The Barber Surgeons of Bristol

cathedrals. At that 'time the priests were with few exceptions the only people who could read Latin and this precluded others from access to such medical texts as were available. Salerno was the only secular medical centre, but Montpelier was to follow in the next century. Thus any medical treatment which was available was performed by the priests, especially those who were in the monasteries. In the tweith century the authorises of the Church became alarmed at the increasing medical activities of the priests, particularly those in higher orders where any practice of surgery might 1 ead to the shedding of blood, and a priest who had blood on his hands was officially debarred from the higher offices of the clerical heirarchy. This state of affairs led to a series of enactments. The Council of Rheims in 1134 prevented the presence of priests and monks at public lectures on medicine. At the Council of Tours in 1163 Pope Alexander III decreed that clergy were not to undertake any surgery, and finally in 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council disallowed all priests, deacons or subdeacons -from the practice of surgery under penalty of excommunication, and a few years later Pope Honorius III prohibited them from the practice of medicine. Thus !it came about that treatment was only carried out in. the monasteries by those in lower orders, and as the barbers were accustomed to the use of the razor, they were the people who carried out any surgical treatment, perhaps under the direction of the priests. As time went on the knowledge of surgery which was then available spread from the monasteries to the barbers outside. It was particularly in time of war that there was a demand for the services of those who had experience in the treatment of wounds, thus the barbers were called upon to accompany the armies. Their services were also required at tournaments where often severe wounds were inflicted, and this introduced them to the more aristocratic members of the community who took part in such events, iln fact the first mention of a King's surgeon in England is in. 1235 when Master William, the King's Surgeon, was presented to the living of a church in the Diocese of Lincoln, thus indicating that he was in holy orders, and the edicts of the Church of Rome were not being strictly enforced .in the country. It was during the thirteenth century that trade gilds first became a feature of cities in England, and Bristol, with 'its population at (that time only second to London,