centuries and a half in which ecclesiastical authorities are said to
have prevented or discouraged its development. From this it will be
seen very clearly that the nearer to Rome the {53} medical schools
were, the more dissection was done in them; that dissection was most
common in Rome, at least during the latter part of this period; that
the golden age of anatomy developed most luxuriantly in Bologna when
that was a Papal city, and in Rome itself; and that in general the
Popes must be looked upon as having fostered and patronized the
medical sciences and anatomy in every possible way, while there is not
the slightest hint anywhere to be found of the ecclesiastical
opposition that is supposed to have dominated these centuries of
medical history.

In concluding this chapter it has seemed worth while to trace the
origin of the misinterpretation of Pope Boniface's decretal, which
makes it forbid dissection for anatomical purposes as well as the
cutting up and boiling of bodies in order to facilitate their removal
for long distances for burial. Prof. White quotes with great
confidence in the matter the Benedictine Literary History of France as
his authority, which he declares to be a Catholic authority. Under
ordinary circumstances, this would be quite sufficient to establish
the fact that such a misinterpretation must have taken place, for the
Benedictines were extremely careful in such matters and were not
likely to admit an assertion of this kind, unless they had good
foundation for it. The quotation on which Prof. White depends for his
declarations in the matter is found in the Sixteenth Volume of the
Histoire Litteraire de la France, which runs as follows:

"But what was to retard still more (than the prohibition of surgery
to the clergy mentioned in the preceding paragraph) was the very
ancient prejudice which opposed anatomical dissection as
sacrilegious. By a decree inserted in Le Sexte, Boniface VIII.
forbade the boiling {54} of bodies in order to obtain skeletons.
Anatomists were obliged to go back to Galen for information, and
could not study the human body directly, and consequently could not
advance the human science of bodily health and therapeutics."

Had this been written by the Benedictines, there would have been every
reason to think that though Boniface's decretal itself did not forbid
dissection it had unfortunately been so misinterpreted. While the
Histoire Litteraire de la France, h