Explain why there was little
progress in medicine during
the Medieval period
The Church and religion
The Church let people
believed that if they had a
disease that God gave it to
them as karma for their sins.
People then became Flagellants, these were
people who went round whipping
themselves so God will forgive them for
their sins and cure them of their illnesses.
This made people worse as they cut themselves
by the whipping. These cuts them got infected
which then made them die of infection which
hasn't been sorted out.
Meaning there was little progress as the church
let people believe God gave them diseases.
The Church ran the
libraries.
This meant that they controlled
who read the books and learn
about the teachings of Galen and
Hippocrates.
Only 1% of the population could read and write,
this was due to the Church controlling who
could learn.
The Church also made it so the monks were the ones
that wrote the books. They wrote the books by hand
meaning it would take months to complete a book.
Therefore slowing down the
process of learning about medicine.
The King
The King went along with
what the church was saying.
No one else came up with other ideas about
how people got illnesses and how they was
cured so he had to go along with it.
Because the King believed it other
people did. They though that the
King was Gods representative so they
had to follow what he believed.
Because the King wouldn't change
his mind neither did anyone else.
The King made it so that if anyone went
against the ideas of Galen and Hippocrates
then they would be imprisoned.
Rodger Bacon disagreed with
Hippocrates and Galen and he was
imprisoned for the rest of his life.
This stopped Galen's and
Hippocrates' idea being
developed and getting cures.
Public Health
The Hospitals
The Hospitals were set up in churches
and were run by the church and monks.
They didn't give any medicinal
treatment, it was all prayers and
herbal remedies.
All these beds were packed next
to each other so diseases were
easily spread.
The workers in the hospital then also
caught the diseases and died.
This meant that as doctors were working on the
patients they caught the diseases and died so
they couldn't record what they found out.,
Miasma
Some people believed that the bad smells
were what caused the diseases.
In the streets there would be everyone's waste in
piles in the middle of the streets and people though
that the bad smells were what gave them diseases.
The germs would spread creating
diseases but no one knew this as they
hadn't discovered germs.
Therefore slowing down
the progress of medicine
in the medieval period.