health and medicine
health and medicine in the Middle Ages is dominated by religion. Sickness is believed to be a punishment from God from sin committed and the only way to cure someone is to pray for their forgiveness. Doctors are usually priests or other religious scholars. The patients are given food and comforted by other religious staff, little else is done about their illness. Traditional cures, using herbal remedies and potions are seen as witch craft and are outlawed by the church. Laws state that only trained and registed people can practice medicine. Schools and universities now begin to educate wealthy individuals in religion, the arts, law and medicine. Genurally men, and occasionally a few women, are trained and allowed to become physicians. As universities develop more and more came from non religious backgrounds and eventually it was not necessary to be a cleric to practice medicine. There isn't a lot of surgery that takes place in the Middle Ages, things like broken bones are fixed, replacing dislocations and blinding wounds are relatively common.