At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, the bishops agreed that “the hospital… be established in every city”in the Roman Empire. The first fully established hospital complex was pioneered by Basil, the Bishop of Cappadocia in AD 369, which, apart from a large hospital, also included “a large number of buildings, with houses for physicians and nurses, workshops, and industrial schools.” When we get to the sixth century, hospitals can be found all over Europe, usually being looked after by monastic orders. By the 1450s there were 37,000 monastic communities that looked after the sick.
In Scotland the early monks cared for the sick and dying from the early centuries, and were keen to experiment with, and develop, medicinal herbs as “leaves… for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:2). The first large hospital in this nation was founded by the Augustinian monks in 1164 at Soutra Aisle at Fala, not far from Edinburgh. Today, only partial ruins can be found, but the hospital once measured about 700 square metres. The complex also included an almshouse for the poor and a hostel for weary travellers. It was situated in a bleak place, which in winter is exposed to the biting Scottish wind, but the spot was well-chosen because it was near the main route from Northumbria to Edinburgh, known as Dere St, a Roman road which today forms part of the A 68.
At the time of the Reformation in 1560, the leaders produced a document called the First Book of Discipline. In this we find Scotland’s blueprint for healthcare and welfare for the nation, originally operating through the parish church network. “But for the widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent, or lame,” they wrote, “who neither can nor may travail for their sustenance, we say that God commands his people to be careful. And therefore, for such, as also for persons of honesty fallen in[to] decay and penury, ought such provision be made that [of] our abundance should their indigence be relieved. How this most conveniently and most easily may be done in every city, and other parts of this realm, God shall show you wisdom and the means, so that your minds are godly thereto inclined.”
Healthcare was so wrapped up in the Reformation that the Surgeon’s Hall Museum in Edinburgh has recorded a prayer attributed to John Knox, which was used by surgeons from 1581. The prayer contains the words, “O eternal God, our loving and merciful Father – Jesus Christ – seeing we are convened 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 of our vocation, and the comfort of every member of it, through Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.”
In 1583 Gilbert Primrose, a dedicated Christian and Royal Surgeon for James VI, raised surgery to the prime position amongst the guilds of Edinburgh, thereby giving it a prominent place in society. This was followed by the Covenanting Christian, Peter Lowe, founding the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow in 1599. By 1681 the first purpose-built Surgeons’ Hall was established by Robert Sibbald, James Halket and Archibald Pitcairne, followed by the founding of the Edinburgh Medical School in 1726, which became the world’s foremost medical college, out of which grew Edinburgh’s Royal Infirmary hospital (1729). In all of these stages, Christians played a significant part in the development of our healthcare in Scotland. The leading men behind the foundation of the Royal Infirmary could state that “As men and Christians we have the strongest inducements and even obligations to this sort of charity as it is warmly recommended and enjoined in the gospel.” It would be out of the various streams of Christian-inspired healthcare and hospitals, that our National Health System would eventually develop in 1948.
“Heal the sick…” (Matthew 10:8, NKJV).
Image: The Old Royal Infirmary on Infirmary St, Pierre Fourdrinier https://images.is.ed.ac.uk/luna/servlet/detail/UoEsha~2~2~53273~102110:North-Front-of-the-Royal-Infirmary-?qvq=q:Thomson-walker&mi=46&trs=667#, Wikipedia Commons