As far back as the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 the bishops discussed the vision ‘of the hospital to be established in every city’. Right from the beginning Jesus sent out his disciples to heal people through prayer, and the apostle Paul also took the Greek medical doctor Luke with him on some of his mission trips. From early times Christians were developing healthcare and simple hospitals. The monastic orders in particular carried the responsibility of pioneering and running healthcare. They were so successful, that by the Reformation period in the 1550s, the Benedictines alone ran 37,000 health units.
Last week I wrote that corruption had entered the monastic orders in their welfare system; the same was true for the hospitals in Europe, and here in Scotland. The reformers in Scotland took the existing healthcare structure, purifying and revitalizing it, and developing it. For example, in Edinburgh the hospitals, such as Our Lady, and Trinity, were handed over to the care of reformed clergy, with clear instructions that they must ‘not defile with blame of any notable vice, but [be] of good reputation and conversation’. Education, welfare, and healthcare, were in the hands of the Protestant church to make sure everyone in our nation would be looked after, through the parish network, although few hospitals were added in this period. Such a system would, of course, take centuries to be developed properly.
The Surgeons’ Hall Museum in Edinburgh has an exhibition tracing the rise of medical and surgical development in Scotland. A prayer is highlighted there for surgeons of the 16th century to use before operating on their patients. Attributed to John Knox, the prayer expresses the desire to treat people well in their care: ‘O eternal God, our loving and merciful Father,’ it says, ‘– Jesus Christ – seeing we are converted to treat of those things which concern our calling, we beseech thee, O Lord, to be merciful to us, and give us grace to proceed therein without malice, grudge, or partiality: so that the things we do may tend to the Glory of God, and weal [wellbeing] of our vocation, and the comfort of every member of it, through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.’
Gilbert Primrose, a dedicated Christian, rose to prominence in the Scottish Reformation as the Royal Surgeon for King James VI. It was he who raised surgery in 1583 to its prime position amongst the guilds in Edinburgh, and thus became a key person in the development of this skill in Scotland. Peter Lowe was another reformer from this period, who in 1599, went from Edinburgh to pioneer the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow. It would be from this Reformation movement that Scotland would cultivate a healthcare system and advance medical science, so that by the eighteenth century, Edinburgh would become the leading medical training centre in Europe, surpassing even that of Leiden. By the end of the nineteenth century the Reformation vision for healthcare across Scotland became a reality, preparing the way for the NHS (National Health Service) last century.
‘Heal the sick who are there’ (Luke 10:9, NIV).
‘I was sick and you looked after me’ (Matthew 25:36, NIV).
Image used: SSgt. Derrick C. Goode, U.S. Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons