This surprising medieval medical belief still shapes how we think about wellness
As familiar notions suggest, medieval medicine was influenced by herbs and humours. But these factors were part of a broader holistic system in which emotion and lifestyle were also considered essential to staying healthy
Judged against the standards of modern medicine, the Middle Ages can seem like a time of ignorance; an era when healthcare was based on crude remedies and superstitions.
In reality, medieval healthcare was built on a broad – but, in its own way, sophisticated – understanding of how the body worked that placed emphasis on a combination of physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Much of this thinking drew on ancient Greek and Roman medical traditions, particularly those associated with Hippocrates and Galen, whose works were preserved and studied throughout the medieval period.
But how did the religion of the Middle Ages factor into this understanding? Indeed, as historian Katherine Harvey explains on the HistoryExtra podcast, many medieval thinkers treated religion and medicine as two parts of one system.
Religion and medicine in the medieval healthcare system
“I think it’s really important that although we see religion and medicine as two different things, they didn’t,” explains Katherine Harvey. “It was very much two overlapping ways of understanding the world and understanding your body.”
Religious practice shaped attitudes towards behaviour – from diet and fasting to sexual intimacy and daily routines – all of which were understood to have direct consequences for physical health. For example, fasting wasn’t only a spiritual discipline, but also believed to regulate digestion and bodily balance, while sexual restraint was associated with notions of conserving vital bodily energies.
Therefore, Harvey says, “it was quite usual for a physician to prescribe both medical and spiritual remedies; to give you a bottle of medicine, but also a charm to use.”
In the later Middle Ages, there was also “a preoccupation with the idea that the body is God’s creation,” Harvey explains. And this had important implications. This imbued maintenance of the body with a moral responsibility, too.
“You’ve got a spiritual duty to look after it,” Harvey says, “as well as a selfish one to try and keep yourself healthy.”
Evidently then, everyday religious practices were deemed to have medical significance.
“They see things like going to church, confessing, or having religious images in your house as things that are good for your soul,” Harvey explains. “They’re good for you spiritually, but they’re also good for your mental health, and therefore your physical health. It all ties up.”
Pilgrimage, too, could be understood in this way. It was both a spiritual journey, and a means of restoring health through movement.
The medieval mind–body connection
Central to medieval medicine was the idea that the body and mind were deeply interconnected; that “your physical, spiritual, and mental health was intertwined,” Harvey says.
While this differs from modern scientific frameworks (particularly in its emphasis on the impact of religious belief on physical health) the underlying principles are distinctly recognisable.
“There’s a lot of evidence that they worried about a lot of the same things that we do,” Harvey notes.
In particular, medieval thinkers believed that emotional states could directly influence physical health – a principle that has become a key tenet of 21st-century wellness. “They worried about things like anger management,” Harvey explains. Anger was believed to heat and dry the body, disrupting its balance and potentially leading to illness.
This concern was rooted in humoral theory, which held that the body contained four humours – blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. The balance of these could be disrupted by emotional as well as physical factors.
Harvey points, for example, to Ælred of Rievaulx, an English Cistercian monk and writer who complained that the pressures of his role (including disrupted sleep and constant responsibility) were contributing to his illness.
“He says that he’s ‘going to die’ if he doesn’t stop doing his job,” she says – a feeling that might be familiar to anyone with corporate stresses today.
“They talk a lot about melancholy. They worry about keeping their minds active in old age,” Harvey says.
The Black Death
Member exclusive | Listen to our six-part podcast series on how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages
Joy as medieval medicine
If negative emotions could harm the body, the belief was also that positive ones could protect it.
“Negative emotions shorten life, whereas joy ‘moistens’ the body,” Harvey explains.
This led to a surprisingly familiar set of recommendations.
“They encourage people to listen to music, to spend time with their friends, to wear nice clothes, read books – all the things that we still like doing.”
However, moderation remained important. It was thought that “you can die of too much joy,” Harvey notes. But in general, cultivating happiness was seen as a form of preventative medicine. “Joy, being happy, is very much good for your health, and the things that make you happy are good for you.”
Courtly culture, festivals and communal gatherings all played a role in sustaining this sense of joy, reinforcing the idea that emotional wellbeing was socially – as well as individually – maintained.
Managing fear in a time of crisis
These ideas became especially significant during periods of widespread crisis, such as during the Black Death of the 14th century.
Specifically, medieval authorities became concerned about the psychological effects of constant exposure to grief.
“They get very worried that the world is very depressing,” Harvey says. The fear was that this overwhelmingly negative emotional climate could make people more vulnerable to illness.
In response, some communities took striking measures.
“There are places where they actually ban mourning garb or funeral bells so as not to frighten people too much.”
While medieval medicine certainly didn’t have access to modern scientific knowledge, it was far from simplistic. It recognised that health depended on a complex interplay of a person’s physical condition, emotional state, lifestyle habits, and spiritual wellbeing.
And while the underlying explanation for this was framed in religious and humoral terms, its crucial insight was that the way we live, think and feel has a profound impact on our health – a centuries-old principle that still chimes with how we try to live today.
Katherine Harvey was speaking to Charlotte Vosper on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.
Authors
James Osborne is a senior content producer at HistoryExtra