ABSTRACT
When the mediaeval schools of medicine began to rise, about the XIth century, scientific medicine had made practically no progress since Galen. The best work that had been done in the intervening period was the preservation of old knowledge in encyclopaedias. But the prevailing treatments had been the blind application of drugs of the most fantastic kind and magic imported from the East. When Christianity became the State religion, though it had opposed Pagan magic and superstition, it had stifled medicine and all science. The belief in possession by devils made priestly laying-on of hands, prayer, and exorcism the usual cures. Most of the Fathers rejected earthly means of healing. Medicine was a mixture of old medical tradition, Christian mysticism, and magical charms. During the Dark Ages, the monasteries of the West copied and translated recipe-books, herbals, and dietaries, in which scraps from classical writers were mingled with magical lore and grotesque pharmaceutics.
