Treatments

• Medieval theories about the cause of disease were divided between the Supernatural and natural


  Corresponding treatments were also divided between the Supernatural and natural
• Supernatural


  Beyond nature, often spiritual or religious, relying on an element of Faith
• Natural


  Based on what could be observed in the real world, often more scientific but not always correct
• If the cause was believed to be Supernatural, the treatment usually was too
• If the cause was believed to be natural, the treatment usually was too
• Religious and spiritual treatments


  • God's actions and punishments used to explain Misfortune including disease
  • Prayer to a particular saint for salvation
  • Confessing sins to gain God's forgiveness
  • Pilgrimage to the shrine of a saint associated with the disease
• Some diseases had a particular Saint associated with them, e.g., St. Valentine for epilepsy and the plague
• People might feel they shouldn't fight the disease as it was part of God's plan
• Natural treatments

  • Treating the symptom rather than the disease itself
  • Physicians using Hippocratic ideas, bloodletting, and balancing the humors
  • Apothecaries mixing up medicines
  • Herbal remedies and theriacas
  • Quacks promoting panaceas
  • Barber surgeons providing basic external surgery
• Majority of healthcare in the medieval period took place in the home, with women playing a significant role in providing care and remedies
• Specialist treatments provided in the community

  • Local Wise Women
  • Midwives
• Most villagers would have had a woman known to be able to deliver babies more safely
• Minor surgery might have been done in the home
• Women were healers in the home in keeping with their status in society
• Margaret Paston: 'For God's sake beware of any medicine that you get from any physicians in London. I shall never trust them because of what happened to your father and your uncle whose Souls God forgive'
• Margaret Paston did not trust physicians in London due to past events involving her family members
• The first hospital in England was created in 1123 at Saint Bartholomew's in London
• Hospitals in Medieval Times focused on caring for the sick rather than curing them
• By 1400, there were over 200 hospitals across the country
• By 1500, there were 1,500 hospitals in England
• Leprosy sufferers lived in separate communities away from towns due to being seen as unclean and punished by God
• Leprosy was considered the result of sin in medieval times
• Lazar hospitals provided help for leprosy sufferers in separate communities
• Medieval treatments included both supernatural and natural methods
• Medieval hospitals operated on a basis of care rather than cure
• Treatments sought to relieve symptoms rather than treat the underlying illness in medieval times