57 



wonder if our own religious were not seduced from the cloister 

 in common with their continental brethren to the unfortunates 

 languishing under disease outside, and were thus involved 

 in one of the many admonitions and rulings of their superiors 

 on this matter. 



Various Decrees forbidding Priests and Monks to 

 practise Medicine and Surgery. 



Council of Rheims, 1131, forbade law and medicine. 

 Innocent III., Fourth Synod of Lateran, 1215, forbade surgery. 

 Alexander III., Council of Tours, 1163, forbade study of 



surgery after ordination. 

 Boniface VI., end of 13th century 1 Medicine and surgery were 

 Clement V., at Avignon, early in )- forbidden under pain of 



14th century J excommunication. 



It is interesting to note that it was Pope Alexander III. 

 who revived the clerical tonsure, and from this circumstance, 

 coupled with the fact that he had forbidden religious to leave 

 the cloister in pursuit of the practice of medicine or surgery, 

 history first learns of the barber craft. In cases of external 

 diseases, blood-letting and other manual operations it was the 

 custom of the priests to send their own servants, who were 

 also their barbers, to perform the operation . Concerning the 

 barber craft in Ireland, we shall learn more when treating of 

 the guilds. 



The Bishops in Ireland, at the time of Charles II. and 

 James I. possessed the power to grant licence to practice 

 physic, surgery, and midwifery. They do not seem to have 

 used this power. A quarto manuscript belonging to the 

 Diocese of Down and Connor, entitled a " Book of Presedents 

 for the Ecclesiastical Court,'' contains the form " Licentia 

 Concessa A.B. ad practicand Artem Chirurgicam." 



