Medieval Superstitions & Medicine

Use the following websites to start your research:

1. http://listverse.com/2014/03/03/10-completely-uncanny-superstitions-from-the-middle-ages/
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8913709/Tony-Robinson-on-the-top-fivesuperstitions-that-gripped-medieval-Britain.html
3. http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/13-strange-superstitions
4. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/health_and_medicine_in_medieval_.htm
5. http://listverse.com/2013/07/31/10-bizarre-medieval-medical-practices/
6. https://www.aimseducation.edu/blog/medieval-medical-practices-still-use-today/
After skimming the websites above, choose the 1 superstition AND the 1 medical
practice that intrigue you the MOST. Continue your narrowed research to learn the
specific details of each. Compile a list of at least 10 facts about each. Bookmark the
website(s) where you found your information on your Pearltrees account.
Superstition: MALLEUS MALEFICARUM
1. The Malleus Maleficarum was an infamous book meant to serve as a manual for
the detection, prosecution, and punishment of witches.
2. The books says that if you practice witchcraft its heresy and if you dont believe in
it, it is also heresy and could get kicked out of church.
3. Those found guilty of witchcraft were usually burned at the stake or were burned
alive or hanged.
4. People believed witches could fly on broomsticks, brew potions, cast spells, and
make people sick.
5. People also believed witches could change their form into animals. The most
popular being the cat and the raven.
6. The idea of the lucky horseshoe was a medieval belief that they ward off witches,
and by placing a horseshoe over a door, any witch would be reluctant to enter.
The horseshoe would have to come off naturally not taken off purposely.
7. The phrase bless you was believed that it originated from medieval superstition
and if someone sneezed they believed it was a gateway or opportunity for the
Devil to enter the body and by saying bless you would counteract it.
8. It was believed that witches were in league with bats. So therefore, it was said to
be bad luck if you saw bats in flight and or heard their cries.

9. It was also a belief that horses repelled witches which is why they flew on
broomsticks and pitchforks.
10. Magic was believed to be a creation of the devil and associated with devil
worship.

Medical Practice: BLOODLETTING

1. Galen of Pergamum expanded on Hippocrates earlier theory that good health
required a perfect balance of humors which referred to certain fluids found in
the body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm and an excess of any of the
four would lead to a great influence on a persons health.
2. Bloodletting was so common that some people drained their blood regularly just
because they believed it would keep them healthy.
3. It was believed that all illnesses stemmed from an overabundance of blood, or
plethora.
4. In medieval Europe, bloodletting became the standard treatment for various
conditions: plague, smallpox, epilepsy and gout.
5. Surgeons and even barbers began to offer bloodletting for patients.
6. Each humor was focused on on a particular organbrain, lung, spleen, and gall
bladderand related to a particular personality typesanguine, phlegmatic,
melancholic, and choleric.
7. The main instruments for this bloodletting technique were called lancets and
fleams.
8. Leeches were used for bloodletting, which usually involved the medicinal leech,
Hirudo medicinalis. At each feeding a leech can ingest about 5 to 10 ml of blood,
almost 10 times its own weight.
9. The treatment of bloodletting would stop once the patient fainted.
10.
Blood was also captured in small flint glass cups. Heated air inside the cups
created a vacuum causing blood to flow into the cup - a handy technique for
drawing blood from a localized area. This practice was called cupping.