extended to disease categories that ranged from lovesickness to rabies and from incubus
to epilepsy. The understanding and treatment of aberrations readily fell in the realm of
religion because of the affinity between mind and soul, the moralization of conduct, and
the mysteries of mental processes. Nevertheless, physicians and laypeople recognized the
role of natural factors, including a person’s history, environment, and bodily condition—
primarily soundness of the brain and balance of the humors. Somatic and psychological
considerations shaped most rules of mental hygiene and explanations of dementia. The
frénésie of Robert de Clermont, son of Louis IX, was attributed to blows he received on
the head during a joust. The decline of Charles VI into manie was blamed on excess
humidity inherited from his mother, troubles with his nobles, and an ensuing excess of
black bile.
Dynastic streaks of madness were paralleled by more widespread disorders, as
suggested by mass hysterias in 9th-century Dijon, recurring episodes of St. Anthony’s
Fire (le mal des ardents), and the misery of pilgrims to a hundred shrines. Mental
maladies ranked high among the reasons for visiting the tombs of St. Martin and other
prominent healers. Early specialists in miraculous psychotherapy, led by St. Acaire and
St. Mathurin, received competition from such aptly named saints as Aimable at Riom
(Auvergne) and Front and Mémoire at Périgueux. Pilgrimages appear routinely in the
poignant dossiers of the insane, who, after being convicted of a major crime, were
granted a royal pardon.
Attitudes toward the mentally ill in medieval France appear to have been more relaxed
and humane than in other regions and in later France. There is far less evidence of
confinement in “fool’s cells” than, for example, in Germanic lands. The mentally ill were
considered best served by family care; if they became furieux, they could be tied or
locked up only with official permission. For the indigent, cities not only founded
hospitals but also subsidized clothing and other expenses, even for pilgrimages and
votive offerings, as evident in the accounts of Lille. Communal care of the mentally ill
was further provided by special fraternities, such as that of St. Hildevert at Gournay.
Luke Demaitre
[See also: HEALTH CARE; HOSPITALS; MEDICAL PRACTICE AND
PRACTITIONERS]
Beek, Henri Hubert. Waanzin in de Middeleeuwen. Haarlem: De Toorts, 1969.
Chaput, B. “La condition juridique et sociale de l’aliéné mental.” In Aspects de la marginalité au
moyen âge, ed. Guy Allard. Montreal: L’Aurore, 1975, pp. 38–47.
Geremek, Bronislaw. The Margins of Society in Late Medieval Paris, trans. Jean Burrell.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Jackson, Stanley W. “Unusual Mental States in Medieval Europe. I. Medical Symptoms of Mental
Disorder, 400–1100 A.D.” Journal of the History of Medicine 27(1972):262–97.
MERCHANTS
. In the Roman world, mercantile activities were stigmatized. In medieval France, after
the Frankish conquest, the few references to merchants cite primarily foreigners: Syrians,
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