Claudius F. Mayer: From Plato to Pope Paul / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 17. (Budapest, 1989)
attractive by various offered privileges. 23 3 The Crusades, 23 4 feudal wars, and epidemics devastated many countries, including England and France. 23 5 Sometimes the wars assumed a truly genocidal character. 23 6 JUSTINIAN persecuted the Samarites. 23 7 Genocide resulted also from the superstition of the population concerning the origin of epidemics. 23 8 Persecution of the Jews continue throughout the whole Middle Ages in all European countries. 23 9 An undated gerontocidal practice may be mentioned among the medieval folkways how Icelanders and other northern peoples used to get rid of their old unproductive members. 24 0 The traditional genetic practices continued. Abortion, 24 1 abandonment of children exposure of infants, infanticide, castration remained with the medieval man, just as contraception, regardless of the laws of states and of religious bodies. Abortion was sometimes recommended for therapeutic purpose. 24 2 Although the Gospel showed the way towards practical eugenics, 24 3 early Church laws, and the Christian fathers considered infanticide and induced abortion a murder. 24 4 The JUSTINIAN and THEODOSIAN Codes made abortion a criminal offense. 24 5 The Spanish Visigoths in the 7th century prescribed death for the mother who allowed such procedure. 24 6 The Middle Ages developed some institutions which had an ultimately dysgenic effect: monasticism, celibacy, and humanitarianism. The Church inadvertently facilitated child exposure by providing places for abandoned infants. 24 7 Christian celibacy had its main foundations in PAUL's first letter to the Corinthians. 24 8 Several early Christian sects abhorred matrimony, and recommended chastity. 24 9 Thus the depopulating trend of the Roman empire was further aided by Christian ascetism, 250 although the Scholastics implied that religious celibacy did not interfer with population growth. 25 1 Alcoholism reached such a degree in medieval times that it demaged the health of races, and caused degeneration. 25 2 In the 9th century, Constantine II, King of Scotland, declared a law against drunkenness of children, punishing the with death. 25 3 The knowledge of heredity showed a great advancement in the works of ALBERTUS MAGNUS. 25 4 He also recognized that diseases are heritable, 25 5 including abnormities, and that nurture may influence nature. 25 6 His knowledge was best in scholastic Middle Ages, unmatched by other later medieval writers. THOMAS of Aquino was aware of hereditary idiocy, and urged the spiritual and physical development of race, besides its preservation. 25 7 A favorite topic of patristic and scholastic theology was the time of fetal animation. 25 8 The ancient Scots practised castration for the suppression of heritable diseases, 25 9 while THOMAS of Aquino held that even the life of a newborn of a leper is better than no life. 26 0 Castration was otherwise still a crime against the country, 26 1 unless its use was political. 26 2 The Arabs were masters of animal breeding, but did not write on human genetics. 263 The first thought of human engineering evolved in the Middle Ages. Experimental human breeding was mentioned by William of AUBERGNE (= Alvernųs), bishop of Paris. 26 4 It was also suggested that the Holy Land should be changed into an ideal state where wise women would marry princes and celibate priests. 28 5 16
