Christianity + medieval medicine

• Factors that helped the development of medieval medicine


  • 700 hospitals built in 1000-1500 but only for 12 patients (number of Jesus' disciples)
  • People went on pilgrimages for God's forgiveness
  • Lazar houses set up for contagious diseases such as leprosy
  • Allowed physicians to learn new ideas from Islam and after the Dark Ages
  • Monks preserved knowledge by Galen and Hippocrates which was taught to Physicians
  • Monasteries had infirmaries
• Factors that hindered the development of medieval medicine


  • Nuns fed the sick herbal remedies
  • Care not cure
  • 'Drugs and physicians doesn't fit with religion'- Saint Bernard
  • Discouraged dissection in universities
  • Roger Bacon was a monk who was arrested for saying doctors should do their own work and not just trust old books