SCIENCE AT THE MEDIEVAL UNIVERSITIES 459 



Just in the same way there were said to be decrees of the church 

 councils forbidding the practise of surgery. President AVhite says in 

 his "Warfare of Religion with Theology in Christendom/' that as a 

 consequence of these surgery was in dishonor until the Emperor "Win- 

 ceslaus, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, ordered that it should 

 be restored to estimation. As a matter of fact during the two centuries 

 immediately preceding the first years of the fifteenth century, surgery 

 developed very wonderfully and we have probably the most successful 

 period in all the history of surgery except possibly our own. The de- 

 crees forbade monks to practise surgery because it led to certain abuses. 

 Those who found these decrees and wanted to believe that they pre- 

 vented all surgical development simply quoted them and assumed there 

 was no surgery. The history of surgery at this time is one of the most 

 wonderful chapters in human progress. 



The more we know of the Middle Ages the more do we realize how 

 much they accomplished in every department of intellectual effort. 

 Their development of the arts and crafts has never been equalled in the 

 modern time. They made very great literature, marvelous architecture, 

 sculpture that rivals the Greeks, painting that is still the model for our 

 artists, surpassing illuminations; everything that they touched became 

 80 beautiful as to be a model for all the after time. They accomplished 

 as much in education as they did in all the other arts, their universities 

 had more students than any that have existed down to our own time 

 and they were enthusiastic students and their professors were ardent 

 teachers, writers, observers, investigators. While we have been accus- 

 tomed to think of them as neglecting science their minds were occupied 

 entirely with science. They succeeded in anticipating much more of 

 our modern thought and even scientific progress than we have had any 

 idea until comparatively recent years. The work of the later middle 

 ages in mathematics is particularly strong and was the incentive for 

 many succeeding generations. Eoger Bacon insisted that without 

 mathematics there was no possibility of real advance in physical sci- 

 ence. They had the right ideas in every way. While they were occu- 

 pied more with the philosophical and ethical sciences than we are, these 

 were never pursued to the neglect of the physical sciences in the strict- 

 est sense of that term. 



Is it not time that we should drop the foolish notions that are very 

 commonly held because we know nothing about the middle ages — and 

 therefore the more easily assume great knowledge, and get back to 

 appreciate the really marvellous details of educational and scientific 

 development which are so interesting and of so much significance at 

 this time? 



