners. This only enforced people’s supernatural views on the cause of disease and slowed the
change in medicine even further.

The Government’s lack of help with medicine was also a key reason for the lack of improvement in
medicine. The Monarchy thought that public health was beneath them and didn’t do much about
cleaning streets, leaving that to poor local councils. The Government focused their tax money on war
and on keeping the monarchy wealthy. This meant that no money was used on education, medicine
and aid that is needed for medicine to improve.

To conclude, I believe that the Church was the main reason for the lack of change in medicine during
the Middle Ages due to its part in all the other factors, for example in people’s attitudes staying
heavily religious and not accepting of new ideas due to the fear of going to hell.