Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George IIIReilly, S. A.
History
Our Legal Heritage : 600-1776 King Aethelbert - King George III
Reilly, S. A.
Law -- England -- History
There was a celestial hierarchy, with heavenly hosts in specific
places. God intervened in daily life, especially if worshipped.
Saints such as Bede and Hilda performed miracles, especially ones
of curing. Their spirits could be contacted through their relics,
which rested at the altars of churches. When someone was said to
have the devil in him, people took it quite literally. A real Jack
Frost nipped noses and fingers and made the ground too hard to
work. Little people, elves, trolls, and fairies inhabited the
fears and imaginings of people. The forest was the mysterious home
of spirits. People prayed to God to help them in their troubles
and from the work of the devil. Since natural causes of events
were unknown, people attributed events to wills like their own.
Illness was thought to be caused by demons. People hung charms
around their neck for cure and treatments of magic and herbs were
given. Some had hallucinogenic effects, which were probably useful
for pain. For instance, the remedy for "mental vacancy and folly"
was a drink of "fennel, agrimony, cockle, and marche". Blood-
letting by leeches and cautery were used for most maladies, which
were thought to be caused by imbalance of the four bodily humors:
sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. These four humors
reflected the four basic elements of the world articulated by
Aristotle: air, water, fire, and earth. Blood was hot and moist
like air; phlegm was cold and moist like water; choler or yellow
bile was hot and dry like fire; and melancholy or black bile was
cold and dry like earth. Bede had explained that when blood
predominates, it makes people joyful and glad, sociable, laughing,
and talking a great deal. Phlegm renders them slow, sleepy, and
forgetful. Red cholic makes them thin, though eating much, swift,
bold, wrathful, and agile. Black cholic makes them serious of
settled disposition, even sad. To relieve brain pressure and/or
maybe to exorcise evil spirits, holes were drilled into skulls by
a drill with a metal tip that was caused to turn back and forth by
a strap wrapped around a wooden handle. A king's daughter Edith
inspired a cult of holy wells, whose waters were thought to
alleviate eye conditions. Warmth and rest were also used for
illness. Agrimony boiled in milk was thought to relieve impotence
in men.
It was known that the liver casted out impurities in the blood.
The stages of fetal growth were known. The soul was not thought to
enter a fetus until after the third month, so presumably abortions
within three months were allowable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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