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 HOSPITALS

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HOSPITALS

to nurse the wretched sufferers wasted with poverty and disease" (Ep. LXXVII, "Ad Oceanum, de morte Fabiola;", P. L., XXII, 094). About tlie same time, the Roman senator Pammachius founded a xenodo- chium at Porto which St. Jerome praises in his letter on the death of PauHna, wife of Pammachius (Ep. LXVI, P. L., XXII, 645). According to De Rossi, the fountlations of this structure were unearthed by Prince Torlonia (" Bull, di Arch. Christ.", 1860, pp. 50, 99). Pope Symmachus (498-514) built hospitals in connexion with the churches of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Lawrence (Lib. Pontif. I, no. 53, p. 263. Dur- ing the pontificate of Vigilius (537-555) Belisarius foimded a xenodochium in the Via Lata at Rome (Lib. Pontif, 1. c. 296). Pelagius II (578-590) con- verted his dwelling into a refuge for the poor and aged. Stephen II (752-757) restored four ancient xcnodochia, and added three others. It was not only in countries that retained the traditions of pagan culture and civilization that Christianity exerted its beneficent influence; the same spirit of charity ap- pears wherever the Christian Faith is spread among the fierce and uncultured peoples just emerging from barbarism.

The first establishment in France dates from the sixth century, when the pious King Childebert and his spouse founded a xenodochium at Lyons, which was approved by the Fifth Council of Orleans (549). Other foimdations were those of Brunehaut, wife of King Sigibert, at Autun (close of sLxth century) ; of St. Radegonda, wife of Clotaire, at Athis, near Paris; of Dagobert I (022-038), at Paris; of Caesarius and his sister St. Cajsaria at Aries (542); and the hospice to which Hincmar of Reims (800-882) as- signed consideralile revenues. Regarding the origin of the institution later known as the Hotel-Dieu, at Paris, there is no little divergence of opinion. It has been attributed to Lantlry, Bishop of Paris; Hiiser (IV, 28) places it in 060, De G^rando (IV, 248) in 800. According to Lallemand (II, 184) it is first mentioned in 829 (cf. Coyecque, " L'Hotel-Dieu de Paris au Moyen Age", I, 20). .'\s the name indicates, it be- longs to that group of institutions which grew up in connexion with the cathedral or with the principal church of each large city and for which no precise date can be assigned. The same imcertainty prevails in regard to other foundations such as the hospitalia ScnlhoTum, established on the Continent by Irish monks, which had fallen into decay and which the Council of Meaux (845) ordered to be restored. In Spain the most important institution for the care of the sick was that founded in 580 by Bishop Masona at Augusta Emerita (Merida), a town in the Province of Badajoz. From the account given by Paul the Deacon we learn that the Ijishop entlowed this hospital with large revenues, supplied it with physicians and nurses, and gave orders that wherever they found a sick man, "slave or free, Christian or Jew", they should bring him in their arms to the hospital and provide him with bed and proper nourishment (cihos delicatos eosque prwparatos). See F16rez, "Espaiia Sagrada", XIII, 539; Heusinger, "Ein Beitrag", etc. in "Janus", 1846, I.

Middle .\ges. — During the period of decline and corruption which culminated under Charles Martel the hospitals, like other ecclesiastical institutions, suffered consideraljly. Charlemagne, therefore, along with his other reforms, made wise provision for the care of the sick by decreeing that those hospitals which had been well conducted and had fallen into decay should be restored in accordance with the needs of the time (Capit. duplex, 803, c. iii). He further ordered that a hospital should be attached to each cathedral and monastery. Hincmar in his "Capitula ad pres- byteros" (Harduin, V, .392) exhorts his clergy to supply the needs of the sick and the poor. Notwith- standing these measures, there followed, after Charle-

magne's death (814), another period of decadence marked by widespread abuse and disorder. The hospitals suffered in various ways, especially through the loss of their revenues which were confiscated or diverted to other purposes. In a letter to Louis the Pious written about 822, Victor, Bishop of Chur, complains that the hospitals were destroyed. But even under these unfavourable conditions many of the bishops were distinguished by their zeal and charity, among them An.sgar (q. v.). Archbishop of Hamburg (d. 865), who founded a hospital in Bremen which he visited daily. During the tenth century the monas- teries became a dominant factor in hospital work. The famous Benedictine Abbey of Cluny, founded in 910, set the example which was widely imitated througho\it France and Germany. Besides its in- firmary for the religious, each monastery had a hos- pital {hospitale pauperum, or eleemofit/naria) in which externs were cared for. These were in charge of the eleemosynarms, whose duties, carefully prescribed by the rule, included every sort of service that the visitor or patient could require. As he was also obliged to seek out the sick and needy in the neighbour- hood, each monastery became a centre for the relief of suffering. Among the monasteries notable in this respect were those of the Benedictines at Corbie in Picardy, Hirschau, Braunweiler, Deutz, Ilsenburg, Liesborn, Prum, and Fulda; those of the Cistercians at .'^rnsberg, Baumgarten, Eberbach, Himmenrode, Herrnalb, Volkenrode, and Walkenried. No less efficient was the work done by the diocesan clergy in accordance with the disciplinary enactments of the councils of Aachen (817, 836), which prescribed that a hospital should be maintained in connexion with each collegiate church. The canons were obliged to contribute towards the support of the hospital, and one of their number had charge of the inmates. As these hospitals were located in cities, more numerous demands were made upon them than upon those attached to the monasteries. In this movement the bishop naturally took the lead, hence the hospitals founded by Heribert (d. 1021) in Cologne, Godard (d. 1038) in Hildesheim, Conrad (d. 975) in Constance, and Ulrich (d. 973) in Augsliurg. But similar provision was made by the other churches; thus at Trier the hospitals of St. Maximin, St. Matthew, St. Simeon, and St. James took their names from the churches to which they were attached. During the period 1207- 1577 no less than one hundred and fifty-nve hospitals were founded in Germany (Virchow in "Gesch. Ab- handl.", II).

The Hospital Orders. — The establishment of con- fraternities and religious orders for the purpose of ministering to the sick is one of the most important phases in this whole development. The first of these appeared at Siena towards the end of the ninth cen- tury, when Soror (d. 898) founded the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala and drew up its rides. The management was largely in the hands of the citizens, though subject to the bishop's control until 1194, when Celestine III exempted it from episcopal juris- diction. Similar institutions, for the most part governed by the Rule of St. Augustine, sprang up in all parts of Italy; but Ijy the beginning of the thir- teenth century they had passed from the bishop's control to that of the magistrate. In the northern countries — Belgium, France, and Germany — the Beguines and Beghards (q. v.), established in the latter part of the twelfth century, included in their charitable work the care of the sick. St. Elizabeth of Hungary founded two hospitals at Eisenach and a third on the Wartburg. The origin and work of the Alexians and Antonines have been described in the articles Alexi.\ns and Anthony, Saint, Orders of, sub-title Antonines. But the most important of the orflers established during this period was that of the Holy Ghost. About the middle of the twelfth cen-