SHP History B 1A Medicine and Public Health
Medicine and Public Health c50AD-c1350
1.6 What changed when the Romans left?
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1.6 What changed when the
Romans left?
Learning outcomes
Build Better Answers
By the end of this topic you should be able to:
 outline and explain what happened to public
health systems when the Romans left
Britain
 understand the increasing importance of
Christianity to medicine and treatment
To what extent did medical progress stop
when the Romans withdrew from England?
Explain your answer. You may use the
following in your answer: Public health and
Medical training. You must also include
information of your own. (16 marks)
The period from after the Roman army left in
410AD to around 1000AD saw some huge changes
in society that had an impact on medicine and
public health.
The collapse of the Roman Empire had a huge
impact on parts of Britain. Instead of being one
country ruled by Rome, Britain fractured into many
small kingdoms which often fought with each other.
Each kingdom was ruled by a different king.
Loss of the Roman army


No engineering or builders to keep the
public health systems in towns running.
No-one to stop invasions – in the 5th and
6th centuries, Britain was invaded by
illiterate tribes from Europe – the Angles,
Saxons and Jutes.
jec

No-one to maintain law and order amongst
the locals.
What happened after the Romans left?
Loss of one ruler or government
No overall control to commission or pay for
public health schemes to be built or
maintained.

The priority for the new rulers was trying to
keep and expand their kingdoms – they
couldn’t afford the time or money for public
health systems or education.
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b

Basic, Level 1
Answer makes simple statements about
what happened when the Romans left.
Good, Level 2
Answer provides detailed description of
Roman or medieval medicine and state
there was some decline or continuity.
Better, Level 3
Answer shows some comparison of
medicine in Roman Britain and in the Middle
Ages.
Excellent, Level 4
Answer shows detailed comparison of both
continuity and change in medicine in Roman
Britain and in the Middle Ages, supported by
accurate material and including details not
provided by the stimulus, e.g. the influence
of the Church.
Make sure you write accurately – there are
four extra marks available for spelling,
grammar and punctuation in these
questions.
Wars and chaos

Led to the destruction of libraries and
books as well as to towns themselves.

It became far more dangerous to travel, so
ideas and people became stuck in their
local settlements.

As people’s possessions, crops and
livelihoods were destroyed by conflict,
poverty hugely increased.
SHP History B 1A Medicine and Public Health
Medicine and Public Health c50AD-c1350
Increasing importance of
Perhaps the most profound impact of the collapse
of the Roman Empire was on public health
systems, which gradually stopped working or were
destroyed by war. Although many towns were
abandoned, as people went back to living as
farmers in villages, when towns started to grow
again it meant they were far more unhygienic.
Disease therefore became more of a problem.
Christianity
The other impact of the Roman withdrawal on
medicine was that trained physicians almost totally
disappeared, because:
1 How might the collapse of public health
systems have affected people’s health?
Create a flow chart or diagram which
shows the impact of the collapse on
public health in Britain.
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Impact on medicine and public health
After the Romans left, and especially after
the Norman invasion in 1066, Christianity
became increasingly important in society
and therefore in medicine and treatment.
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1.6 What changed when the Romans left?
Activities

Books and libraries where medical knowledge
had been kept were destroyed.

The new rulers were illiterate and not
interested in educating doctors anyway.
2 In what ways did the increasing
importance of the Christian Church affect
medicine?

People no longer travelled very far so couldn’t
travel to obtain learning and training.
Summary

The huge increase in poverty meant that
nobody could afford a trained physician.
The decline of public health systems and the
growth of the importance of Christianity are two
of the biggest changes in medicine from AD50
to 1350.
Source A: A photograph of York Minster.
• It was an
international
• Monasteries and
organisation
convents often
across all Europe
had an
– an important
infirmarian, who
cared for the sick.
channel of
communication.
• Most priests could
• People believed
very strongly in
religion and
and senior
accepted the
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read and write
churchmen were
often included
among the king’s
advisers.
• Learning was
Su
b
preserved in the
libraries of
monasteries and
convents.
Church’s authority
over their lives.
• People believed
illness was a sign
of sin, a
punishment, or a
test sent by God.