all
the physical sciences, it may seem utterly inexplicable to any
fair-minded person that the tradition of the opposition of the Popes
to science and scientific educational development should have
apparently become a commonplace in history. This will not be a
surprise, however, to those who know how perversive and influential
has been the Protestant tradition which from the beginning of the
sixteenth century has devoted itself to blackening the reputation of
the Church, the Popes, and Catholic ecclesiastics generally. Nowhere
is this more true than in history as written for English-speaking
people. Those who left the old Church and their immediate descendants,
justified their {247} withdrawal to themselves as well as others, by
taking every possible excuse and inventing every possible pretext, to
show how unworthy of their continued allegiance the old Church had
been. The point of view thus assumed was taken quite seriously by
succeeding generations, until at length a whole body of historical
traditions, utterly unfounded in fact, accumulated, especially in
England, where it must be remembered that for several centuries
Catholics were not in a position to impugn and eradicate it. This
unfortunate state of affairs, and not real opposition on the part of
the Popes to science, is the source of the tradition with regard to
the supposed opposition between the Church and science.

{248}

THE FOUNDATION OF CITY HOSPITALS.

Probably the most important work that the Popes did for medical
science in the Middle Ages was their encouragement of the development
of a hospital system throughout Christianity. The story of this
movement is not only interesting because it represents a coordination
of social effort for the relief of suffering humanity, but also
because it represents the provision of opportunities for the study of
disease and the skilled care of the ailing such as can come in no
other way. Those who are familiar with the history of medicine, and
especially of surgery, know that a great period of progress in these
departments came during the thirteenth century. The next two centuries
indeed represent an epoch of surgical advance such as was probably
never surpassed and only equalled by the last century. This seems much
to say of a medieval century 700 years ago, but our chapter on surgery
will, I think, amply justify the assertion. The reasons for this great
development in surgical knowledge are properly