welcome to this rapid revision video on medieval prevention of disease that's right prevention stopping it happening in the first place rather than trying to treat it once it had I've got a separate video on the treatments just like when we looked at the causes of disease that were believed in medieval times this can be divided between the Supernatural and the natural as with both the theories of the cause of disease and the treatments of disease people try to prevent illness in both natural and Supernatural ways here Supernatural literally means Beyond nature these theories are often spiritual or religious and rely on an element of Faith or maybe just the belief in spirits natural theories on the other hand were ideas based upon what could be observed in the real world or just simple Common Sense these are often more scientific but they were not always correct if the cause was believed to be Supernatural the method of prevention usually was too and the same alert applied to Natural theories we're going to kick off by looking at some religious prevention methods there's going to be quite a lot of information on this screen so you might want to pause it at the end and make your own notes at your own pace but let's go through it God's actions and punishments are often used to explain Misfortune and that included disease some religious actions were intended to treat disease but we're going to focus here on prevention prayer just like the treatments this was used to ward off disease and to show faith in God to keep a person well or one of their friends prayers might be offered to a particular Saint associated with the disease there was also confessing sins this was done to try and gain God's forgiveness and to avoid punishment with disease and also there were indulgences and tithes those who could afford to would make offerings to the church in both property and or money although paid the tithe which was a 10 percent tax on the income or produce that people produced this was often undone to get an easier path into heaven but it was believed to keep God from punishing the faithful too or possibly to gain forgiveness for the sinful a really specific example of a religious pain prevention though is the flagellants and you can see these pictured at the top of the screen here at times of Crisis such as in the Black Death people believe that whipping themselves publicly might show God how sorry they were and how they were suffering for the world's sins in the hope of avoiding the plague which they judge to be God's punishment these are all quite Christian ideas but we're going to look more General generally at the idea of spiritual prevention next spiritual prevention was often Christian too but actually sometimes it harked back to much more ancient ideas which can seem a little bit more mysterious to us but let's have a look at some examples the church was Keen to discourage some spiritual ideas which is which did not fit into the mainstream Church teachings but many peoples and communities clung to other spiritual ideas which might have been thousands of years old many of these might have had their origins in much more ancient times even in the Roman period or perhaps even in pre-history we can't really be sure with a lot of them one of these was charms and amulets these might be worn openly or hidden for good luck and to ward off evil a possible example of this can be seen in the top also we have witch's marks an example can be seen in the middle these were geometric patterns which might be carved into stone or wooden beams these were thought to ward off curses and evil spirits some can still be found in medieval houses or even occasionally in churches which is interesting given that they're not particularly Christian in their character a friend of mine actually has an old medieval house which is converted from a long house and they still have a carved wooden witch's post right next to where the fireplace used to be astrology is another idea belief in astrology influence people's behavior and this Behavior was believed to be able to prevent disease even Physicians might consult a star chart one giving Health advice or deciding a treatment so something that was considered a spiritual or Supernatural idea back then was actually considered pseudoscientific at the time but what about natural preventions here are some ideas and remember although they might seem like Common Sense they're rarely correct natural or rational prevention was often intended to either avoid miasma or to keep the humors in balance Physicians would attempt to balance the humans this might include the use of galen's theory of opposites bloodletting based upon phlebotomy charts was not just used as a treatment healthy people would be voluntarily bled in the belief that it kept them well as well perhaps on a weekly basis sweet smells as well were also used for prevention fear of bad air or miasmas LED people to Value sweet or strong smells to drive away the bad air smoke from fires did this as did carrying flowers or sweet herbs to keep the air swelling better people wore a pomender on the Belt one is pictured here or a locket filled with strong Pleasant smelling herbs there were other ideas too some prevention was simply common sense like basic hygiene people understood the importance of hygiene even if they didn't know about why dirt caused disease there were Hefty fines for littering the streets in many English towns and foul smelling rubbish and dung was raked up people took care to keep floors swept at home too bathing and sweating despite the myth bathing was actually common in medieval times and public baths like the one pictured were reasonably common too people understood the importance of personal hygiene and believed that bathing discouraged harmful miasmas and sweating helped to balance the humors but there's another example too the so-called regimen sanitatus which might be considered both a religious and natural idea the regiment sanitatus was a rule of clean living and these were the main rules people were advised to take moderate exercise to not overeat to adjust their diet to the amount of exercise that they did and to make sure that they got enough sleep but at the same time not too much people were also encouraged to avoid stress and to keep clean with regular bathing pretty sure we'd recognize most of those things as good examples of self-care even today they also encouraged to breathe clean Eastern or Northern Air this was linked to the theory of miasma they're encouraged to live away from their animals and not too close to the ground floor it's worth bearing in mind that many medieval long houses of peasants would house the animals and the people within one large room admittedly they're trying to keep the animals down one end but it was hardly a healthy arrangement people were also told to avoid excessive cold heat dryness or humidity have a think about that four different things there yep it's linked to the theory of the four humors and trying to keep them in balance they were told to stay on friendly terms with their neighbors and also not to have too much sex both of which may have been linked to the idea of avoiding sin though also told to avoid barking dogs drunks and bandits since these can cause anxiety and therefore disease they might just be a good idea anyway so this is a mixture of both the religious and natural but it's mostly about the natural and a lot of it is just good advice even today some final points then medieval understanding of the cause of disease divided between the Supernatural and the natural prevention follow the same logic Supernatural prevention was largely Christian in the British Isles and was focused on prayer confession and pain for indulgences or paying the tithe a little bit like bribing the church and don't forget the specific example of the flagellants who tried to punish themselves so that God would not punish them in return also more traditional spiritual ideas like amulets charms and witch marks tried to keep people safe from evil spirits and star charts and astrology were basically considered scientific at the time but we'd understand them as Supernatural natural prevention followed the following bloodletting was used to try and keep people healthy rather than just as a treatment avoiding miasmas was considered important for example by carrying a pomender of fresh herbs hygiene and cleaning the home and Street wasn't just good common sense it also worked to keep people healthy although they didn't know how bathing and personal hygiene were both considered very important and the regimen sanitartis provided a framework of rules for healthy living while some ideas would have been of little use many of the natural preventions were Common Sense ideas for well-being even if people didn't always understand the underlying reason why that's the end of this rapid revision video I hope it's been helpful to you and if it has please drop the video a like And subscribe to the channel for more but that's all for now I'll see you another time goodbye