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‘A doctor in the house’? The context for Anselm of Canterbury’s interest in medicine with reference to a probable case of malaria

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 30; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jmedhist.2004.06.003

1873-1279

Giles E. M. Gasper,

Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies

Abstract This paper discusses the nature of Anselm of Canterbury’s interest in medicine, an interest that has been noticed in passing before but never properly explored. The evidence comes mainly from the 1070s and 1080s when he was prior of the abbey of Bec in Normandy. His interest consistently arose from the duties and responsibilities of community life. It is in part a textual interest revealed by requests for medical books from Canterbury. It is also related to a dynamic web of monastic relations between Canterbury and Bec bound together by friendship. Anselm’s letters reveal a deep concern for the physical well-being of members of his community and his practical medical care is noted. A letter detailing symptoms of two monks sent to him from Canterbury exemplifies this. One of the cases is highly suggestive of malaria. This not only demonstrates the clarity of Anselm’s observations, but also is significant evidence in its own right for the history of malaria in Britain between the Anglo-Saxon period and the fourteenth century. Anselm’s interest in medicine lies on the cusp between theological thought and practical action. It also offers wider perspectives on the nature of monastic medical care and the theme of friendship in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Keywords: FriendshipMalariaAnselmCanterburyBecMonasticism Acknowledgments This article began as a paper delivered at the 36th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 3–6 May 2001, and I should like to thank my co-presenters and chair, Yaron Toren, Sethina Watson, and Lesley Smith for their help and support. I would also like to acknowledge the illuminating observations of Faith Wallis in the question session afterwards. For the expanded version of the paper, my especial thanks are due to Fiona Broackes-Carter for aid with scientific matters and bibliography, as well as for her warm support. Notes 1 Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 2 ‘In Defence of his Flight to Pontus’, 27, Orations, Sermons, Letters (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd series, vol. 7, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989). Latin translation in Orationum Gregorii Nazianzeni Novem Interpretatio, trans. Rufinus, ed. A. Engelbrecht (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, 46.1, Vienna, 1910). Citations of Anselm are from the Latin edition of F.S. Schmitt, Sancti Anselmi Opera Omnia, 6 vols (Edinburgh, 1946–1961), and translations of the letters follow The letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, 3 vols, trans. W. Fröhlich (Cistercian Studies 96, 97, 142, Kalamazoo, MI, 1990–1994), with emendation by the author. 2 Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 2, 16. 3 R.W. Southern, Saint Anselm: a portrait in a landscape (Cambridge, 1990), 171. 4 Eadmer, Vita Anselmi, chap. 1.1–5, ed. and trans. R.W. Southern (Edinburgh, 1962) (henceforth Eadmer, VA). 5 For example, Letters 148 and 178 to Bec after Anselm had become archbishop of Canterbury. Letters to Canterbury during Anselm’s second exile (1103–1106), for example 332, do not have quite the same warmth. Anselm was anxious too, at a later date, to ensure that Bec had a good copy of his treatise Cur Deus Homo—letter 209 to Boso ‘Eadmer… will gladly copy for the church of Bec, as if he were her own son, the book which I published under the title of Cur Deus Homo’ (my emphasis). 6 Orderic Vitalis, The ecclesiastical history, 6 vols, ed. and trans. M. Chibnall (Oxford, 1969–1980), vol. 2, 296. The success of Bec alumni is noted by both V. Gazeau, ‘The effect of the conquest of 1066 on monasticism in Normandy: the abbeys of the Risle Valley’, in: England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Bates and A. Curry (London, 1994), 131–42, at 133, and S.N. Vaughn, ‘The school of Bec’, in: The culture of Christendom, ed. M.A. Meyer (London, 1993), 155–81. 7 Anselm, Letters 5, 32, 7, 84. Much later, in his own archiepiscopate Anselm wrote (Letter 174), to Boso, the future interlocutor of Cur Deus Homo and fourth Abbot of Bec, promising to bring him to Canterbury. But this appears to be the extent of Anselm’s personnel shifting. 8 Anselm, Letters 1, 4. 9 Southern, Portrait, 313–4. 10 Anselm, Letter 4. 11 See M. Rule, The life and times of St Anselm, 2 vols (London, 1883), vol. 1, Appendix, Anecdoton C, 394–6. 