PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 169 



" In 535 the first Greek physician, the Peloponnesian Archagathus, set- 

 tled in Rome and there acquired such repute by his surgical operations, that 

 a residence was assigned to him on the part of the state and he received the 

 freedom of the city; and thereafter his colleagues flocked in crowds to 

 Rome . . . the profession, one of the most lucrative which existed in 

 Rome, continued a monopoly in the hands of the foreigners." 



Opposed to paganism as Christianity was from the beginning, 

 we might naturally suppose that the primitive association be- 

 tween the priestly and medical functions would cease when Chris- 

 tianity became dominant. But the roots of human sentiments 

 and beliefs lie deeper than the roots of particular creeds, and are 

 certain to survive and bud out afresh when an old creed has been 

 superficially replaced by a new one. Everywhere pagan usages 

 and ideas are found to modify Christian forms and doctrines, and 

 it is so here. The primitive theory that diseases are of super- 

 natural origin still held its ground, and the agency of the priest 

 consequently remained needful. Of various hospitals built by 

 the early Christians we read : 



"It was commonly a priest who had charge of them, as, at Alexandria, 

 S. Isidore, under the Patriarch Theophilus; at Constantinople, St. Zoticus, 

 and after him St. Samson." 



Concerning the substitution of Christian medical institutions for 

 pagan ones, it is remarked : 



" The destruction of the Asclepions was not attended by any suitably 

 extensive measures for insuring professional education. . . . The conse- 

 quences are seen in the gradually increasing credulity and imposture of 

 succeeding ages, until, at length, there was an almost universal reliance on 

 miraculous interventions." 



But a more correct statement would be that the pagan conceptions 

 of disease and its treatment re-asserted themselves. Thus, according 

 to Sprengel, after the sixth century the monks practiced medicine 

 almost exclusively. Their cures were performed by prayers, relics 

 of martyrs, holy water, etc., often at the tombs of martyrs. The 

 state of things during early niediEeval times, of which we know 

 so little, may be inferred from the fact that in the twelfth cen- 

 tury the practice of medicine by priests was found to interfere so 

 much with their religious functions that orders were issued to 

 prevent it; as by the Lateran Council in 1123, the Council of 

 Reims in 1131, and again by the Lateran Council in 1139. But 

 the usage survived for centuries later in France and probably 

 elsewhere ; and it seems that only when a papal bull permitted 

 physicians to marry, did the clerical practice of medicine begin 

 to decline. Says Warton, " The physicians of the University of 

 Paris were not allowed to marry till the year 1452." 



In our own country a parallel relationship similarly survived. 



