Medicine was associated in many minds not only with the powers of evil
but also with the forces for good. The clergyman in colonial America
often practiced medicine, and the layman in some localities of Virginia
could turn to the local parson for medical assistance.
Throughout the early Christian era and the medieval period, medicine
and religion had had a close relationship. The New Testament had
numerous references to the healing of the sick by spiritual means, and
a casual relationship between sin and physical affliction had been
assumed by many persons for centuries before the seventeenth. The hand
of God was still seen by many in physical phenomena, whether disease or
the flight of a comet. Not only was there a supernatural relationship
seen between the God of the church and disease, but also a natural one
between medicine and the church clergy, for they had staffed the
medical schools for centuries. It is not surprising, then, that the
parson-physician was no stranger to the Virginia colony.
As early as 1619, Robert Pawlett, known to be a preacher, surgeon, and
physician, came to Virginia. He was followed by other parson-physicians
in Virginia and in other colonies. As late as the end of the eighteenth
century, the wife of George Washington called on the Reverend Greene,
M.D., for medical advice.
Among the most interesting in this long tradition of ministers who
practiced medicine is the Reverend John Clayton whose activities have
been noted. Other persons residing in Virginia and combining the role
of clergyman with a considerable interest in medicine were Nathaniel
Eaton, who had a degree in medicine, and John Banister who was an
active naturalist. As a naturalist, he made an important study of the
plants of Virginia (_Catalogue of Virginia Plants_) which added to
the literature available for the dispenser of medicinal drugs. One of
the founders of Presbyterianism in America, the Reverend Francis
Makemie, who came to America in 1681 and died in Accomack County,
Virginia, was described as a preacher, a doctor of medicine, a
merchant, an attorney--and a disturber of government by the governor of
New York.