Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/380

 312

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. OCT. w, im

superior clergy, Secular and Regular, could scarcely be called a rash one. The Bene- dictine and Augustinian Orders having been the most important, we may reasonably conclude that what was still nourishing and diffused, in the seventh century, of the teachings of Galen and Celsus, was not, in the ninth and tenth, extinct among comparatively learned communities of Regu- lars. From their point of view, it is probable that there was no real break in the con- tinuity of medical practice, whatever declsnsion may have happened, and cer- tainly did supervene, in the systematic teaching of medical science. Moreover, people slept in churches in order to obtain by dreams the means of recovery from illnesses, just as they had done in the porticoes of the ^E&culapian shrines. Nor has the Church ever absolutely denied the virtue that might be in dreams. But of this presently.

It is the fashion, however, with some to deny the credit of medical study to the mediaeval Benedictines, and to say, Where are their treatises ? and to credit the Secular " School of Salerno " with everything. We might (it seems to me) as well deny them to have been continuators and creators of architecture, and ask, Where are their treatises ? The very eagerness with which the monks of Monte Cassino appear to have welcomed and assisted the School of Salerno bespeaks at least their interest in medicine. Abbot Bassaccio, who ruled nineteen years, and died in 858, is reputed to have written books in which he treated of the use and application of medicaments. His works are said by Pietro Diacono to have been rendered into Latin by a monk of the abbey called Azzo, later a chaplain to the Empress Agnes. Bassaccio was a Frank by birth. Even then, if from tradition, rather than from science proper, the Benedictines at Cassino studied medicine in that dark age, we may without difficulty, I think, take their word for it that the necessities of their monastic life, compelled them to its study and practice ; and that, after about A.D. 1000, almost every large Benedictine house possessed an infirmary as well as a herb- garden. It is of interest to mention here that two altars were erected at Monte Cassino (1015), the one to St. Adalbert, a former monk there, and the other to St. Bartholomew. This shows the Bene- dictine interest in the doings on the Tiber island at the period. But little later, in 1 072, the famous doctor, Constantine of Carthage, himself became a monk in the Abbey, and

remained there (? practising) for fourteen years (' Diet. Hist. Med.,' 1831, 1. ii. 861-2 ; Petr. Diac., ' Vir. 111. Cass.,' 23). He had been secretary to Robert Guiscard. His works were published at Basle in 1536.

In 1088 Roger of Sicily founded an abbey and hospital dedicated to St. Bartholomew in that island, and a second, at Patti, in 1094. There is evidence that relics of the Apostle were highly " active " throughout that century. In 1043 an arm had been brought from Benevento to Venice (perhaps by the same bishop of Eadmer's doubtful story concerning another " arm " and Queen Emma and Canute at Canterbury). It was duly purchased and placed in the church of San Demetrio, in consequence of which (in 1071) this church changed its name to San Bartolommeo. Another arm is in San Paulo fuori le Mura ; and still another in the SS. Appstoli at Rome.

It will be understood, then, clearly, that the cult of this Apostle by our own Norman kings may have naturally ensued from that of their Sicilian kinsmen (cf. Freeman, 'William Rufus,' vol. i. pp. 609-10).

Let me, in conclusion, point out that the use of cocks and hens as offerings, as at Otford, mentioned by MB. HESKETH, had its parallel at the Wells of St. Thecla, at Llan- degla in Denbighshire, where the sick, according to sex, offered a cock or a hen. The bird was carried in a cage around the wells, and thence into the cemetery. The invalid then entered the church, and laid himself under the Communion table, with a Bible on his, or her, forehead, and there slept, if possible, until morning. Here, then, was the veritable thing the incubatio of the ^Esculapian cult. This British saint and martyr (St. Teriaca of William of Worcester) was especially resorted to there by the Epileptic (" Clwyf Tecla " is " Tecla's disease ") and for the cure of skin complaints (i.e., the sulphur waters) at the other Llan- degley, in Radnorshire.

ST. CLAIB BADDELEY.

At 9 S. ii. 262 MB. ST. CLAIB BADDELEY says :

"The Benedictines settled on this island [in

the Tiber] hard by the church [of San Bartolommeo] as 'Bene Fratelli,' and organized a hospital founded by San Giovanni Calabita, who died in 1031, only thirty years later than the death of Otho."

St. John the Calybite died in the fifth century, and it is thought by some that the church dedicated to him was built by Peter, Bishop of Porto (484), on the site of the hut (KaAv) which he inhabited. A