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Medicine And Health Care In Later Medieval Europe: Hospitals, Public Health,, And Minority Medical Practitioners In English And German Cities, 1250-1450, Anna Terry

Inquiry: The University of Arkansas Undergraduate Research Journal

Hospitals and individual caregivers helped meet the physical and psychological needs of medieval people, just as they do today. My overall objective is to explain social and individual responses to disease within the context of Christian theology and the urban community, focusing on England and Germany in the period between 1250 and 1450. First I investigate social responses to disease, including hospitals and public health ordinances. Christianity mandated the care of the afflicted, yet physical and mental illness was associated with sin and divine punishment. Urban authorities often attempted to deal with plague outbreaks by imposing quarantines and strict regulations …