MEDICAL WRITERS OF THIRTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND By J. C. RUSSELL CHAPEL HILL, N. C. EDICINE,M like nearly all a forest transgression in 1223.3 In the of the fields of learning in several documents which show him a the Middle Ages, was inter- canon of Lincoln and recipient of national in character and royal favors from 1220 to 1233 he nearly coextensive with the Latin seems not to be cited again as a civilization of the Church. In this physician, but the one instance is field thirteenth century England has enough to distinguish him from a occupied a respectable position. Gen­ contemporary Master Ralph of La- eral histories of medicine have included cock.4 Master Th. de. Ebl. is probably Gilbertus Anglicus, Richard of Wend­ Master Thomas of Ebbesborne (usu­ over, and Bernard Gordon in the list ally Ebleburn in the documents) who of great writers, while other men, such appeared consistently at Salisbury as as Alfredus Anglicus, Guilelmus Angli­ a canon of its cathedral from 1222 cus, and Michael Scot, whose interests to 1246. The manuscript contains were primarily in other sciences, have recipes of a thirteenth century Philip touched medicine at particular points. who may be searched for in the same The lesser writers have hardly been period near Winchester cathedral if sorted out of the great works of bibliog­ we are to expand “ad E. Wint.” to raphy nor the manuscripts searched for “ad ecclesiam Wintoniensem.” additional names. Into this field this article is a tentative step. It represents 11 one part of the field of thirteenth Roger of Lacock was a canon of century writers whose works and lives Lincoln as early as September 26, I have been studying as a unit.1 It 1220;5 his name appearing in a charter gives such information as may be dis­ witness list ahead of several other covered by a layman approaching the canons. Mr. Salter has shown that in subject from the historical side rather the Lincoln charters the canons were than from the medical. arranged by rank and then by senior­ ity.6 Since Roger was still a subdeacon, I a member of the lowest rank, some Of the little known writers upon years later,7 the presence of his name medicine the names of three come ahead of others in the charter of 1220 from a single manuscript in the probably means that he had already British Museum.2 Two may be identi­ been a canon for some time. From fied with considerable certainty with that year until the nineteenth episcopal men of the first half of the thirteenth year of Bishop Hugh (1227-1228) he century and some conjectures are appears frequently as a witness of the possible for the third. Master R. de bishop’s charters.8 The year before Lacoc is almost certainly the Master this, that is in 1226-1227, the bishop Roger de Lacock, medicus, at whose had given him the church of Hale,9 instance the king of England pardoned and as its parson, Roger, fell into a dispute with forty-six persons, appar­ ber 3, 1227 at Salisbury.20 He was ently his parishioners, all named in a present again in chapter at about this letter patent of August 23, 1229.10 time and in the following year con­ On August 3, 1223 Master Roger sented to the election of Robert Bing­ was granted eight furchias from a royal ham as bishop of Salisbury.21 forest, a gift of the king.11 In 1228 on Thomas attested charters of Bishop July 11 the king gave him the church Robert in the first and second years of Bruges12 and on October 4 of the of his episcopate.22 He was in chapter following year the church of Washing­ at Salisbury on February 13, 1230 or borough.13 To this he was admitted 1231,23 and attested a charter of only in 1232-1233.14 These gifts were Master Elias of Dereham at about the followed by three oaks from the forest same time.24 He was in chapter again of Chippenham and three from Melke- in October 19, 1233, witnessed charters sham for his home in Lacock in the of Bishop Robert on February 17, summer of 1229, two deer, damas, 1236, of Roger de Stodley on January from Sherwood forest in the autumn 12, 1240, and again of the bishop on of 1230 and more a year later from November 11, 1243.25 the forests of Rockingham and In his later life Thomas seems to Chippenham.15 have become a man of wealth and a So brilliantly begun, this career of patron of churches. In 1239-40 he episcopal and royal patronage did not presented a candidate to the church last long. On July 21, 1233 the king of Graham.26 Three years later he