probably some such program of studies as this. Besides learning
something of astrology (the astronomy of the day) the student would be
expected to know much about climate and its influence on disease, and
about soil in its relation to pathology (these were supposed to be
fruitful causes of disease). Certain minerals, among them very
probably antimony, were beginning to be used in medical practice, and
so mineralogy was a special subject of study. Of plants they were
expected to know in a general way much more than the modern {158}
medical student, to whom botany is not considered of much importance,
and of zoology they probably had at least as great practical
knowledge, since many of their dissections were made on animals, and
the differences in structure between them and man were pointed out
when the annual anatomies or human dissections at the universities
were made. Of pharmacology and the allied subject, chemistry, they had
to know all that would enable them to use properly the several hundred
vegetable remedies then used in medicine. This will give an idea,
then, what were in general the studies which Pope John was trying to
foster with so much care in the University of Perugia.
There is another phase of his regulations with regard to medical
schools which cannot but prove of the greatest interest to members of
our present-day medical faculties. It has been realized for some time,
that what is needed more than anything else to make good physicians
for the present generation is that medical students should have a
better preliminary education than has been the case in the past. In
order to secure this, various states have required evidence of a
certain number of years spent at high school or college before a
medical student's certificate allowing entrance into a medical school
will be granted. Some of the most prominent medical schools have gone
even farther than this, and have required that a degree in arts should
be obtained in the undergraduate department before medical studies may
be taken up. Something of this same kind was manifestly in Pope John's
mind when he required that seven years should have been spent at a
university, at least three years of which should have been entirely
devoted to medical studies, before the candidate might {159} be
allowed to go up for his examination for the doctor's degree.
As we begin the twentieth century, we note that the presidents of our
American universities are trying to secure just exactly the same
number of years of study for candidates for the degree of Doctor of
Medicine, as this medieval Pope insisted on as a prerequisite for the
same degree in a university founded in the Papal States at the
beginning of the fourteenth century. After the year 1910 most of the
large universities in this country will not admit further students to
their medical departments unless they have a college degree or its
equivalent, that is, unless they have devoted four years to college
undergraduate work. It is generally understood, that in the last year
of his undergraduate course the student who intends to take up
medicine may elect such scientific studies in the college department
as will obtain for him an allowance of a year's work in the medical
school. He will then be able to complete his medical course in three
years, so that our modern institutions will, if our plans succeed,
require just exactly the same amount of time for the doctorate in
Medicine as Pope John demanded, and not only demanded, but required by
legal regulation, for this bull was a law in the Papal States, just
six centuries ago. The coincidence is so striking that, only that it
is supported by documentary evidence of the best kind, we could
scarcely believe it.
Yet it is the Pope who encouraged devotion to science in all forms as
it was studied in his day, who insisted that the standards of
education in the universities of the Papal States, over which he had
direct control, should be equal to those of Paris and Bologna, who
suggested that teachers should be brought from the famous {160}
universities for the purpose of introducing the best educational
methods, who is now declared by President White to have "stimulated
the childish fear and hatred against the investigation of nature which
was felt for centuries, and whose decrees and briefs are said to have
caused chemistry to be known more and more as one of the 'seven
devilish arts.'" Here is the striking difference between traditional
and documentary history.
There are other bulls of Pope John which serve to bring out his
interest in education quite as clearly as this one, and show that the
ecclesiastics of the time were encouraged to think and act up to the
thought, that education of all kinds was sure to be of benefit to the
Church and her members. In extending the privileges of the University
of Perugia on another occasion by the bull _Inter ceteras curas_, John
declared that among the other cares which were enjoined on him from on
high by his Apostolic office and amongst the many projects which were
constantly in his mind for the betterment of religion, his thoughts
were directed more frequently and more ardently to this conclusion
than to any other, that the professors of the Catholic faith whom the
true light of the true faith illuminates should be imbued with the
deepest wisdom and should become erudite in all the studies that bring
profitable knowledge. For, he adds, this gift cannot be bought by any
price, but is divinely granted to minds that are of good will. For the
possession of knowledge is evidently desirable, since by it the
darkness of ignorance and the gloom of error are entirely done away
with and the intelligence of students is increased so as to direct all
their acts and deeds in the light of truth. "It is for this reason
(and no wonder)," he adds, "that I am led to encourage the study of
{161} letters in which the priceless pearl of knowledge is to be
found, and especially in such places as may bear worthy fruit for the
Church itself and for its members."
