The Text of canon 22 of the IVth Lateran clearly indicates that it was
aimed at Catholic doctors, and neither heretics nor Jews:
'As physical illness is sometimes the result of sin--the Lord said to a
sick man whom he had cured, "Go and sin no more, lest worse befall you"--we
by the present decree ordain and strictly command doctors [medicis
corporum], when it happens that they are called to the sick, to warn and
exhort them before anything else to call in doctors of souls
[medicos...animarum], so that after his spiritual health has been seen to,
the sick man may respond better to the bodily medicine [corporalis
medicinae]--for when the cause ceases, the effect ceases. This among other
things has occasioned this decree; that some on a sickbed, when advised by
doctors [medicis] to arrange for the good of their souls [animarum salute
disponant], fall into a state of despair, whereby they incur more easily
the danger of death [mortis periculum incurrunt]. If any doctor [si quis
autem medicorum] shall transgress this our decree, after it has been
published by the local prelates, he shall be barred from entering a church
[ab ingressu ecclesiae arceatur] until he has performed the appropriate
penance for this sort of transgression. Furthermore, as the soul [anima] is
much more precious than the body [corpore], we forbid on pain of eternal
anathema any doctor [quis medicorum] to prescribe anything for a sick man
for his bodily health [pro corporali salute] which might endanger his
soul.'
The psychology of the death-bed is very interesting here, as is the fear of
immoral therapies (life-saving fornication?).
I have not checked this canon against the legal commentators (cf.
Constitutiones Concilii quarti Lateranensis una cum commentariis
glossatorum / edidit Antonius Garcia y Garcia:Citta del Vaticano:
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticano, 1981:Monumenta iuris canonici / Corpus
glossatorum . Ser. A. ; v.2). James Brundage, however, would know all about
this sort of thing.
Gary Dickson
University of Edinburgh
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