12 Anselm, Letters 89–90, Gilbert Crispin, Vita Herluini, chap. 112, in: The works of Gilbert Crispin, abbot of Westminster, ed. A.S. Abulaifa and G.R. Evans (Auctores Britannici Medii Aevi 8, London, 1986). See too Anselm Letter 124, when Baldwin [of Tournai] was sent to Canterbury from Bec to explain the needs of the Norman abbey to Lanfranc in person. 13 Anselm, Letter 24. 14 Eadmer, VA, 1.29. 15 N. Ker, English manuscripts in the century after the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1960); T. Webber, Scribes and scholars at Salisbury cathedral, c.1075–c.1125 (Oxford, 1992), ‘Script and manuscript production at Christ Church Canterbury after the Norman Conquest’, in: Canterbury and the Norman Conquest, ed. R. Eales and R. Sharpe (London, 1995), 145–158, and ‘The patristic content of English book collections in the eleventh century: towards a continental perspective’, in: On the making of books. Medieval manuscripts, their scribes and readers: essays presented to M.B. Parkes, ed. P.R. Robinson and R. Zim (Aldershot, 1997), 191–205. On Lanfranc’s collections at Canterbury see M.T. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bec (Oxford, 1978), 177–82 and Southern, Portrait, 308–15. 16 Anselm, Letters 23, 25 and 26. 17 Anselm, Letter 60. 18 G. Gasper and F. Wallis, ‘Anselm and the Articella’ (forthcoming Traditio 2004). 19 Anselm, Letters 143 and 275. 20 Anselm, Letters 9, 124, 425. 21 Anselm, Letter 331. 22 F. Barlow, The English church 1066–1154 (London, 1979), 264. 23 Eadmer, VA 1.13–14. 24 Anselm, Letter 12. 25 Anselm, Letter 139: ‘Intra quod spatium cum multis curis et doloribus coporis affectus essem in Francia, insuper febris subito irruit in me, ferociter comminans me non amplius vos aloisque dominos nostros Beccenses visurum, multumque exterritans bis ausa est tangere servum vestrum. Sed cum videret me intentissime meditantem, ut ad vos et quoscumque possem mitterem pro auxilio et succursu orationum, exterrita fugit exterritum. Sed illud tantillum quod habebam saporis edendi et dormiendi et virium corporis, avida nocendi accelerando rapuit et secum tulit. Tria igitur eius haec manicipia, fastidium scilicet et insomnium et horum sociam imbecillitatem, quae eius semper sequi solent tetra vestigia, a me nondum expellere possum’. 26 Anselm, Letter 142: ‘…cum nuper in Francia essem… quaedam febris subito irruens plus me terruit quam laesit. Sed cum videret mentem meam intentissime conversam, ut ad amicos nostros pro auxilio mitterem orationum, exterrita bis tactum fugit exterritum. Unde aliquamdiu post passus sum cum edendi fastidio dormiendi difficultatem et membrorum maiorem imbecillitatem’. 27 John of Salisbury, The letters of John of Salisbury, ed. and trans. W.J. Millor and H.E. Butler, revised by C.N.L. Brooke, 2 vols. (Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1986 and 1979); Peter of Celle, The letters of Peter of Celle, ed. and trans. J.P. Haseldine (Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 2001). 28 Lanfranc, The letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. and trans. H.V. Clover and M.T. Gibson (Oxford, 1979). 29 Fulbert of Chartres, The letters of Fulbert of Chartres, ed. and trans. F. Behrends (Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1976), Letters 47 and 48. 30 On antidotaria see L.C. MacKinny, ‘Medieval medical dictionaries and glossaries’ in: Medieval and historiographical essays in honour of James Westfall Thompson, ed. J.L. Cate and E.N. Andson (Chicago, 1938), pp. 240–68, esp. 251–3. 31 Fulbert of Chartres, Letter 48. 32 G. Constable, The letters of Peter the Venerable, 2 vols (Cambridge, MA, 1967), vol. 2, 247–51. 33 Constable, The letters of Peter the Venerable, vol. 2, 302–303. 34 Constable, The letters of Peter the Venerable, vol. 1, Letters 158a and 158b; see also vol. 2, 247–51. 35 William of Malmesbury, Vita Wulfstani, ed. R.R. Darlington, Camden Third Series, 40 (London, 1928); Walter Daniel, Vita Ailredi, ed. and trans. F.M. Powicke (Oxford, 1978). 36 On the relations between Eadmer and Anselm with regard to Eadmer’s Vita Anselmi see Southern, Portrait, 309–14. 37 On Osbern see J. Rubenstein, ‘The life and writings of Osbern of Canterbury’, in: Canterbury and the Norman Conquest, ed. Eales and Sharpe, 27–40. 38 Anselm, Letters 67 and 66 for Lanfranc’s instruction that Osbern return. 39 Rubenstein, ‘Osbern of Canterbury’, 30, and more generally 29–31. 40 Southern, Portrait 315. 41 Anselm, Letter 30. 42 Anselm, Letters 137 and 138. 43 E.J. Kealey, Medieval medicus. A social history of Anglo-Norman medicine (Baltimore, 1981), 31; E.A. Hammond, ‘Physicians in medieval English religious houses’, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 32 (1958), 105–20 at 109. 