University of Virginia Library

V.10.1

MEDICAL CARE AND THE WILL OF GOD

THE PHYSICIAN NOT A PRIMARY
MONASTIC OFFICIAL

The Rule of St. Benedict contains no clue as to whether a
monastery was to be provided with a permanent staff of
physicians,[369] and all later available sources disclose without
any shadow of doubt that the physician stood outside the
hierarchy of the monastery's regular administrative officers
(provost, dean, porter, cellarer, chamberlain, infirmarer,
etc.). The title carried no official status; but was granted to
monks, who by their special studies and devotion had
demonstrated unusual proficiency and knowledge in the
art of healing.

CASSIODORUS ON THE ART OF HEALING

Cassiodorus the Senator (ca. 480-ca. 575) in a chapter
"On Doctors" of his widely read Introduction to Divine
and Human Readings, written for the instruction of his
monks some time after 551,[370] refers to the brothers who
"look after the health of the human body" as men "who

[ILLUSTRATION]

410. PLAN OF ST. GALL. HOUSE OF THE PHYSICIANS

SHOWN FULL SIZE; 1:192

The Physicians' House shares a site with the
Medicinal Herb Garden in the northeast corner
of the monastery tract. The house belongs to a
sub-group of the guest and service buildings of
the Plan, of which the communal hall is
surrounded on only three sides by peripheral
rooms. Other variants of this smaller format are
the House of the Gardener (fig. 426), the House
for Cows and Cowherds (fig. 489), and the
House for Foaling Mares and their Keepers
(fig. 487).

The proximity of the physicians to their garden
reflects the contemporary state of pharmacy,
which lay largely in the realm of botanicals, as
the authorities of Dioscurides, Isidore, and
many others attest. The physicians' duties
included compounding and dispensing medicines;
their house is provided with a secure room
especially designated for storage of medication.

will receive their reward from Him by whom eternal rewards
may be paid for temporal acts."[371] He lists as standard
medical works to be studied for instruction in this specialized
craft: the book on herbs by Dioscurides; the Latin
translations of the works of Hippocrates and Galen (especially
the latter's Therapeutics, addressed to the philosopher
Glauco); an anonymous work compiled from various
authors; the book On Medicine by Caelius Aurelius;
Hippocrates' On Herbs and Cures as well as various other
medical treatises. He informs his readers that he had collected
copies of all of these works for future use, and that
these copies "are stored away in the recesses of our library"
(i.e., the library of the monastery of Vivarium, which he
had founded and for the monks of which the Institutiones
were written).[372]

Like the later medieval attitude toward medicine,
Cassiodorus' view about the efficacy of medical care is
tinted by the belief that the ultimate decision about sickness
and health are the concern of the Lord; and this ambivalence
between reliance on physical care and limitations
imposed upon it by divine predestination he expresses
clearly when admonishing the brothers: "Learn, therefore,
the properties of herbs and perform the compounding of
drugs punctiliously; but do not place your hope in herbs
and do not trust health to human council. For although the
art of medicine be found to be established by the Lord . . .
who without doubt grants life to men, makes them sound"

(et ideo discite quidem naturas herbarum commixtionesque
specierum solicita mente tractate; sed non ponatis in herbis
spem, non in humanis consiliis sospitatem. nam quamvis
medicina legatur a Domino constituta, ipse tamen sanos
efficit, qui vitam sine dubitatione concedit).[373]

STUDY & TRANSMISSION OF CLASSICAL MEDICINE

The Cassiodorian attitude had a profound effect on later
medieval thinking. It was responsible not only for the fact
that the science of medicine, despite its spiritual limitations
remained a highly respected avocation, but also for the
establishment of its study and transmission as a subject
worthy of being practiced in monastic schools of learning.

[ILLUSTRATION]

411. BARTHOLOMAEUS DE MONTAGNARO. CONSILIA MEDICA. 1434

A PHYSICIAN IN HIS CHAMBERS

MUNICH, BAYERISCHE STAATSBIBLIOTHEK, MS 25, FOL. lv

Montagnaro, a prominent Paduan physician, is portrayed as he inspects a flask of urine. The open books before him may be Theophilos
Unarines or the portions of Judaeus or Avicenna dealing with urine (McKinley, 1965, 13).

[ILLUSTRATION]

412. KIRKSTALL ABBEY, WEST RIDING, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND. INFIRMARY PLAN

[redrawn after Hope and Bilson, 1907]

In its original form the infirmary hall of Kirkstall may have been very like the castle hall of Leicester, a reconstruction of which is shown in
figure 339. Pre-Norman monastic infirmaries of England were probably built entirely in timber. Under the influence of Norman church
construction, not only were the walls built in stone, but even the free-standing inner posts came to be replaced by masonry arcades. At Kirkstall
this change was made in the 14th century, in adjustment to a trend that in other places such as Canterbury (I, 70, fig. 52.A) had begun as early
as mid-11th century.

In many monasteries, consequently, the study and propagation
of these skills was held in high esteem. The oldest
catalogue of the library of the Abbey of St. Gall lists no
fewer than six medical treatises.[374] The Abbots Grimoald
(841-872) and Hartmut (872-883) increased these holdings
by each bequeathing to the monastic library one medical
book.[375] Among the actually surviving medical treatises of
St. Gall, written in the ninth century, there are extracts
from the works of Hippocrates and Galen (Cod. 44), a book
on cures through herbs and animal extracts (Cod. 217), a
large collection of medical prescriptions (Cod. 751), a
heavily used list of pharmaceutical prescriptions (Cod. 759),
as well as a collection of smaller medical treatises written
by the hand of an Irish monk.[376] Abbot Grimoald (841-872)
can be singled out as one who apparently took a special
interest in the art of healing, since it is to him that Walahfrid
Strabo dedicated his famous poem, Hortulus, in which the
virtues of medicinal herbs are extolled.[377] Other monks of
St. Gall reputed to have been physicians of great distinction
were Iso and Notker II, surnamed Medicus. Iso is
praised by Ekkehart IV for his skill at making salves and is
reported to have healed blind men, lepers and paralytics
with his ointments.[378] The same author proclaims Notker II
the most famous of all.[379] Frequently performing unbelievable
wonders of healing, he was known far and wide in the
country as one of the greatest monastic urologists.[380] The
names of other monks skilled in this science are listed in the
Necrologium of St. Gall.[381]