MONASTIC VIEWS ON BLEEDING
The Rule of St. Benedict is silent on the subject of
bleeding,[397]
and there is no certainty as to what point in
history bleeding became a regular practice in monastic life.
A description in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of a case of
unsuccessful bloodletting causing intensive swelling and
nearly leading to the death of a nun, suggests that bleeding
was a fully adopted form of medical treatment in the
monasteries of England at the time of Theodore of Tarsus
(669-690). The same story also reveals that when something
went wrong with the operation this was likely to be
attributed not to the use of infectious tools or other forms
of medical malpractice, but to the fact that the operation
was performed at the wrong time: "You have acted
foolishly and ignorantly to bleed her on the fourth day of
the moon," Bede records Bishop Wilfrid of Hexham to
have exclaimed. "I remember how Archibishop Theodore
of blessed memory used to say that it was very dangerous
to bleed a patient when the moon is waxing and the Ocean
tide flowing. And what can I do for the girl if she is at the
point of death?"[398]
A book, De minutione sanguis, wrongly
attributed by tradition to the Venerable Bede, recommends
that the blood be let between March 25 and May 26, on the
assumption that this was the season "during which the
blood develops in the human organism" (quia tunc sanguis
augmentum habet). After this period, the operation was to be
undertaken only with a due regard for the qualities of
the seasons and phases of the moon (sed postea observandae
sunt qualitates temporum et cursus lunae).[399]
The first synod of Aachen (816) abolished the custom
according to which large segments of the community were
bled at a fixed date, and ruled that individuals be bled
according to need. It reaffirms the right of those who are
exposed to this treatment to receive a fortifying diet of food
and drink, including at least by implication the otherwise
forbidden meats (Ut certum fleutomiae tempus non obseruent,
sed unicuique secundum quod necessitas expostulat concedatur
et specialis in cibo et potu tunc consolatio prebeatur).[400]
The food for the monks who were bled was doubtlessly
prepared in the kitchen of the Infirmary, which lies directly
to the west of the House for Bloodletting. The number and
length of the tables in this house would permit the simultaneous
feeding of a maximum of thirty-two monks, if we
count 2½ feet as the normal sitting space required by each
monk, as we did in calculating the seating capacity of the
Monk's Refectory.[401]
The number of monks to be bled on
a single day could not exceed this figure; and if as many as
thirty-two were bled in a single day, this operation could
not have been extended to others, until the first group to be
treated had gone through the entire cycle of convalescence,
which involved several days of special treatment and care.