44 Lanfranc, Letter 44, For Hermann’s text see Memorials of St. Edmunds Abbey, ed. T. Arnold, 3 vols (Rolls Series London, 1890–1896), vol. 1, 26–92, esp. 62–4. 45 A. Gransden, ‘Baldwin, abbot of Bury St Edmunds, 1065–1097’, Anglo Norman Studies, 4 (1981), 65–76 at 65–6. 46 Anselm, Letter 44. 47 Anselm, Letters 32, 33, 34 and 36. 48 Hammond, ‘Physicians in medieval English religious houses’, 109. 49 Fröhlich, The letters of Anselm, vol. 1, 141 (Letter 39, note 3). For the other suggestions, I am grateful to Dr Trudi Molesworth, and my uncle, Dr Terry Gasper. 50 G. MacPherson, Black’s medical dictionary, 39th edn (London, 1999), 540; ed. S. Diamond and D.J. Dalessio, The practicing physician’s approach to headache, 5th edn (Baltimore, 1992), 111. 51 Black’s medical dictionary, 494 and 496. 52 Rubenstein, ‘Osbern of Canterbury’, 29. 53 Fröhlich, The letters of Anselm, vol. 1, 142 (Letter 39, note 6). Other suggestions again from Dr Molesworth and Dr Gasper. 54 Malaria, ed. A.J. Knell (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991), 2 for symptoms of malaria. 55 H.M. Gilles, ‘Epidemiology of malaria’, in Bruce-Chwatt’s essential malariology, 3rd edn, ed. H.M. Gilles and D.A. Warrell (London, 1993), 124. 56 L.J. Bruce-Chwatt, ‘History of malaria from pre-history to eradication’, in: Malaria. Principles and practice of malariology, ed. W.H. Wernsdorfer and I. McGregor, 2 vols (Edinburgh, 1988), 1: 2–59, esp. 2–13. 57 Bruce-Chwatt, ‘History of malaria’, 11. 58 J. Schatzlein and D.P. Sulmasy, ‘The diagnosis of St Francis: evidence for leprosy’, Franciscan Studies, 47 (1987), 187–217 at 196–98 and 208–10. 59 P. Hordern, ‘Disease, dragons and saints: the management of epidemics in the Dark Ages’, in: Epidemics and ideas, ed. T. Ranger and P. Slack (Cambridge, 1992), 45–76 at 48. 60 L.J. Bruce-Chwatt, ‘Ague as malaria’, Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 79 (1976), 168–76 at 172–5. See also S. Jarcho, ‘A cartographic and literary study of the word malaria’, Journal of the History of Medicine, 25 (1970), 31–9 especially at 39. 61 Schatzlein and Sulmasy, ‘The diagnosis of St Francis’ at 188–9. 62 Constable, The letters of Peter the Venerable, vol. 2, 247–51. 63 M.L. Cameron, Anglo-Saxon medicine (Cambridge, 1993), 10; W.P. MacArthur, ‘A brief story of English malaria’, The Oxford Medical School Gazette 3 (1951), 21–6 at 24–5; Bruce-Chwatt, ‘Ague as malaria’, 168. 64 G. MacDonald, The epidemeology and control of malaria (London, 1957), 72. 65 M. Dobson, ‘“Marsh fever”—the geography of malaria in England’, Journal of Historical Geography, 6 (1980), 357–89 at 377. 66 P. Franklin, ‘Malaria in medieval Gloucestershire: an essay in epidemiology’, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 101 (1984), 111–22. I am extremely grateful to Caro McIntosh of the Archives Room of the University of Gloucestershire for furnishing me with a copy of this article. 67 Dobson, ‘“Marsh fever”—the geography of malaria in England’, 375. 68 The Domesday Monachorum of Christ Church Canterbury, ed. D.C. Douglas (London, 1944), 77–8 and 83–4; The Kent Domesday, Alecto County Edition of Domesday Book (London, 1992), fol. v for the Archbishop’s holding of ‘Asmeslant’ in the Hundred of Romney Marsh, fol. 4 for his holdings in Old Romsey. 69 For a summary of the debate on Anselm’s letter collection see Southern, Portrait, 459–81. 70 Southern, Portrait, 138 and 138–65. 71 Southern, Portrait, 155. 72 There is a large and growing literature on this subject: C. Morris, The discovery of the individual, 1050–1200 (London, 1972), 97–107 and Friendship in medieval Europe, ed. J.P. Haseldine (Stroud, 1999), especially Introduction by J.P. Haseldine, xvii–xxiii. See too articles by Haseldine: ‘Friendship and rivalry: the role of amicitia in twelfth-century monastic relations’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 44 (1993), 390–414; ‘Understanding the language of amicitia. The friendship circle of Peter of Celle’, Journal of Modern History, 20 (1994), 237–60, and with focus on Anselm, ‘Love, separation and male friendship: words and actions in Saint Anselm’s letters to his friends’, in: Masculinity in medieval Europe, ed. D. Hadley (London, 1999), 238–55. 73 J.P. Haseldine, ‘Love, separation and male friendship’ 244–5. For friendship networks with political purposes, see I.S. Robinson, ‘The friendship network of Gregory VII’, History, 63 (1978), and his ‘The friendship circle of Bernold of Constance and the dissemination of Gregorian ideas in late eleventh-century Germany’, in: Friendship in Medieval Europe, ed. Haseldine, 185–98. 74 Haseldine, ‘Love, separation and male friendship’, 253. 75 Haseldine, ‘Love, separation and male friendship’, 253. 76 Anselm, Letter 39.