lves to
other-worldliness and had taken vows of poverty, chastity and
obedience for that purpose, it was sincerely felt that they should not
engage in gainful occupations and professional work that distracted
them from the religious profession which they had taken up. Hence
these decrees.

The only way to make perfectly clear the meaning of these decrees in
their proper place in history both as regards education in general and
medical education, is to give the text of the documents in the
accompanying translation. I owe the text of them to Father Corbett of
the Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo at Overbrook, Pa., who supplied
me with the similar documents for the first edition of this work. The
translations are made from the recognized authoritative edition of the
decrees of the Church councils and synods issued at Paris in 1671, the
title page of which reads as follows: "Sacrosancta concilia ad regiam
editionem exacta quae nunc quarta parte prodit auctior studio Philip.
Labaei et Gab. Cossartii, Soc. Jesu Prebyterorum, Tomus Decimus,
1053--1197, Lutetiae Parisiorum 1671." [Footnote 49]

[Footnote 49: I feel that I should say that when there was question of
publishing these documents I consulted Dr. Garrison, the Assistant
Librarian of the Surgeon General's Library at Washington and the
author of the best history or medicine in English, as to the Church
decrees that ought to be published in their entirety in order to make
their meaning perfectly clear. I have followed the list suggested by
him.]

_The Council of Rheims held under Pope Innocent II, A.D. 1131,_ Canon
VI, forbidding monks or regular canons to study law or medicine for
the sake of gain.

{426}

"An evil custom as we consider it and detestable has grown up by
which monks and regular canons after having received the habit and
made their profession, spurning the rule of their blessed masters
Benedict and Augustine, learn secular law and medicine for the sake
of temporal gain. Inflamed by the fire of avarice they make
themselves the patrons of causes [that is the attorneys of legal
proceedings] and when they ought to be devoting themselves to
psalmody and hymns, confiding in the support of a fine voice and the
variety of their pleas, they confound justice and injustice, right
and wrong. Imperial constitutions attest that it is absurd, nay even
an opprobrium, for members of the clerical order to wish to be
skilled in forensic dis