The Early Medieval ‘Medicus’, the Saint—and the Enchanter

SUMMARY

Drawing primarily upon Merovingian hagiography of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, and especially upon the works of Gregory of Tours, the article puts the case for the importance of sources of this kind to social history. The early saints' lives, moreover, are preoccupied with healing and they provide information about the doctor in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages not easily obtainable by other means They add to our factual knowledge of the techniques of medical practice They also attribute to the doctor a set place in a particular social hierarchy In that he operates only in the sphere of the natural, such sources argue, the early medieval ‘medicus’ cannot aspire to the supernatural powers of the saint He is used as a foil in order to throw these powers into relief He can, on the other hand, assist the Christian saint, and the guardians of his shrine, in their constant competition for healing power with the supernatural opposition, the non-Christian witch doctors and enchanters of the place and period Socially, the doctor emerges as the occupant of a middle position, one a little below the saint but a long way above the enchanter.

This picture is biased, and may be seen as a reaction to a world in which the realities are reversed, one in which both doctor and enchanter command in fact a greater following than saints It does, however, perform signal services for historians of medicine It brings the enchanter more firmly to their attention than is customary and it suggests that saints and enchanters, differently placed perhaps, should be looked to in attempts to assess the social positions of later ‘media’