Both of these texts assert the fact that in the early middle ages religion and rituals were a major factor in medicine. In the Herbarium, one of the cures for snakebite calls for the creator to “hold it (the plant) in your hands and say this three times: Omnes malas bestias canto, that is in our language, enchant and overcome all evil wild beasts” The footnote of this quote says ”For many who collect plants in the wild (wildcrafters) and herbalists, speaking to a plant before it is cut explaining why one is gathering it is not at all unusual” This further proves that at that time people who created these remedies performed rituals while creating them in order to add a spiritual effect on the drug. This can also be seen in Bard’s Leechbook where, in order to cure “elf-sickness” one must “take bishopswort, fennel, lupin, alftone the lower part and lichen from a hallowed crucifix and frankincense, put a handful of each, tie up all the herbs in a cloth, dip in consecrated font-water three times and sing over them three masses” This one quote has many religious
Both of these texts assert the fact that in the early middle ages religion and rituals were a major factor in medicine. In the Herbarium, one of the cures for snakebite calls for the creator to “hold it (the plant) in your hands and say this three times: Omnes malas bestias canto, that is in our language, enchant and overcome all evil wild beasts” The footnote of this quote says ”For many who collect plants in the wild (wildcrafters) and herbalists, speaking to a plant before it is cut explaining why one is gathering it is not at all unusual” This further proves that at that time people who created these remedies performed rituals while creating them in order to add a spiritual effect on the drug. This can also be seen in Bard’s Leechbook where, in order to cure “elf-sickness” one must “take bishopswort, fennel, lupin, alftone the lower part and lichen from a hallowed crucifix and frankincense, put a handful of each, tie up all the herbs in a cloth, dip in consecrated font-water three times and sing over them three masses” This one quote has many religious