Page 46 - Year 10 Knowledge Organiser

History: Medicine Through Time (Medieval): 1 of 5

There was little scientific knowledge in medieval England as medicine was dominated by the Church, who used the
ancient texts of Hippocrates and Galen to explain why people caught diseases. People believed God could send
disease as a punishment for sinful behaviour. Only in times of terrible disease such as during the Black Death, did
people start to question the authority of the Church on matters of medicine

Work and harvests
90 per cent of people worked as farmers to grow the food everyone needed. This was hard, back-breaking
work. This constant hard work meant there was little time for education or reading. There were years when
poor harvests meant that people went hungry.

Education
The Church controlled education, especially in the universities where physicians were
trained. By the fifteenth century up to 50 per cent of people in large towns could
read. The books most commonly read were prayer books and other religious books.

Communication
Printing came to England in the 1470s but until then books had to be written out by hand.
This meant there were not many books and knowledge was slow to spread.