The expressions that he here uses are almost word for word, though not
quite the same as occur in other bulls, showing that a sort of formula
was constantly used to express the opinion of the Holy See with regard
to the desirableness of knowledge and the benefit that might be
expected to flow from education. Not all of the bull, however, is a
formula, since in the rest of it Pope John insists that at least five
years must be required at the university for the study of Canon and
Civil Law, and detailed injunctions are set forth as to the method of
examination so as to secure two things, first that a proper standard
shall be maintained and that those who have completed the course shall
have the right to examinations without further payment of fees, and
secondly, that such examinations shall be absolutely fair, without any
favor being shown to the applicant in any way, and at the same time
without any prejudice being allowed to influence his examiners against
him.
Lest readers should be tempted to think of Perugia as a town of very
slight importance from a political and civil standpoint, and therefore
consider anything done for it as amounting to very little in the
culture or influence of the period, a short sketch of it will not be
out of place. This little town has had the distinction of being the
center of interest in at least four marvelous epochs of human
development. Long before Roman civilization in Italy arose, the
Etruscans did some of their greatest art-work in the country around
Perugia, the remains of which have been unearthed in recent years.
Seven centuries later, the Romans left some magnificent {162}
architectural monuments of their occupation of this neighborhood.
Somewhat more than a thousand years passed, and St. Francis breathed
his profound spirit of love for nature in all its forms into the world
almost within sight of its walls, and with him the Renaissance began.
The great Umbrian school of painters in the Renaissance period came
from this district, and they include such names as Raphael and his
great master Perugino, who received his name from his birthplace.
Before John XXII. did so much to make it a center of culture and
education for this portion of Italy, it had been noted in the early
part of the thirteenth century for possessing a library of Canon and
Civil Law to which scholars often traveled from great distances for
consultation purposes. The Pope, then, though in distant Avignon, was
greatly helping on that movement which was to culminate and mean so
much for Umbria, that great center of culture and influence in the
Renaissance time.
In erecting the University of Cahors, Pope John took occasion to say
that he did so because the city promised to provide facilities and
proper conditions for the university and he believed that the
existence of such an institution would in very many ways be of benefit
to the commonwealth. He wished, therefore, that in Cahors, "a copious,
refreshing fountain of science should spring up and continue to flow,
from whose abundance all the citizens might drink, and where those
desirous of education might become imbued with knowledge so that the
cultivators of wisdom might sow seed with success and all the student
body become learned and eloquent and in every way distinguished,
bearing abundant fruit which the Lord in His own good time would give
them if they applied themselves with good will." He wished that {163}
the erection of the university should be considered as a special
reward for their devotion to the Holy See and should always stand as a
memorial of that.
The thought may possibly occur to some that Pope John, after having
issued these noteworthy documents in the cause of education in the
early years of his pontificate, might subsequently have changed his
mind and considered with advancing years that the repression of the
enthusiasm for learning would be better for his people from a
spiritual standpoint. There is, however, no sign of this to be found
in the important documents of his pontificate, nor would anyone think
of it who realized that John became Pope at the age of 72, after
having a very wide personal experience in political affairs as well as
ecclesiastical matters, an experience which took him over many parts
of Europe and must have greatly broadened his intellectual horizon,
and that he remained in full possession of his wonderful intellectual
powers until he was well past 90. Within two years before his death he
issued the bull which laid the foundation of the University of Cahors,
his native place. This he did at the request of the citizens of the
town, who pleaded that no better memorial of their great fellow
citizen who had become Pope could be raised among them than a
university.
In the light of these other bulls it is not surprising to find that
John should also have endeavored to maintain the standard of the
University of the City of Rome. It must be remembered that at this
time the Popes were at Avignon, and that as a consequence the
population of the city of Rome had greatly decreased and there were so
many civic dissensions that very little attention could be given to
educational matters. Pope John issued a {164} bull, however, from
Avignon, confirming the erection of the University of the City of Rome
by his predecessor of happy memory, Boniface VIII. (the same who is
said, though falsely, to have hampered the development of anatomy),
and further laying down regulations for the maintenance of the
standard of education in the Roman University. In this bull John says
that he considers that a Pope could confer no greater favor on the
City of Cities so closely attached to the Roman Church, than to bring
about the re-establishment of the university there, so that the
inhabitants and the visitors to Rome might all have the opportunity
and also the incitement to seek after wisdom, for this is a gift which
comes from on high, which cannot be bought for a price, but which is
only granted to those who seek it with good will.
