The most brilliant period in the history of the medical school of Montpellier was that of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Its fame was sounded throughout the world. From all parts invalids went to Montpellier to seek its famous physicians. King John of Bohemia, and the Bishop of Hereford, were of the number. DIVORCE OF MEDICINE FROM SURGERY. Surgery became separated from medicine in Alexandria, but it was not until the middle of the twelfth century that the ecclesiastics were restrained from undertaking any bloody operations. The universities rejected surgery under the pretext, “_ecclesia abhorret a sanguine_” (the church abhors the shedding of blood). It is therefore to this epoch, as Mr. Cooper says,[736] that we must refer the true separation of medicine from surgery; the latter was entirely abandoned to the ignorant laity. At the Council of Tours, A.D. 1163, the practice of surgery was denounced as unfit for the hands of priests and men of literature, the consequence being that the surgeon became little better than a sort of professional servant to the physician, the latter not only having the sole privilege of prescribing internal medicines, but even that of judging and directing when surgical operations should be performed. Then the subordinate surgeon was only called upon to execute with his knife, or his hand, duties which the more exalted physician did not choose to undertake; and, in fact, he visited the patient, did what was required to be done, and took his leave of the case, altogether under the orders of his master.[737] JOHN OF SALISBURY, one of the most learned men of the twelfth century, gives an account of the state of medicine in that period, which is very suggestive. “The professors of the theory of medicine are very communicative; they will tell you all they know, and, perhaps, out of their great kindness a little more. From them you may learn the nature of all things, the causes of sickness and of health, how to banish the one and how to preserve the other; for they can do both at pleasure. They will describe to you minutely the origin, the beginning, the progress, and the cure of all diseases. In a word, when I hear them harangue, I am charmed; I think them not inferior to Mercury or Æsculapius, and almost persuade myself that they can raise the dead. There is only one thing that makes me hesitate. Their theories are as directly opposite to one another as light and darkness. When I reflect on this, I am a little staggered. Two contradictory propositions cannot both be true. But what shall I say of the practical physicians? I must say nothing amiss of them. It pleaseth God, for the punishment of my sins, to suffer me to fall too frequently into their hands. They must be soothed, and not exasperated. That I may not be treated roughly in my next illness, I dare hardly allow myself to think in secret what others speak aloud.”