28. Pantokrator - Dumbarton Oaks

28. PANTOKRATOR
tery and the church will take care in every way that those who are going to be appointed to the
church are worthy clergy.
[36. Establishment of a Hospital]
Since my majesty also prescribed a hospital which should shelter fifty bedridden sick people,
I wish and decree that there should be that number of beds for the comfort of these sick people. Of
these fifty beds, ten will be for those suffering from wounds or those with fractures, eight others
for those afflicted with ophthalmia and those with sickness of the stomach and any other very
acute and painful illnesses; twelve beds will be set aside for sick women and the remainder will be
left for those who are moderately ill. But if from time to time there is a lack of people ill either
from wounds or from ophthalmia and other very acute illnesses, the number will be made up from
other [p. 85] sick people afflicted with simply any disease whatever. Each bed should have a mat,
a mattress with a pillow and a coverlet, and in the winter also two blankets made of goat’s hair. 68
So since these fifty beds have been divided into five wards, there will be an extra bed also in each
ward in which will be placed any patient whose condition of emergency requires that he lie down
but who because the beds are full cannot find an appointed place to lie down. Apart from these
beds, six more extra beds will be set aside with mattresses pierced through the middle for those
who cannot move at all, either because of the severity of their illnesses or their utter weakness or
sometimes even the pain of the wounds they may suffer.
[37. Bedding and Clothes for the Sick]
They must maintain a continuous supply of as many as fifteen or even twenty shirts and
cloaks for the poorer invalids or those suffering from more acute illnesses so that whenever they
go to bed they can change into these and their own clothes can be washed and kept for them to put
on whenever they had got rid of their illness and are about to leave. Each year they should change
any of these bedclothes and other clothes that are completely unserviceable, unsew the mattresses
and pillows and pull apart the wool, and change the torn linen or sew it up again for the comfort of
those in the beds. However any of the old clothes and bedclothes that have been changed and are
of use for the invalids will be kept by the infirmarian, but the rest will be distributed to the poor.
[38. Medical Personnel]
When these fifty beds have been divided up into five wards, each ward will be served by
two doctors, three certified assistants, two auxiliary assistants, and two orderlies. However, each
evening four male and one female assistant from the assistants will remain with the patients, that
is one to each ward, and they are called watchers. There will be two doctors for the women’s
ward, and they will be accompanied by one female doctor, four certified female assistants, two
auxiliary female assistants, and two female orderlies. Of these doctors appointed to the wards the
two chief ones will be called protomenitai, and there will be two in addition to the doctors on the
wards called primikerioi, one teacher to teach medical skill, and two attendants. For the sick who
visit from outside [p. 87] there will be four extra doctors of whom two will be physicians and two
surgeons. These two surgeons will serve the women’s ward also whenever any of the women has
an illness caused by an open wound. These four doctors who have been assigned to the sick who
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