John proceeds to say that he hopes that the city of Rome shall, under
the favor of Providence, produce men of pre-eminent worth in science,
and that in order that the wishes of Pope Boniface VIII. in this
matter may be fulfilled he confirms and extends all the privileges
which had been originally granted. In the University at Rome there
were also professors of medicine, and there is good historical
authority for the assertion that John himself offered to pay out of
the Papal revenues the salary of the professor of physic, in order
that this department of the university might become established as
firmly as were the other departments. In a word, in the documentary
evidence so readily available to any one who wishes to consult it, we
find John manifesting that he was "a kindly and rational scholar," to
use President White's expression, "seeking," surely if education shall
have any such effect, and in modern times we have been led {165} to
believe that it can, "to save the people from the clutch of
superstition." President White has employed the expression
satirically. I think that any one who reads the contemporary documents
in the case must acknowledge that it is literally true.
The life of Pope John XXII. is a striking example of the difference
between traditional and documentary history. According to the
traditions that have gathered around his name, John has been declared
by many to be one of the banes of civilization and education in the
Middle Ages. A little study of the documents issued by him shows him
in quite a different light. He was not only interested in educational
matters of every kind, but he was deeply intent, and as far as the
Papal power enabled him he succeeded in carrying out his intention, of
making education thoroughly effective in every department. It is by a
man's intentions that he must be judged. John meant to do everything
for the best. Unfortunately, some of his actions in the matter of the
provision of revenues became subject later to abuse. For this it is
hard to understand how he should be held responsible. In the meantime,
for educators, the study of the actual documents issued by him and
their utterly different significance from what might be expected
according to the usually accepted notion of his character, cannot but
prove a lesson in historical values. It illustrates very well a phase
of history that has recently been called to attention.
As we have said, one hundred years ago De Maistre declared that
history had been a conspiracy against the truth. At last a universal
recognition is coming of the fact that history has been written
entirely too much from the personal standpoint of the historian
without {166} due reference to contemporary documents and authorities,
or with the citation of only such references from these as would
support the special contention of the writer. Even the writers of
history whose reputation has been highest have suffered from this
fault, and the consequence is that on disputed points it is more
important to know what party a historian belongs to than what he
writes.
Is it not time that at least our educators should cease accepting this
old traditional opinion with regard to the times before the
reformation so-called, and get at the truth in the matter, or as near
it as possible. These educators of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries were zealous and earnest beyond cavil. That everyone admits.
It is supposed, however, that they were ridiculously ignorant and
superstitious. Only those who are themselves ridiculously ignorant and
superstitious, for the real meaning of superstition is persistence in
accepting a supposed truth that is a survival (_superstes_) from a
previous state of knowledge, after the reasons for its acceptance have
been shown to be groundless, will continue to believe this absurd
proposition. If the educator of the modern day will only study with
the sympathy they deserve, the lives of the earliest educators of
modern times, the professors, the officials, and the ecclesiastical
authorities as well as the Papal patrons of the universities of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we shall hear no more of the
Church during the Middle Ages having been opposed to education, nor to
science, nor to any other department of human knowledge.
{167}
THE CHURCH AND SURGERY DURING THE MIDDLE AGES.
It is with regard to surgery that the opposition of the Church is
sometimes supposed to have been most serious in its effects upon the
progress of medical science and its applications for the relief of
human suffering. President White has stated this, as usual, very
emphatically in certain paragraphs of his chapter on From Miracles to
Medicine, especially under the caption of Theological Discouragement
of Medicine. He says, for instance:--
"As to surgery, this same amalgamation of theology with survivals of
pagan beliefs continued to check the evolution of medical science
down to the modern epoch. The nominal hostility of the Church to the
shedding of blood withdrew, as we have seen, from surgical practice
the great body of her educated men; hence surgery remained down to
the fifteenth century a despised profession, its practice continued
largely in the hands of charlatans, and down to a very recent period
the name 'barber-surgeon' was a survival of this. In such surgery,
the application of various ordures relieved fractures; the touch of
the hangman cured sprains; the breath of a donkey expelled poison;
friction with a dead man's tooth cured toothache."
In another and earlier portion of the same chapter, under the heading
"Theological Opposition to Anatomical Studies," he states the reasons
why this low state of surgical practice existed. Once more it is
declared to be {168} because of a prohibitory decree, or several of
them, directed against the practice of surgery by ecclesiastical
authorities. These decrees, we shall find, as was true of previous
supposed prohibitions, are entirely perverted from their real meaning
by President White, who has the happy faculty of lighting upon mares'
nests of Papal decrees and decrees of councils and neglecting to pay
any attention to the real history of the science of which he writes.
