The Burgher Class of the Third Estate

• Medieval society was divided into three Estates of the Realm: the clergy, the nobility and the commoners. The Third Estate (commoners) produced almost all medical professionals of the Middle Ages. This does not mean that they lived in poverty like the peasants. Rather, many doctors belonged to a class known as the burghers, or bourgeoisie. Burghers could not own land but they often belonged to professional guilds and administered services to all strata of society.
  
  

Social Status of Medieval Doctors

• Burghers could become quite wealthy despite not being noble. The public held doctors in high esteem, as evidenced by the fact that the "sumptuary laws" which restricted what clothes people could wear were less strict for doctors than for other burghers. Some wealthy English doctors earned coats of arms, and the lavish effigy of Guillaume de Harsigny (personal phsycian to Enguerrand VII de Coucy) is considered a monumental example of early macabre art.
  
  

Types of Medieval Doctors

• A doctor's wealth and prestige depended on his training and the wealth of his clientel. Lower ranks of doctors served people of limited means. Apothecaries, for example, were medically trained merchants who would prescribe various elixers and herbal remedies, most of which attempted to "balance the humors." Medieval barbers usually had medical training and performed a wide variety of surgical procedures, such as blood-letting. Highly trained barbers, called "chirugeons," were specialized in these practices.
  
  

Universities and Doctors

• With the birth of universities in the 12th century, many wealthy doctors were able to learn more advanced medicine from Classical texts along with medical science from Arabic and Jewish sources from Spain or the Crusades. Such doctors often worked as members of noble or royal courts. While they continued to incorporate pseudo-scientific ideas of the time, such as balancing humors and astrology, they did manage to practice and develop surprisingly effective healing techniques.
  
  

Women Doctors and the Clergy

• Not all medical professionals were men of the Third Estate. Many monks ventured into scientific experimentation that helped medical progress while discouraging the use of astrology for religious reasons.Women also acted as doctors and apothecaries. In the 14th century, a woman named Jacoba Felicie was considered wiser in medicine than most of her peers but was nevertheless prosecuted for practicing without a license.
  
  

The Legacy of Medieval Doctors

• While sometimes perpetuating superstition and pseudo-science, medieval medicine was not as ineffectual as many modern people suspect. Historian Barbara Tuchman noted, "They could set broken bones, extract teeth, remove bladder stones, remove cataracts of the eye with a silver needle, and restore a mutilated face by skin graft from the arm." They understood epilepsy, diabetes, strokes and other ailments. Medieval doctors did, in fact, help medicine progress as a practice and a science.