uietly.

After the Reformation, two contests shaped themselves in the matter of
exorcisms. The Protestants and the Roman Catholics vied with each
other in the power, rapidity, and duration of the exorcisms. Both put
forth miraculous claims, and with as much energy denied the power of
the other. They agreed in one thing, and that was the erroneous
position and teaching of the physicians. This, however, was but a
continuation of that rivalry between the advancement of science and
the conservation of theology, which is as old as history. In our
examination of the influence of Christianity upon mental healing, it
may be well for us to glance at the discouraging attitude of
Christianity toward medicine.[16]

The usurpation of healing by the church, which was a most serious
drawback to the therapeutic art, will be traced in the following
chapters; there are, however, some other ways in which the church
retarded the work of physicians. Chief among these was the theory
propagated by Christians that it was unlawful to meddle with the
bodies of the dead. This theory came down from ancient times, but was
eagerly accepted by the church, principally on account of the doctrine
of the bodily resurrection. In addition to this, surgery was forbidden
because the Church of Rome adopted the maxim that "the church abhors
the shedding of blood." A recent English historian has remarked that
of all organizations in human history, the Church of Rome has caused
the spilling of most innocent blood, but it refused to allow the
surgeons to spill a drop.

Monks were prohibited the practice of surgery in 1248, and by
subsequent councils, and all dissections were considered sacrilege.
Surgery was considered dishonorable until the fifteenth or sixteenth
centuries. The use of medicine was also discouraged. Down through the
centuries a few churchmen and many others, especially Jews and Arabs,
took up the study. The church authorities did everything possible to
thwart it. Supernatural means were so abundant that the use of drugs
was not only irreligious but superfluous. Monks who took medicine were
punished, and physicians in the thirteenth century could not treat
patients without calling in ecclesiastical advice.

We are told that in the reign of Philip II of Spain a famous Spanish
doctor was actually condemned by the Inquisition to be burnt for
having performed a surgical operation, and it was only by royal favor
that he was permitted instead to ex