Worldly Concerns in and out of Church
The depiction of Joseph in the guise of proud father reflected a new and widespread
sensibility among the educated elites: interest in the joys and woes of everyday life.
This was as true at the basic level of bodily health as it was at the more rarified
heights of religious behavior and belief. To care for the ill were doctors, trained in
medical schools and ready to prescribe remedies according to the most up-to-date
theories. To mold religious behavior and belief were churchmen, trained in both law
and theology and determined to impose clear obligations on all Christians—and to rid
Christendom of those who did not conform.
CARING FOR THE BODY
Around 1151, Peter the Venerable, the abbot of Cluny, wrote to a Doctor
Bartholomew (probably the famous physician Bartholomew of Salerno) for help:
For almost a year I have been repeatedly afflicted with the disease called
catarrh [a head cold]; I have had it twice already, once in the summer
and once in the winter or around that time. This year I came down with
it at the end of summer and beginning of autumn. Prior to this, [because
of business]... I was forced to postpone much longer than usual my
customary bloodletting, which I normally have at the end of every
second month. And because the disease that I mentioned came upon me
during that delay in bloodletting, I did not dare to go ahead with it the
way I normally would.^18
In fact Peter had been advised by local doctors that he might lose his voice (and
possibly even his life!) if he had his blood let. He held off for four months, and then
tried bloodletting again. It was no use: he lost his voice and coughed up phlegm for
months thereafter. He needed advice. Should he let more blood or not? He ended his
letter by politely excusing Bartholomew from making a house call himself; but would
he send his student Bernard? Bartholomew wrote back to say that he was indeed
dispatching Bernard. Meanwhile, even without seeing the patient, he had advice for
Peter based on the very best knowledge of Galenic medicine as taught at Salerno.
