DID HEALTH AND MEDICINE GET
WORSE IN KENT IN THE MIDDLE AGES?

The army did not return and the already disintegrating Roman way of life continued until many of the features of the Roman Empire disappeared altogether.

Towns were abandoned; the stone buildings collapsed; public baths could not be kept open; water supplies and sewage systems stopped working and many of the services like training doctors stopped. This meant that at the beginning of the Middle Ages things were worse than they had been during Roman times in Kent.

Following this rapid decline there was a gradual recovery until the end of the Middle Ages when some of the skills and knowledge of the Roman were restored. For example, the standard books on medicine by the Roman author Galen were once again used regularly by doctors. The changes during this time can be seen in the story of the growth of Canterbury during the Middle Ages.

When the Roman Empire collapsed Britain was split into a number of small kingdoms. Kent became a kingdom ruled by the Eskings until it was taken over by the Mercians and became part of the Kingdom of Wessex in 825AD.

These changes affected the health of the people of Kent and changed the understanding and treatments that were used in medicine.

Gradually the education and learning was restored by the Christian Church which had one of its main centres in Canterbury. Missionaries set up monasteries throughout the Kingdom of Kent. St Augustines Abbey in Canterbury was one of the largest in England. More people could read and some monasteries trained doctors.

How did people help themselves?
In ordinary homes people used their own remedies. Many people were superstitious and believed that ill health was caused by God or the devil.

Although the Church encouraged learning it also stopped research on the human body by banning dissection. This meant that doctors could not find out about how the body worked or the effect that medicines had on it.

At the same time the Church told people what to believe, often medical ideas were checked in the Bible rather than through examining the body. The Church believed that the theory of the four humours explained the causes of disease and ill health. This is why the study of Galen was encouraged and supported by the Church later in the Middle ages.

The church also believed it was its duty to help the sick and poor and in the later Middle Ages in many of the towns of Kent hospitals were built.