Religion And Health

Name: Religion And Health
Author: Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)

Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)

Health -- Religious aspects

which case we must have recourse to more complicated and powerful
plans of treatment. Paul was a very popular author much read in the
Middle Ages.

  [Footnote 7: Black. 1920.]

The Church's view of the subject of insanity is very well expressed in
Bartholomew's Encyclopedia. This was a work written particularly for
the information of the clergymen of the time, in order to explain to
them all references in Scripture and to give them such details of
knowledge as were necessary for preaching and for the teaching of
their flocks. Bartholomew was very widely read and went through many
editions before printing, was put into print very early, and some of
the editions are among the greatest of bibliophilic treasures.
Bartholomew, usually called the Englishman--his Latin name of
_Bartholomaeus Anglicus_ is well known--boiled down all the knowledge
of insanity into a single paragraph. He has nothing at all to say of
possession by the devil, and his discussion of the whole subject of
madness is as modern as can be.

The causes of insanity which this clergyman writer {216} of the middle
of the thirteenth century enumerates are those which psychiatrists of
the present day are insisting on. The symptoms of infection,
considering the brevity of the passage, are very well and clearly
described, and the treatment suggested is the very latest in modern
practice and consists of improvement of nutrition and the diversion of
the insane. With all our supposed advance in knowledge no physician,
even of the twentieth century, could have expressed the whole subject
of insanity any better than Bartholomew did. This paragraph is a
complete refutation of the objections that the Church by its
insistence on diabolical possession as the principal cause of insanity
did a great deal of harm. Bartholomew said:

  "Madness cometh sometime of passions of the soul, as of business and
  of great thoughts, of sorrow and of too great study, and of dread:
  sometimes of the biting of a wood (mad) hound, or some other
  venomous beast; sometimes of melancholy meats, and sometimes of
  drink of strong wine. And as the causes be diverse, the tokens and
  signs be diverse. For some cry and leap and hurt and wound
  themselves and other men, and darken and hide themselves in privy
  and secret places. The medicine of them is, that they be bound, that
  they hurt not themselves and other men. And namely, such shall be
  refreshed, and comforted, and withdrawn from cause and matter of
  dread and busy thoughts. And they must be gladded with instruments
  of music, and some deal be occupied."


{217}

CHAPTER XII

NERVOUS DISEASE

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Religion And HealthWalsh, James J. (James Joseph)

Religion

Religion And Health

Walsh, James J. (James Joseph)

Health -- Religious aspects

which case we must have recourse to more complicated and powerful
plans of treatment. Paul was a very popular author much read in the
Middle Ages.

  [Footnote 7: Black. 1920.]

The Church's view of the subject of insanity is very well expressed in
Bartholomew's Encyclopedia. This was a work written particularly for
the information of the clergymen of the time, in order to explain to
them all references in Scripture and to give them such details of
knowledge as were necessary for preaching and for the teaching of
their flocks. Bartholomew was very widely read and went through many
editions before printing, was put into print very early, and some of
the editions are among the greatest of bibliophilic treasures.
Bartholomew, usually called the Englishman--his Latin name of
_Bartholomaeus Anglicus_ is well known--boiled down all the knowledge
of insanity into a single paragraph. He has nothing at all to say of
possession by the devil, and his discussion of the whole subject of
madness is as modern as can be.

The causes of insanity which this clergyman writer {216} of the middle
of the thirteenth century enumerates are those which psychiatrists of
the present day are insisting on. The symptoms of infection,
considering the brevity of the passage, are very well and clearly
described, and the treatment suggested is the very latest in modern
practice and consists of improvement of nutrition and the diversion of
the insane. With all our supposed advance in knowledge no physician,
even of the twentieth century, could have expressed the whole subject
of insanity any better than Bartholomew did. This paragraph is a
complete refutation of the objections that the Church by its
insistence on diabolical possession as the principal cause of insanity
did a great deal of harm. Bartholomew said:

  "Madness cometh sometime of passions of the soul, as of business and
  of great thoughts, of sorrow and of too great study, and of dread:
  sometimes of the biting of a wood (mad) hound, or some other
  venomous beast; sometimes of melancholy meats, and sometimes of
  drink of strong wine. And as the causes be diverse, the tokens and
  signs be diverse. For some cry and leap and hurt and wound
  themselves and other men, and darken and hide themselves in privy
  and secret places. The medicine of them is, that they be bound, that
  they hurt not themselves and other men. And namely, such shall be
  refreshed, and comforted, and withdrawn from cause and matter of
  dread and busy thoughts. And they must be gladded with instruments
  of music, and some deal be occupied."


{217}

CHAPTER XII

NERVOUS DISEASE

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Religion And Health

Religion And Health

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