's similar volume came to replace it, but that was
not until well on in the seventeenth century. Simon was greatly
encouraged in this work by Popes Nicholas IV. and Boniface VIII., to
both of whom he was body physician and at the same time an intimate
friend.

The custom of having for medical attendant one of the leading
physicians of the day, if not actually the most prominent medical
scientist of the time, which had obtained at Rome during the
thirteenth century, was maintained at Avignon during the
three-quarters of a {210} century in which the Papal See had its seat
there. Just who the regular medical attendant of Clement V., the first
of the Avignon Popes, was is not very sure. When he became seriously
ill toward the end of his life, however, Arnold of Villanova, one of
the professors of physic at Paris and probably the most distinguished
living physician of the time, was summoned in consultation, and began
his journey down to Avignon. This summons attracted widespread
attention, which was still further emphasized by the fact that Arnold
of Villanova died on the journey. It is not difficult to appreciate
even at this distance of time how much weight the summoning of a
physician from a long distance to attend His Holiness would have on
the minds of the people, and how much it would tend to call their
attention to the important medical school from which the great man
came. People generally, who heard the facts, would want at least to
have in attendance on them, if possible, a physician who had been
graduated at the school from which Arnold of Villanova was summoned on
his important medical mission. How much this would mean for the
encouragement of scientific medicine as it was developing at the
University of Paris can scarcely be overestimated.

The distinct tendency of the Popes to keep in touch with the best men
in medicine and surgery in their time is well illustrated by the case
of Guy de Chauliac. This great French surgeon and professor at the
University of Montpelier is hailed by the modern medical world as the
Father of Modern Surgery. There is no doubt at all of his intensely
modern character as a teacher, nor of his enterprise as a progressive
surgeon. Few men have done more for advance in medicine, and his name
is {211} stamped on a number of original ideas that have never been
eclipsed in surgery. After studying anatomy very faithfully,
especially by means of dissections, in Italy, where he tells us that