Relics

In faith healing, relics were often important to the process, and if
a possession that was thought to have belonged to a saint seemed
to cure effectively, then myths about the objects grew.

Religious Healing

Medical knowledge of the day was inadequate for solving many
health problems, so healing through prayer and divination seemed
like a logical option. Since physicians and healers could be expensive
and were not available in some communities, faith healing
offered advantages. Anyone could pray for help at any time, and
every community had religious leaders to whom they could turn
for this type of healing.

Treatment: Popular Medicines

Medicines were used by both empirics and university-trained doctors as part of most treatments. Medications were compounded by the medical healer or physician, or later on, by the local pharmacist
from ingredients kept in an apothecary. Trial and error was very much a part of the treatment process. The results were mixed, ranging from effective (there was some knowledge of good pain killers and laxatives) to harmless (similar to taking a sugar pill with possible improvement from the psychological expectation
of getting better) to dangerous (some remedies—or their dosages— were actually poisonous)

Early Scientists

Albertus Magnus (ca. 1200–80) was a priest born in Germany,
who was educated at Padua and went on to become a fine teacher
in Paris. While a certain degree of science had been used during
the Roman Empire, Albertus was the first European to use the
scientific method. He built his theories on Aristotle and added
to these the idea that there could be the possibility of chemical
change. The church ultimately canonized him as a patron saint
of scientists.

Other Healers: Apothecaries

Healers tended to rely on herbs and common ingredients that
they could grow or easily gather. More advanced medical professionals
often requested ingredients that had to be imported,
and for which they turned to apothecaries, the forerunner of
today’s pharmacist. Apothecaries always maintained full stocks
of the more popular herbal cures and spices, such as saffron,
"background made him attractive enough that he was invited
to base himself in Italy at the Schola Medica Salernitana
(Salerno). Many of the works of Greek and Roman philosophers
and physicians, including Galen and Hippocrates, had
been preserved by the Islamic countries and translated into
Arabic.

“The Articella” as a Basis for University Teaching

The Eastern Roman Empire preserved a good number of medical texts from Greek and Roman times, where they had been rewritten in Arabic in order to make them more widely available throughout the Islamic Empire.

The Influence of Religion on Medicine

Perhaps because the medical treatments that were attempted in
the early Middle Ages were so ineffective, medieval people began
to look for new answers. Over time, many healers concluded that
disease was destiny or was punishment for a transgression of the
patient’s.