1. What were the key features of
the Dark Ages?

2. 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

3. 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.’

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. To what extent was religion the reason why medical understanding of anatomy and surgery decreased during the Dark Ages?
Yes – it was No, other factors
Religion were more
important
Conclusion