Medicine and Ceremonial

1895

The physicians of mediaeval England, who were for the most part monks, friars or Jews, possessed a large assortment of remedies, some of them borrowed from the Byzantine physicians, others from the traditional practice of the people. Christian physicians, however, called religion to their aid. None of their remedies was administered without ceremonial. While the medicine was being compounded the patient would say 12 times over one of the psalms, beginning "Miserere Mei, Deus," then several paternosters, "then drink the dose and wrap thyself up warm," or he would sing the psalm, "Salvum Me Fac, Deus," then drink the draft out of a church bell, the priest finishing the cure with prayer.

Dr. Creighton remarks that, as the maladies of the middle ages contained an unusual element of hysteria, the ceremonial may not have come amiss as an aid to the treatment. Physicians gained considerable fees by their practice, which the people appear to have grudged them. The satirical writers constantly accuse them of greed, but these charges were probably owing to the prevalence of the idea, not yet extinct, that, as "medicine is from the Lord God," the leech was not entitled to a money payment. — Spectator.