granted to another the “prebend which gave Colesworth Rectory to Adam de Master Roger of Lacock had in the Percy and in 1245-46 presented Wil­ church of Bruges,” and about the liam, a former vicar of Graham to same time there is a record of another Welby, and another man to Grantham presentation to Washingborough.16 Australis.27 His death occurred before There is a strong presumption that the November 6, 1246, but probably not gifts made to Master Roger were on long before that date.28 account of his medical attainments Thomas’s life thus is connected for and services to Bishop Hugh and many years with Salisbury. He at­ King Henry 111. tested an undated charter of Bishop Peter des Roches of Winchester,29 a hi city with which two other medical In Thomas of Ebbesborne’s first writers seem to have been associated.30 appearance in the documents he is not designated as master; possibly he IV had not attained it by 1222, the date Philip was not among the com­ of the document.17 He was present monest names in use in the thirteenth again in chapter at Salisbury in 1224, century so that we are justified in this time as a master.18 He attended suggesting the name of a Master the first service in the new cathedral Philip of demonstrated connection in 1225 and was in chapter on August with Winchester in the middle of the 15, 1226, holding the prebend of thirteenth century and still say prob­ Rotefen valued at viii marcs and taxed ably rather than possibly. In 1245 half a marc in that year.19 He witnessed Master Philip, rector of the church of a charter of Bishop Richard on Octo­ St. Margaret, seems to have been acting for the bishop of Winchester that rose naturally advanced in the in a suit.31 An earlier bishop, Geoffrey Church. Hugh of Evesham became a at the beginning of the century, had a cardinal, Nicholas of Farnham, bishop clerk named Philip but he seems never of Durham, and John of St. Giles, a to be designated as a master.32 These famous theologian and confidant of are the most promising hints.33 great men. John de Celia who died as abbot of St. Albans was described by v a writer of the monastery as a Priscian Two treatises in a thirteenth cen­ in grammar, an Ovid in poetry, and a tury ms at New College, Oxford, were Galen in medicine.39 While an historical attributed to a Master Henry of compilation, supposedly his, remains Winchester by Bernard in his catalogue as a monument of his grammar, and of 1697.34 Now only the second, the scattered lines show his poetry, no “Phlebotomy” has the name of an medical work is known to exist, al­ author, the title reading, “flomia though this is the most highly praised Henrici.” Bernard may have seen of his accomplishments.40 This abbot, colophons which have since been pbysicus preelectus et index urinarum clipped off or he may have had other incomparabilis predicted his own death information. Upon a second copy of after seeing the condition of his own the “Phlebotomy” occurs the English urine.41 statement, “And of fleubotomye these thyngs sufisyn after Maister Henricus VIII Wuntoniensis.”35 The great reputation of John of St. Giles cannot be tested by exami­ VI nation of his written works since only There are a few other names which one or two remain.42 He evidently was may be those of medical writers of a man of striking personality. He this century. A Master Hugh de combined with it a dramatic flare, Milneburne wrote a “Summa super illustrated perhaps best by his sensa­ Antidotarium Parvum.”36 Nicholas of tional entrance into the Dominican Horsham and Edward Niger were order while preaching upon poverty probably later than the thirteenth at Paris probably about 1231.43 He century.37 In the same ms with that had been a regent in medicine at both of Edward is a piece by a William Montpellier and Paris before this Stafford; several of that name can be event at Paris when he was evidently found in the twelfth and thirteenth interested in theology.44 About 1233 centuries.38 he went to Toulouse to succeed Roland of Cremona as lecturer there.45 VII His career in England has been The remaining writers, that is, the misunderstood because he has been better known men, were famous either confused with a contemporary John on account of their non-medical activi­ of St. Giles who became archdeacon of ties, their general scientific writings, Oxford. The latter, however, is almost or their medical works, and will be never called a master in the many considered in that order.