Did the church help or hinder medicine in the middle ages
The Christian church taught that it was part of people’s religious duty to care for the sick; but it wasn’t until the eleventh century that it actually took practical measures to encourage this teaching. I would say that overall the church hindered medical advancements; however, they did play some crucial roles in helping to encourage some steps in the right direction; such as opening medical schools. In the eleventh century the church started to open medical schools where Galen’s theories were taught. This was a major help because they had recovered the works of Galen and brought the Middle Ages up to date on medicine; like the theory of opposites and the four humours. Medical schools being opened by the church meant that the monasteries controlled education and manuscripts. The church only agreed with Galen’s works because it agreed with the Bible; this was not the best motive because it also meant that more advancements like the priest Rodger Bacon’s idea of doctors doing their own medical research was made impossible. ... The students learnt the science of medicine by lectures and being read passages from Galen’s work to them; I cannot imagine that the pupils learnt the full potential from these lessons. The church did however allow one dissection a year but this was not terribly successful either because the students watched from a distance while the lecturer’s assistant did the actual dissection.