disease and the supernatural

punishment from god

the reasoning behind most illness, people were being punished for their sins

treatments for disease

prayer and repentance, to end the punishment from god

Witches and Deamons

other beings thought to be responsible for disease, mostly outbreaks. one of the first causes of witch hunts

evil spirits

disease was also thought to have been caused by spirits that lived within people. exorcisms were used to treat disease thought to be caused by spirits

Roman Catholic Church

immensely powerful organisation in Europe. dominated the way that people studied medicine

church beliefs on disease

they believed in the punishment from god theory, preventing people from finding cures from diseases as they thought that they knew of the true cure already

Galen

his ideas were taught to scholars of medicine as his work fits the idea that god made human bodies to be perfect. his work is so influential that it was almost impossible to go against these teachings

dissection

outlawed by the church. doctors could not discover details of human anatomy themselves and had to learn ideas based on Galen’s research on animals

Churches influence over medicine

because of this there was very little change in ideas about the cause of disease until the renaissance - the church and its messages were so influential that people were unable to question them

astrology

the idea that the movements of the planets and stars have an effect on the earth and on people.

Astrologers in Medevil England

people who believed that the plant and stars movements caused disease

Arabic medicine

astrology was a derivative of, and was brought to Europe between 1100 and 1300

Almanac

a type of calander, which included information about where particular stars and planets were at any given time, an how this would relate to illnesses

starsigns

though to have affected different parts of the body