What were the key features of
the Dark Ages?
Lesson Objectives
• To revise the key features of the Dark
Ages
• To investigate the types of surgery that
existed during the Dark Ages using
sources
• To evaluate which factor was most
significant in the nature of surgery
during the Dark Ages
Source A
• Bishop John came one day to a convent of nuns at
Watton, near Beverley. The abbess said that one of
her nuns, her own daughter, was very seriously ill.
The sick girl was called Coenburg. The abbess said
that the nun had recently been bled in the arm and,
during the blood-letting, Coenburg was suddenly
seized by a violent pain. Afterwards the arm became
so swollen that it could hardly be encircled with two
hands. Now she was in terrible pain and likely to die.
When the bishop learned that the blood-letting had
taken place on the 4th day of the moon he said, ‘You
have acted most foolishly. Don’t you know that it is
dangerous to bleed people when the light of the moon
and the pull of the tide is increasing?’ He went to see
the girl and said a prayer over her and left. The girl
made a complete recovery. Later she said, ‘As soon as
the bishop blessed me I began to feel much better.
The pain entirely left my arm. It was as if the bishop
took it away with him.’
Source B
• The physician, Cynfrid was present at the
death of Ethelreda. He said that during her
last illness she had a large tumour under her
jaw. ‘I was asked,’ he said, to open the tumour
and drain away the poison inside it. I did this,
and for two days she seemed a little better.
But on the third day the earlier pain returned,
and she died. It is said that when she was
affected by this tumour and pain in her jaw and
neck, she welcomed the pain and used to say, ‘I
know that I deserve this painful disease on my
neck because when I was a girl I used to wear
jewellery around my neck. I believe that God in
His goodness wishes me to endure this pain in
my neck as punishment for needless vanity as a
girl. So now I wear a burning red tumour on my
neck instead of gold and pearls.
Source C
• I must tell you about a cure that took place just three
years ago and was told to me by the very monk to whom it
happened. A young monk developed a tumour on his
eyelid, which grew every day and threatened to destroy
the eye. Although the physicians applied poultices to
reduce it, they had no success. Some doctors advised
cutting it out, others opposed this fearing that an
operation would bring grave complications. So the
brother suffered great pain for a long time, and it
seemed that no human skills could prevent the loss of his
eye until one day he was cured by God and the relics of
St. Cuthbert. Some hairs of the saint were kept at the
monastery as a relic. The abbot gave the hairs to the
young man with the diseased eye. He placed the hairs of
holy Cuthbert on his eyelid, and held them there for a
while. He then replace the relics in their special casket,
confident that, now his eye had been touched by the
hairs of the holy man of God, it would soon be cured. Nor
was his faith in vain. Later in the day he suddenly felt his
eye and found it sound, as though there had never been
any deformity or swelling on it.
To what extent was religion the
reason why medical understanding
of anatomy and surgery
decreased during the Dark Ages?
Yes – it was
Religion
No, other factors
were more
important
Conclusion