President White says:
"To those arguments against dissection was now added another one
which may well fill us with amazement. It is the remark of the
foremost of recent English philosophical historians, that of all
organizations in human history, the Church of Rome has caused the
greatest spilling of innocent blood. No one conversant with history,
even though he admit all possible extenuating circumstances and
honor the older Church for the great circumstances which can
undoubtedly be claimed for her, can deny this statement. Strange is
it, then, to note that one of the main objections developed in the
Middle Ages against anatomical studies was the maxim that 'The
Church abhors the shedding of blood.'"
"On this ground, in 1248, the Council of Le Mans forbade surgery to
monks. Many other councils did the same, and at the end of the
thirteenth century came the most serious blow of all: for it was
then that Pope Boniface VIII., without any of that foresight of
consequences which might well have been expected in an infallible
teacher, issued a decretal forbidding a practice which had come into
use during the Crusades, namely, the separation of the flesh from
the bones of the dead whose remains it was desired to carry back to
their own country." Note always the return to Pope Boniface's {169}
bull and always the perversion of the meaning of the word
infallibility.
I have already stated the real significance of Boniface's bull. It
neither forbade, nor did its interpretation in any way hamper, the
development of anatomy. Just exactly the same thing is true with
regard to the Papal regulations or decrees of councils that are
claimed to have hampered surgery. President White and others have
insisted that the prohibition of surgery to monks and priests
prevented the development of surgery or was responsible for the low
state of surgical practice. Here once more we are in the presence of a
deduction, and not of an induction that represents the actual facts in
the case. Most students at the universities were clerks, that is, had
the privileges of clergymen, and were, as a rule, in minor orders. All
the great surgeons of this time, and they were many, were
ecclesiastics.
The climax of President White's treatment of the relationship of the
Church to surgery and of the intense opposition manifested by
ecclesiastics to surgical progress, and, I may add, the climax of
absurdity as far as the real history of surgery is concerned, comes in
the last paragraph of this portion of his chapter on From Miracles to
Medicine, which President White has placed under the title Theological
Opposition to Anatomical Studies. He says:
"So deeply was the idea rooted in the mind of the Universal Church
that for over a thousand years surgery was considered dishonorable;
the greatest monarchs were often unable to secure an ordinary
surgical operation; and it was only in 1406 that a better beginning
was made, when the Emperor Wenzel of Germany ordered that dishonor
should no longer attach to the surgical profession."
{170}
President White insists over and over again that whatever surgery
there was, and especially whatever progress was made in surgery, was
due to the Arabs, or at least to Arabian initiative. Gurlt, in his
History of Surgery, [Footnote 21] which we have referred to elsewhere,
is very far from sharing this view. I need scarcely say that Gurlt is
one of our best authorities in the history of surgery. In his sketch
of Roger, the first of the great Italian surgeons of the thirteenth
century who came after the foundation of the universities, Gurlt says
that, "though Arabian writings on surgery had been brought over to
Italy by Constantine Africanus a hundred years before Roger's time,
those exercised no influence over Italian surgery in the next century,
and there is not a trace of the surgical knowledge of the Arabs to be
found in Roger's work." His writing depends almost entirely upon the
surgical traditions of his time, the experience of his teachers and
colleagues, to whom in two places he has given due credit, and on the
Greek writers. There are no traces of Arabisms to be found in Roger's
writing, while they are full of Grecisms. Roger represents the first
important writer on surgery in modern times, and his works have been
printed several times because of their value as original documents.
[Footnote 21: Geschichte der Chirurgie und ihrer Ausuebung. Von Dr. E.
Gurlt, Vol. I., p. 701.]
It is wonderfully amusing to anyone who knows Gurlt's History of
Surgery, [Footnote 22] that the distinguished old professor of the
University of Berlin, looked up to as so well informed as to the
history of the branch of medical science to which he had devoted a
long life, should have wasted some three hundred pages of his first
volume on the {171} History of Surgery in Middle and West Europe
during the Middle Ages, for they are mainly taken up with the
consideration of the period when President White asserts that there
was no surgery in Europe. Gurlt even protests that he has not as much
space as he would like to devote to these old-time masters of surgery,
who did so much to lay the foundation of modern surgical practices.
Those who have paid any attention to President White's assertion with
regard to surgery at this time, should at least look over Gurlt. They
will thus realize what a dangerous thing it is to attempt large
conclusions in the history of a department of knowledge of which one
knows nothing. They will also realize how easy it is for a writer with
some prestige, to lead others astray in a matter of history, by simply
making assertions without taking the trouble to see whether they are
supported by the facts in the case or not.
[Footnote 22: Geschichte der Chirurgie und ihrer Ausuebung. Von Dr. K.
Gurlt, Geh. Med. Rath, Prof, der Chirurgie an der Koeniglichen
Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet zu Berlin. Berlin, 1898.]