Medieval Medicine- Religion

Religion- Islamic Ideas

• Many doctors believed that illness was caused by evil spirits
• After reading Hippocrates and Galen's work they adapted their ideas to fit the Four Humours
• Surgeons were advised to only operate when they knew the cause of the pain and how to fix it.
• Doctors were warned that Allah was watching and they should never operate for personal gain
• Doctors had to take exams to become doctors
• Dissecting human bodies was forbidden by Islamic law
• Muslims created processes such as distillation and sublimation to develop drugs

Religion- Christian Ideas

• The Church encouraged people o pray for deliverance for illness, forgiveness for sins and to prepare for the afterlife
• They believed that pilgrimage could produce a cure.
• Many pilgrims would leave miniature copies of infected body parts
• Religion prevented the dissection of human bodies
• The Church relied on Galen's work
• Hospitals were set up for the sick, many attached to monasteries (it was regarded as the Christian duty to look after the sick)
• Some hospitals refused to take in sick people or women