Page:The Harveian oration 1896.djvu/23

REVIVAL OF GREEK MEDICINE 19 and his fellow-humanists doubtless thought that if they could return to those uncorrupted springs and present the best works of antiquity in a classical form without barbarous corruptions medicine might go back to the glory of ancient Greece, and Hippocrates and Galen have worthy modern successors. In a certain sense they were right, though the ultimate success of their efforts came in a different form from what they anticipated.

At all events the revival of the Greek medical classics led to a declaration of war against the Arabians. With some enthusiasts it became a sort of crusade in which, strangely enough, Hippocrates and Galen were counted on the Christian side. One fantastic writer, Symphorien Champier of Lyons, imagines that St. Luke, the Evangelist Physician, whose day we commemorate in this meeting, by his intercession with the Almighty secured divine aid for the holy war which was intended to liberate the heroes of Greek medicine from their captivity among the infidels!.

solum Galenum, ut optimum artis medicae authorem, in omnibus se sequuturum pollicita est. Quod quum fecit non exclusit utique Hippo- cratem super cuius scripta ... omnia Galeni opera sunt extructa ’ (in the introduction to Marcellus de Medica- mentis, published in the collection called Medicae Artis Principes, by H. Stephanus, Paris, 1567).

1 Symphonia Galent ad Hippo- cratem, &c., Lyons, 1528 :—‘ Non possum non indolere tantam vecor- diam in nostrae disciplinae profes- soribus, tot seculis viguisse: ut reiectis purgatioribus literis, hoc est Graecis Romanisque, sordidissimas nebulonum quorundam nenias, tan- quam coelitus demissas, excaeperint. Indignum facinus, nullis bobus, nul- lisque victimis expiandum. Iam eo insolentiae ac temeritatis devenerant Arabi principes, ut nobis medicam artem funditus auferre audacissime conarentur; quandoquidem astra

solventes in Graecos et Latinos omnem belli impetum convertebant, multaque millia processerant, cum Deus Opt. Max. (cuius est hominum repente et consilia et animos im- mutare) ut auguror sanctissimi Lucae precibus et orationibus flexus, auxili- arios milites demisit, qui obsidione miseros, Hippocratem, Galenum, Dioscoridem, Paulum Aeginetam, et nostrum Celsum Cornelium, iam de- ditionem cogitantes, eriperent ac liberarent ; idque quanta sit con- fectum diligentia, in confesso est. Hippocrati non pauci auxilio fuere, Galeno ab Arabum principe oppresso strennue adfuit Vicentorum dux [Nicolaus Leonicenus] : praeterea ex Gallia Copus, ex Anglia Linacrus, bone deus! quo studio, qua alacri- tate. Porro Dioscoridi Gallorum virtus ac ferocia, Venetorum pru- dentia, Florentinorum divitiae opem tulerunt. Qua propter factum est, ut disciplinae omnes multo purga-

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