How did the Middle Ages halt medical progression in Europe?

How did the Middle Ages halt medical progression in Europe?

1. Poor communication

   • Due to wars, travel was dangerous
     • This meant that many doctors couldn't travel to share their ideas or theories

2. Education

   • Training of doctors was abandoned as money was focused on armies to participate in wars

3. Religion

   • The rise of Christianity
     • People were taught that God, planets and Satan affected their health rather than the logical explanations favoured by the Romans
   • The English Church
     • They disagreed with the ideas of both Galen and Hippocrates and therefore banned many of their books
     • Human dissection was banned by the church, meaning that nobody could improve or correct Galen's work

4. War

   • The collapse of the Roman Empire led to wars that destroyed many universities and libraries that contained Galen/ Hippocrates' work
     • This meant much of the knowledge gathered by Roman and Greek doctors was lost
     • Some of Galen's work, however, was translated into Arabic and saved
   • Many Roman people were killed, meaning that there was no one left with the knowledge to rebuild or repair much of the Roman infrastructure

5. Government

   • After the fall of the Roman Empire, there were many little villages and towns rather than big cities
     • This means that there was little need/ focus on public health systems
   • No governments had a taxation system like the Romans which could be used to fund public projects