Did the Medieval Church Progress Medicine? (AQA GCSE History)

Did the Medieval Church progress medicine? - Summary

The Medieval Church had both positive and negative effects on medicine.

A positive impact of the Church was hospitals. These were some of the first places to care for the sick. These hospitals were often attached to monasteries. Monks and nuns would look after people, focusing on rest, prayer, and basic hygiene. While they did not try to cure diseases in the way modern hospitals do, they provided comfort and support.

However, the Church also slowed progress in some ways. It strongly controlled medical knowledge and only allowed ideas that matched its teachings. The reliance on spiritual explanations meant that people focused more on prayers and pilgrimages than on finding real cures for illnesses. Additionally, the Church banned dissection, which prevented physicians from learning about the human body through direct observation.

Hospitals in Medieval England

• Hospitals were under the supervision of nuns and monks

  • The Church owned approximately 30% of hospitals

  • Charitable donations funded the rest 

• By 1500, there were 1,100 hospitals in England

  • Bury St Edmunds had at least 6 hospitals, each for different types of illnesses

• The hospitals were good at caring, not curing

  • ‘Hospital’ and ‘hospitality’ have the same origin

  • Nuns and monks made patients feel comfortable but they thought disease was a punishment from God

  • They believed prayer, not medicine, would cure illness

Positives of Medieval hospitals

• Hospitals provided:

  • rest

  • good hygiene

  • hot meals 

• The few non-religious hospitals hired physicians and surgeons

Negatives of Medieval hospitals

• Patients often had to share beds which spread diseases

• Hospitals turned away people like:

  • pregnant women

  • those with mental illnesses

  • infectious, terminal diseases

    • The Church believed that they could not help these people

How did the Medieval Church prevent progress in medicine?

• The Medieval Church blocked progress by:

  • stating that it was God’s will about who was healthy or not

    • Ordinary people did not question the authority or wisdom of the Church

  • continuing to teach and promote Ancient theories such as the Theory of the Four Humours

    • These ideas were in line with Christian teachings but incorrect

  • controlling medical information

    • They refused to publish books that did not match Christian teachings

    • They controlled universities which taught physicians

    • The Church arrested the 13th-century monk, Roger Bacon, for suggesting that physicians should not trust old medical textbooks

  • rejecting medical progress in anatomy

    • The Church banned dissection

    • However, in the later Medieval period, the Church began to allow the dissection of criminals

    • When physicians noticed mistakes in Galen's anatomic teachings, the Church explained that the criminals had sinned which had changed their anatomy

    • This meant that no progress could be made in anatomy