Medieval Causes of Disease Flashcards
What were the 5 believed causes of disease?
God The supernatural Astrology Miasma Four humours
Who’s will was illness?
God
What would God punish sins with?
Illness
What were cure for disease due to God having willed it?
Prayer and repentance
How did people repent?
Prayers or flagellation
As well as creating disease, what had God created in kindness to treat illnesses?
The right herbs or plants to treat the illness
Doctrine of Signatures
Herbs resembling various body parts that were used by herbalists to treat ailments of those body parts
What could live inside a person and cause illness?
Supernatural spirits
What supernatural thing did people fear?
Witchcraft
What did many believe the world was full of?
Demons trying to cause trouble and death
How did some people in the church try to get spirits out of people’s bodies?
Exorcisms
What were thought to spread diseases across towns?
Witches
What could be blamed on the supernatural?
Any misfortunes or sudden diseases
What were supernatural reasons based on?
Astrology
Where was astrology first used?
Arabic medicine
When was astrology used in Europe?
After 1100
What astrological tools did doctors use to diagnose and treat illnesses?
Star signs
Almanacs
What were almanacs?
Calendars showing planetary movements
What did some notice the correlation between?
Disease and bad air
Where was mortality rate highest?
Towns
How did people live?
Close together and alongside animals and filth
What did travellers say?
You could smell a town long before you could see it
% of children that died before the age of 7
30%
