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140 THE MIDDLE AGES.
SORANUS but certainly of ancient origin the proper time for
the commencement of medical studies is declared to be the,
fifteenth year. The author takes the opportunity of remarking
" that the student must be industrious, intelligent and
of ready apprehension, in order to understand and learri
quickly; that he needs also a strong body that he may
bear the exertion to which he will be subjected." It was.
moreover required of him that he should possess a scientific
preliminary training and that he should have been taught
grammar, the history of literature, rhetoric, mathematics
and astronomy. " The doctor," he adds, " must combine
gentleness and modesty with becoming dignity, must
possess an irreproachable character, must not act with
haughtiness but must treat the poor and the rich, slaves
and free all alike." The medical lectures which were
delivered in the high schools by learned theorists, the.
Iatrosophists as they were called, consisted of philosophic
examination and profound discussion of various questions
of physiology and pathology : but they did not suffice to
prepare those who attended them for the actual practice of
medicine. This part of medical training was effected in a
more satisfactory and practical way by the Archiatri and
by practising doctors generally, who imparted instruction
in the healing art.
The schools of the Sophists and the higher teaching institutions
demanded no definite confession of .faith from |
their teachers or pupils. Heathens and Christians taught
at them, and in their lecture rooms the adherents of various > j
churches and sects mixed freely. Only during the short
reign of JULIAN were the Christians excluded from the I
position of teachers in the heathen schools. Already at
that time weak attempts were made to free Christians from
a heathen education but only one hundred years later did
success crown the efforts of SALVIANUS, of PRUDENT1US,
OROS1US and others to produce a literature containing I
Christian subject-matter and founded on the writings of the ;
Old and New Testaments. The indifference and contempt j