The Popes and science : the history of papal relations to science during the middle ages down to our own time / by James J. Walsh.

  • James Joseph Walsh
Date:
1911
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Popes and science : the history of papal relations to science during the middle ages down to our own time / by James J. Walsh. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    in them, by far the greater number of teachers and most of the pupils, were of the clerical order, that is, had assumed some ecclesiastical obligations and were considered to be churchmen. At these universities, if we can trust the example of England as applicable to the Continent also, there were, according to trust- worthy, conservative statistics, more students in attend- ance in proportion to the population than there has been at any period since, or than there are even at the pres- ent time in the twentieth century in any country of the civilized world. From this we can readily appreciate the enthusiastic ardor of those seeking education. Of these large numbers, the medical schools had their due proportion.1 Of course it will be said at once that though there were medical schools and medical professors and stu- dents, what was taught and studied at this time was so far distant from anything like practical knowledge of medicine, that it does not tell against the argument that medical education was practically non-existent. Some people will perhaps harbor the thought, if they do not frankly express it, that very probably these schools were organized under ecclesiastical authority, only in order to enable the Church and the clergy to maintain their control of medical education and keep the people from knowledge that might prove dangerous to Church authority. They were thus able to satisfy some of men’s cravings for information in these matters, and yet pre- vent them from making such advances as would endan- ger the Church’s policy of having them apply for pray- ers and Masses rather than for more physical remedies, 1 This subject of the attendance at the universities of the Middle Ages is discussed, and authorities quoted, in my book “The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries,” pub- lished by the Catholic Summer School Press, N. Y.
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