Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 47.djvu/179

"In 535 the first Greek physician, the Peloponnesian Archagathus, settled in Rome and there acquired such repute by his surgical operations, that a residence was assigned to him on the part of the state and he received the freedom of the city; and thereafter his colleagues flocked in crowds to Rome. . . the profession, one of the most lucrative which existed in Rome, continued a monopoly in the hands of the foreigners."

Opposed to paganism as Christianity was from the beginning, we might naturally suppose that the primitive association between the priestly and medical functions would cease when Christianity became dominant. But the roots of human sentiments and beliefs lie deeper than the roots of particular creeds, and are certain to survive and bud out afresh when an old creed has been superficially replaced by a new one. Everywhere pagan usages and ideas are found to modify Christian forms and doctrines, and it is so here. The primitive theory that diseases are of supernatural origin still held its ground, and the agency of the priest consequently remained needful. Of various hospitals built by the early Christians we read:—

"It was commonly a priest who had charge of them, as, at Alexandria, S. Isidore, under the Patriarch Theophilus; at Constantinople, St. Zoticus, and after him St. Samson."

Concerning the substitution of Christian medical institutions for pagan ones, it is remarked:—

"The destruction of the Asclepions was not attended by any suitably extensive measures for insuring professional education. . . . The consequences are seen in the gradually increasing credulity and imposture of succeeding ages, until, at length, there was an almost universal reliance on miraculous interventions."

But a more correct statement would be that the pagan conceptions of disease and its treatment re-asserted themselves. Thus, according to Sprengel, after the sixth century the monks practiced medicine almost exclusively. Their cures were performed by prayers, relics of martyrs, holy water, etc., often at the tombs of martyrs. The state of things during early mediæval times, of which we know so little, may be inferred from the fact that in the twelfth century the practice of medicine by priests was found to interfere so much with their religious functions that orders were issued to prevent it; as by the Lateran Council in 1123, the Council of Reims in 1131, and again by the Lateran Council in 1139. But the usage survived for centuries later in France and probably elsewhere; and it seems that only when a papal bull permitted physicians to marry, did the clerical practice of medicine begin to decline. Says Warton, "The physicians of the University of Paris were not allowed to marry till the year 1452."

In our own country a parallel relationship similarly survived.