Peter should not proceed with bloodletting, Bartholomew said, because of Peter’s
unbalanced constitution. Galenic theory held that the physiological basis of human life
rested on four humors: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile. Health depended
on their balance. Bartholomew had observed on a previous visit that Peter had an
excess of phlegm. It made little sense to drain the blood. The remedy, rather, was to
apply heat and to use dry medications against the excess of phlegm, which was cold
and wet.
When Bernard visited Peter, he no doubt gave similar advice. In doing so, he
probably followed one of the advice manuals for good bedside manners that were
beginning to proliferate at this time. In one of them, attributed to one
“Archimatthaeus,” the doctor was to enter the sickroom with a humble demeanor.
Seated by the patient,
ask him how he feels and reach out for his arm, and all that we shall say
is necessary so that through your entire behavior you obtain the favor of
the people who are around the sick. And because the trip to the patient
has sharpened your sensitivity, and the sick rejoices at your coming or
because he has already become stingy and has various thoughts about
the fee, therefore by your fault as well as his the pulse is affected, is
different and impetuous from the motion of the spirits.^19
Here the doctor revealed himself to be both an astute politician (thinking about
making a good impression) and a successful businessman (whose fee was hefty). But
he was also a savvy physician who knew that his patient’s pulse might be elevated
not by his illness but from the emotions surrounding the doctor’s visit itself.
THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL (1215)
Physicians like Bartholomew were professionals; increasingly, so too were the popes.
Innocent III (1198–1216) studied theology at the University of Paris and trained in
law at the University of Bologna. The mix allowed him to think that he ruled in the
place of Christ the King; secular kings and emperors existed simply to help the pope,
who was the real lawmaker—the maker of laws that would lead to moral
reformation. The council that Innocent convened at the Lateran Palace at Rome in
1215 produced a comprehensive set of canons—most of them prepared by the
