Chapter XLI: Section III

_State of learning_, _and of the medical profession_, _among the Anglo-Saxons_.

Learning during the time now alluded to was at a very low ebb in this Country. “Among the various discouragements, (says _Andrews_) which literature was obliged to encounter in this ill-fated period may be reckoned the extreme scarcity of materials for writing.” A strong proof of which (he adds) “is that many of the MSS. of the 10th and 11th centuries are written on parchment, from which older works (perhaps the Decades of Livy) have been erased.” It was for want of parchment to draw the deeds upon, (as he supposes,) that estates, were then frequently conveyed from one family to another by the ceremony of a turf and a stone, delivered before witnesses, without any written agreement. However that was, England even in those dark times, exhibited some rays of intellectual light, and produced some literary characters that would have done honour to more enlightened ages. _Bede_, in particular, styled _the Venerable_, who flourished in the 8th century, and has been called, _the wise Saxon_, is believed to have comprised, in eight folio volumes, the whole body of knowledge that his age afforded. To him may be added _Egbert_, arch-bishop of York, and his pupil _Alcuin_, both distinguished in their day for extraordinary literary attainments. _Alfred_ and his learned associates appeared in the 9th century, and were the ornaments of that dark age; but the light which they exhibited was not lasting, and they left no successors that were any way worthy of them. In the 10th (and most part of the 11th) century, scarce any man of literature appeared among the English. _Elfric_ is said to have been by far the most remarkable and eminent. He was styled _the grammarian_, from his having written a Latin grammar. Two volumes of homilies, in MS. translated by him from the Latin into the Saxon language, are said to be still extant. Very few beside have in any degree contributed to illuminate the gloom of that dismal period. _Gerbert_, however, who, from a low origin, was advanced to the papal chair in 999, under the name of _Silvester_ II. deserves to be respectfully noticed, as it is to his experience, gained by travel, and a long residence among foreign nations, that our arithmetic is said to owe the use of the Saracen numerals.—But as none of these persons appear to have sprung from Lynn, or its vicinity, no further notice can properly be taken of them in this work; and what has been already said of them and other extraneous matters, was chiefly intended for the purpose of pointing out the probable state of things at Lynn in the meantime, for want of more suitable and appropriate materials.

PHYSIC and SURGERY, during those early ages, were in a most wretched state in this country, and, of course, among the inhabitants of Lynn. Old women were then the chief professors of the medical art; and as they mingled charms and spells with their prescriptions, the patient’s fancy sometimes effected, or, at least, assisted in effecting the cure. As Christianity gained ground, the clergy, having much time on their hands, applied themselves to the study of medicine, but made so little progress, that for a long time, _Holy Water_ seems to have been the prescription to which they chiefly trusted. If holy water were still in use, as a popular, fashionable, or favourite medical prescription, instead of the innumerable patent medicines, and other vile quackeries that now disgrace this ill-fated country, it had been better, no doubt, for the health and constitutions of myriads of our unwary and credulous fellow-subjects. There seems, however, but little prospect of an end to this great and growing evil, while quackery continues to be so convenient and gainful to the state, or to contribute so largely, as it now does, to the revenue of the kingdom. But it is not the only public evil, the prospect of whose extinction appears very distant and hopeless.