hazel-motes:

byjoveimbeinghumble:

edgy-egalitarian:

catholic-church-official:

ignorant medievals: knew demons were real, sought divine aid in spiritual warfare, repented of their sins and made all efforts to die in a state of grace

enlightened moderns: lol there’s no such thing as demons or demonic influence now excuse me while i praise that which is evil as good and plunge into ever deeper despair

I mean…the “medievals” also auctioned their wives from time to time and knew as much about medicine as a child playing doctor. They might have been more spiritual people but “ignorant” is a very apt label for them.

Any evidence for medievals “auctioning” wives? I’ve never encountered that in research. 

The medieval knowledge of science was actually far better than we realize!

It is usually presumed that the practice of medicine was on a very low plane during the Middle Ages, and that while only little was known about medical science, the methods of practicing the medical art were crude, as befitted an earlier time in evolution before modern advances had come. Any such impression is founded entirely on ignorance of the conditions which actually existed. In his studies in the history of anatomy in the Middle Ages, Von Töply quotes the law for the regulation of the practice of medicine issued by the Emperor Frederick II. in 1240 or 1241. The Law was binding on the two Sicilies, and shows exactly the state of medical practice in the southern part of Italy at this time. Everything that we think we have gained by magnificent advances in modern times is to be found in this law. 

– James J. Walsh, The Popes and Science

Here’s another specific example! 

Leprosy had become quite common in Europe during the Middle Ages, and the continued contact of the West with the East during the crusades had brought about a notable increase of the disease…[T]he erection of these hospitals proved the best possible prophylactic against the further spread of the disease…As the result of the existence of these houses of segregation, leprosy disappeared during the course of the next three centuries, and thus a great hygienic triumph was obtained by sanitary regulation.

This successful sanitary and hygienic work, which brought about practically the complete obliteration of leprosy in the Middle Ages, furnished the first example of the possibility of eradicating a disease that has once become a serious scourge to mankind. That this should have been accomplished by a movement that had its greatest source in the thirteenth century is all the more surprising, since we are usually accustomed to think of the people of the times as sadly lacking in any interest in sanitary matters.

I’ll include a few more specific examples from James Walsh’s The Popes and Science under the cut to show how nonsensical it is to think that the medievals had no understanding of science. Feel free to read/skim Walsh’s book for free on Project Gutenberg!

Keep reading

YES ^^ I just watched this totally sick episode of Secrets of Dead about the War of the Roses, where skeletal remains prove that doctors could do complex and dangerous facial reconstruction surgery – successfully! Turns out that praying while you stitch someone up doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing.