GCSE Romans

After the Roman Empire went into regress - the middle ages approached. The barbarian tribes started invading Rome therefore Romans around the empire had to return to Rome. Communicattion was difficult and dangerous therefore ideas travelled slowly. During the dark ages, monastries alone managed to hang onto learning and knowledge, although the Church has to check all new ideas and books so it didn't challenge the Bible and this hindered the development of medicine. Many medical ideas were lost and some of Galens books survived and were retrieved in Muslim cities of the Middle East.

Politics, everyday life and medicine were all dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. Key aspect of the Middle Ages was the emphasis on authority. After 1066, civilisation began to recover and Universities were establish. Kings grew more powerful and established courts as centres of culture and wealth. In 1258, Baghdad was destroyed by Mongols and much ancient knowledge that had been retained in the east was lost in the west due to fleeing scholors.

*Causes of medical stagnation in the Middle Ages included: the loss of medical knowledge/ bad doctors the forbidding by the Church of dissection, and its encouragement of prayer and superstition) the encouragement by the Church of prayer and superstition the emphasis on 'authority' rather than on observation and investigation the lack of resources to build public health systems social disorder and war, which disrupted communication and learning

*The Church played a big part in medical stagnation in the Middle Ages. It discouraged progress by: forbidding dissection of human corpses insisting that people agree with the writings of Galen encouraging people to rely on prayers to the saints and superstition to cure them of disease encouraging the belief that disease was a punishment from God - this led to fatalism and prevented investigation into cures. However, the Church did encourage people to go on Crusades, meaning that people travelled to the Middle East. Here they came into contact with Muslim doctors, who were significantly more skilled than their counterparts in Britain.