Medicine in the Middle AgesAfter the collapse of the Roman Empire in the middle of the first millennium CE, many of its ancient provinces suffered from regression. In Britain's Roman armies, few had the knowledge or skills to continue their work or to preserve the foundations of a great society. With the chaos that followed the Roman withdrawal, as Britain was overrun by the Vikings, Saxons and Normans, much of their knowledge was lost. Very few people knew how to read or write, so the books the Romans learned were useless. As the British people were conquered by nations who had never been under Roman influence and therefore had no understanding of their literature or practical beliefs, they regressed to a way of life similar to that which they were leading before the arrival of the Romans. Roman doctors had followed practical methods of diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and surgery, but this approach was soon replaced by superstitious and spiritual remedies. The Romans had many gods, but their religion had never been truly accepted in Britain and the natives had mainly pagan beliefs. These beliefs are accompanied by methods of medical treatment based on appeasing specific spirits or superstitions. When Britain became a Christian nation, these beliefs continued, and although spiritual healings were mostly replaced by prayer, they had very little effect. The Romans had obtained much of their knowledge from the Greeks, who developed many theories about the cause of disease. The most popular was the Four Humors Theory, which stated that the sick... middle of paper ... fled to the countryside while the poor stayed in crowded cities to die. People suffering from the plague were locked in their homes with their families. Many theories have been developed about how the plague spread. Most people thought it was spread by bad odors in the air and no one attributed it to rats. The Middle Ages were a time of serious regression and very little progress was made. This was mainly due to the influence of Christianity and hysterical witch hunts that made people too afraid to oppose the Church's decisions. Its influence was so powerful that until the time of Henry VIII the Church had more power than the king. People forgot Roman ways of thinking and instead adopted and relearned the pagan beliefs of the British conquerors, including those that affected medicine..