Licence: In copyright
Credit: Mediaeval medicine / by G. Henslow. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
7/12 (page 431)
![Mugwort to prevent fatigue, a spray being held in the hand or put into the shoe. 2. Prayers were uttered while collecting the herbs. This was a custom of antiquity grafted on to Christian practices. In a writing by Apuleius (probably of the fourth century) called ‘ Herbarium, sive de Medicaminibus Herbarum,’ “ the names of herbs are followed by prayers and incantations to be recited on gathering them, a habit handed down, perhaps, from the old Greek or Tuscan herbalists; but the monkish transcribers have converted them into Christian by the simple process of slightly altering these prayers,” often “ replaced by the Creed and Paternoster, which the canons of the Church declared might alone be repeated on such occasions.” * 8. As early Christianity became tainted by paganism in many ways, medicine was by no means exempt. Thus, in the custom of praying to Latona and other deities at the birth of children, the gods and goddesses were replaced by saints. Numerous forms of quasi-prayers were uttered as charms by the physician and other attendants. But in the fourteenth century, and probably before that time, the j>rayer had been apparently repeated orally by persons who, not knowing what the words meant, had rendered them absolutely meaningless. For example: Arcus forcior super nos sedebit semper Maria lux et hora sedule sedebit nator natoribus saxo, &c.; these words being about a fifth of the whole charm, ending with the direction, “ Say this charm thrice and she shall have child soon, if it be her time.” Another is; “ Say Q^dcunque vuU (the Athanasian Creed) thrice and all the Psalms over her.” 4. There were forms of incantations used for exorcising the evil spirit which causes the disease itself ; such were thus : Fuge,fuge, Podagra, &c. ; “ Fly, fly. Gout, for Solomon is coming after you ! ” t 5. Narratives or short stories embodying the account of someone who suffered in a similar way, often of saints or Scriptural persons. Thus, for example, the following is a charm or prayer for the toothache :— “ 0 blessed Apollonia, the noble martyr, who withstood the tyrant. In the first place they dragged her and tied her strongly. Then, when they broke her teeth with iron hammers, prayed during that torment. Whosoever may call upon thy name when in torment on account of toothache will not feel the pain. Pray for us, 0 blessed Apollonia.” 6. The following is a sort of charm-amulet against loss of memory:— “ Marchus-f Mathew-t-Lucas + Johannes. Qui portat ista nomina super eum, nunquam carebit memoria.” 7. As words became charms, so to have a sacred word engraved on a stone or other object became a charm and was worn as an amulet. As an example of the supposed value of mere words is the following ; “For the goute-sayne [i.e. cure] take the root of Ache and write thereon 3 words -fms + XT-f Dominus + , and as long as he be right * Withington, Medical History from tJie Earliest Times, p. 177. t Prayers, charms, and magical texts of similar import are found in the ancient Chaldajan literature and fully described by Professor Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, 1887 p. 317, seqg. . ’ ’](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22397309_0007.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
