Історія формування лікарень у Середні століття: ідеологія та економіка

Abstract

The article shows that the creation of public hospitals in the early Middle Ages in Europe was the first time in the history of medicine. It was a consequence of the establishment of Christian values in society regarding caring for those who need help. It has been proven that as the institution of the state medieval church in Western Europe was formed and its organization and teaching departed from evangelical principles, the provision of medical care became its full commitment and was used by it as one of the tools of influence on society. It has been established that equating medieval hospitals with the concept of modern hospitals is fundamentally incorrect and unfounded, because medieval hospitals were almshouses for care, and not actual medical institutions. Such a development was impossible in principle at that time. The Church actually forbade its monks to practice medicine. In addition, the level of medical knowledge of that time about diseases made it impossible for the very appearance of hospitals, where the concepts of diagnosis, methods of dynamic observation and treatment would be recognized and available. The appearance of the first hospitals in the medical sense of the word is not related to the activity of the church, but to the development of city self-government and the departure of university education from the control of the church, which allowed city hospitals to introduce medical technologies and become medical institutions. Hospitals of monastic orders during the time of the Crusades show the influence of function on the structure of such organizations, when, on the one hand, the need to provide assistance to wounded soldiers and knights prompted them to have a medical component in their composition, and on the other hand, their further development became impossible, because the activities of their founders changed: monks the orders turned into feudal military and commercial organizations, far from mercy and compassion. The study of the development of the establishment of hospitals clearly illustrates the close relationship between, on the one hand, the need for proper spiritual development and education of society with its understanding of moral criteria and principles, and on the other, the development of a scientific and technical base based on university education. The evolution of the formation of hospitals illustrates the close relationship between the need for proper spiritual development of society, its understanding of moral criteria and principles, and the development of their scientific and technical base based on university education.