| This dissertation addresses one facet of the significant but unanswered question of the relationship of men of learning to religious culture at the end of the Middle Ages. To do so, it considers the case of university-trained physicians, and brings into conversation facets of medieval culture that have traditionally been treated separately, especially medical learning, medical practice, religious teaching, and religious practice. In particular, I examine a dispute in the early fifteenth century between the physicians of Montpellier and the prominent theologian Jean Gerson over the use of astrological “seals” (which today we might call “talismans”) to cure disease. Gerson preached that the seals and other practices, traditionally believed to involve occult (though natural) forces, in fact implied a pact with the Devil. I argue that this controversy over seals hinged not simply on theological and scientific doctrine, but also on power and authority in religious and medical practice. Although learned physicians practiced the healing art grounded in Greek and Arabic natural science, they also participated in many practices commonly associated with “popular” religion, including the use of saints' relics, prayers, sacred gestures, and holy objects as healing instruments. I contend that the astrological and religious meanings of the seals underscore the sacerdotal role of the medieval physician. Further, Gerson's polemics against this medical practice are best understood in light of his broader efforts to reform lay religion, efforts which came in response to the crisis in Church authority during the Great Schism. Gerson failed to suppress learned interest in astral seals, which in fact increased through the Renaissance, but in the following century his writings on demonic “magic” and lay spirituality came to be linked with both the witch hunts and Reformation theologies. Thus, despite its early date, this controversy contains in microcosm the profound intellectual and religious changes taking place on the eve of the Reformation. My conclusions shed light not only on the late medieval world, but also on the interpretation of such larger historiographical areas as the Renaissance and Reformation, and on such vexed questions as the status of natural magic and the witch hunts. |
