Did the fall of the Roman Empire cause health to decline?

A case study of York from Roman times to the end of the Middle
Ages

Task Use pages 58 –61 to make a timeline to show health issues in

York from Roman times to the end of the Middle Ages.
Include things like:
• Diseases
• Life expectancy
• Infant mortality rates
• Housing
• Pubic health facilities
• Climate
• Diet
• Effects of wars

You can decide how you want to make the timeline but you can use the
following instructions if you are stuck:-

1. Draw a line across the centre of a full page in your exercise book – it
is best to have this landscape
2. Divide the line into 4 sections, one each for Roman York (Eboracum),
Saxon York (Eoforwic), Viking York (Jorvik) and York in the Middle
Ages. Label each section with the name of York at that time and with
the dates. For example, Roman York would be labelled ‘Eboracum’ with
the dates AD71 – 400.
3. Then add the labels about health issues above and below the line.

Medical Dictionary

Rheumatism – disease in joints/joint muscles causing pain

Arthritis – painful swelling of joints
Rickets – lack of Vitamin D leading to deformed bones
Infant Mortality – rate at which young children die
Worms – parasites in intestines
Parasites – organism living on another organism

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 Conclusion

Look carefully at your evidence.

You need to decide if health did decline during the Middle

Ages. Think about things like:-
• What happened after the Romans left, especially in Saxon
and Viking York
• What was health like throughout the Middle Ages? Did it worsen or
improve?
• Some of you may be able to think about whether York makes a good
case study for measuring the health of the whole country.

What was the role of the Church in Medieval Medicine?

During the last hundred years or so of the Roman Empire,
Christianity became the official religion. However, when the

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Empire fell Europeans worshipped a variety of gods. From the 6th Century
Christianity was reintroduced to Britain and gradually most people
followed the faith. The Christian Church filled the void left by the
collapse of the Roman centralised government. The Christian Church
became extremely powerful – so, what was its role in medicine?

Task 1 Red text book page 62 – 63

• Did the medieval church encourage supernatural or natural

approaches to medicine? The easiest way of answering this is to
make a mind map. On one side add evidence of supernatural
explanation and on the other natural approaches.
• Reach a conclusion. Which approach is the Church encouraging?

Task 2 Red text book page 64 – 65

• Use the sources to answer questions 1 – 3 on

page 65

Task 3
White text book page 76 – 77

• Did the Christian Church help or hinder medical progress in the

Middle Ages? Complete the Task on page 76 and write your
research onto the worksheet of the same title.

Conclude your Enquiry What was the role of the Church in

Medieval Medicine?
Think about
• How the Church helped the sick
• How the Church hindered progress
• The methods used by the Church especially
supernatural approaches

Remember to PEE!

A Medieval Doctor

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As you have seen, the Dark Ages was a period of war and destruction in
Europe. Medical progress ceased and many aspects of medicine declined.
For example, organised training of doctors ended. Progress continued in
the East where Arabs followed the medical ideas of the Greeks. In the
later Middle Ages, doctors in Western Europe were able to study some of
the medical text books written by Arabs, Galen and Hippocrates when
scholars translated books into Latin. The translations were used to teach
medical students in European universities. Many books were still not
available for study. Avicenna’s “Cannon” was translated, which was
important because it was well written and contained the important Greek
ideas such as Clinical Observation.
Salerno in Italy was the first medical school to open in the Middle Ages.
Others followed in Italy and France. With more schools the number of
doctors increased. By the 14th Century there were many universities and
they were even allowed to witness some dissections and debate
Hippocrates and Galen.

Task 1.Use the white text books p. 68 - 71

Make a spider diagram about a medieval doctors training, their beliefs,

the treatments and remedies used. You should use the following page
references to help you:-

Training p.68 (especially Sources 1, 2, 3)

Beliefs p.68 (last paragraph)
Treatments p.69 (including sources 4, 5) and
p.71 (herbs)

Task 2 Was progress made in medicine in the Middle Ages?

Use the Red Text book pages 66 - 69(Tony McAleavy)

• Complete the questions on page 67
• Complete the questions on page 69

What was the state of Public Health in the Middle Ages?

Task 1

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Use the white text book page 66 – 67

• Complete the Activity. Identify the 14 descriptions and then make

a simple note of each of the public health problems onto worksheet
30.

Task 2

• Answer questions 1 – 4 on page 67. For questions 1 and 2 simply list

the numbers of the descriptions in the sources.

Task 3

Use the red text book page 72 – 73 and what you learned in the
previous exercise

• Complete the question on page 73

Task 4

• Answer the questions on page 75

The Black Death

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Task 1 White text book page 62 - 65
• Make a table or mind map to show what medieval people believed
caused the Plague, the methods they used to prevent it and the
‘cures’ they used.

There is some additional information below for you to use. As panic

spread many different ideas were tried.
Prevention
• Changing diet – fish and spices shouldn’t be eaten or fasting
• Fumigate homes with sweet herbs
• Inhale perfumes
• ‘Fast, far, late’ – run as fast as you can, as far as you can
come back as late as possible’!
• Italian cities imposed ‘Quarantenaria’ - 30/40 day quarantine

Cures
• Lancing sores or cauterizing them
• ‘Theriac’ – potion of chopped snake bodies that had been dead
for 10 years
• Cress, mustard and poppy
• Blood-letting
• Charms such as the leg of a black cat!
• Holy relics
• Sipping mercury
• Bull’s blood and dung

Plague doctors
Some doctors were said to have had success in keeping the plague away.
They wore a special masks soaked in medicines and herbs to filter the air.
One doctor apparently managed to ‘cure’ the plague by burning out the
boils with a red hot iron.

Some people just gave up! They said there was no point in struggling. The
plague would come anyway and so they may as well ‘eat, drink and be
merry for tomorrow we die’.
Task 2 Red text book pages 76 – 79

• Complete the source

exercise on page 79

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 Medieval Surgery

Explanation
Little progress was made in the treatment of disease but with surgery
you can often see what is wrong and so treatments can succeed or fail.
Surgery was often carried out by barber-surgeons who were not formerly
trained. Even those that were trained were not highly regarded by
doctors – surgery at this time was regarded as a very low profession.
Because there was a lot of war in the Middle Ages surgeons got plenty of
practice at developing new wound treatments and techniques.

Task 1

Use page 70 – 71 of the red text book to make a mind map of medieval
surgery. Include the following:-
• Who practiced surgery
• Operations carried out
• Pain and infection management
• Progress and new ideas
• Understanding of anatomy via dissection

You could colour code each of the above once you have finished your
diagram

Task 2

Why do you think medieval surgery was an area where progress was
made?

Review

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 Was there any progress in medicine during the Middle Ages?

Task Write an answer to this question

Preparation
Use your notes and page 80 – 81 of the red text book to make a table or
mind map of Progress/Negative Progress or ‘Regression’

How to go about writing up an answer:-

1. Write an introduction. To answer the question effectively you need

to compare the Middle Ages to what went before. Briefly explain
medicine in Roman times then explain that medicine ‘regressed’ in
the Middle Ages. Explain how you are going to answer the question.
2. Explain any progress that was made in the Middle Ages.
3. Explain any negative progress or regression
4. Reach a conclusion. Answer the question, use evidence to back up
your points and explain them. (PEE)

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