1 00:00:31,311 --> 00:00:34,644 once upon a time when all was shrouded in ignorance, 2 00:00:34,681 --> 00:00:37,582 there lived a philosopher. 3 00:00:37,617 --> 00:00:40,108 He sought the philosopher's stone 4 00:00:40,153 --> 00:00:43,350 that would transmute base metal into gold. 5 00:00:43,390 --> 00:00:45,221 And the elixir of life 6 00:00:45,258 --> 00:00:47,624 that would bring eternal youth. 7 00:00:49,496 --> 00:00:50,622 (Bang) 8 00:01:02,042 --> 00:01:04,374 Hold this, would you, Ray? 9 00:01:10,584 --> 00:01:12,575 (Explosion ) 10 00:01:19,092 --> 00:01:21,060 Did it work? 11 00:01:26,099 --> 00:01:28,090 (Bubbling) 12 00:01:30,904 --> 00:01:35,068 ''philosopher'' was the closest term the Middle Ages had to scientist. 13 00:01:35,108 --> 00:01:37,770 But of course we all know that they weren't real scientists, 14 00:01:37,811 --> 00:01:40,712 because they had no idea of scientific method. 15 00:01:42,416 --> 00:01:46,409 The medieval world floundered in superstition and ignorance. 16 00:01:46,453 --> 00:01:48,853 The church persecuted seekers after knowledge, 17 00:01:48,889 --> 00:01:51,483 medicine was more likely to kill than cure, 18 00:01:51,525 --> 00:01:54,961 and people didn't even know the shape of the world. 19 00:01:54,995 --> 00:01:57,623 But are we sure they were so very ignorant, 20 00:01:57,664 --> 00:01:59,791 or could it be us who don't know as much 21 00:01:59,833 --> 00:02:02,461 as we think we do about them? 22 00:02:05,539 --> 00:02:11,034 over and over again, we're told that our scientific understanding of the world 23 00:02:11,077 --> 00:02:15,138 didn't begin until Isaac Newton in the 17th century. 24 00:02:15,182 --> 00:02:18,117 For example, he's credited with showing that white light 25 00:02:18,151 --> 00:02:20,676 contains the colors of the rainbow. 26 00:02:20,720 --> 00:02:23,746 And yet, 400 years before Newton, 27 00:02:23,790 --> 00:02:26,691 a 13th-century monk by the name of Roger Bacon 28 00:02:26,726 --> 00:02:29,354 performed this experiment, 29 00:02:29,396 --> 00:02:34,095 in which he passed light through water to create a spectrum, 30 00:02:34,134 --> 00:02:36,398 and concluded, like Newton, 31 00:02:36,436 --> 00:02:40,532 that light contains an unchanging geometry. 32 00:02:44,211 --> 00:02:46,805 Newton was the man who made mathematics 33 00:02:46,847 --> 00:02:48,974 the basis for the study of the world. 34 00:02:49,015 --> 00:02:52,746 But then, Roger Bacon said the same thing. 35 00:02:52,786 --> 00:02:55,254 He wrote, ''Mathematics is the door 36 00:02:55,288 --> 00:02:57,950 ''and the key to the sciences. '' 37 00:02:57,991 --> 00:03:01,051 At 400 years before Galileo, 38 00:03:01,094 --> 00:03:05,053 Bacon described how to use lenses to make a telescope. 39 00:03:06,633 --> 00:03:10,091 Bacon was one of many experimental philosophers 40 00:03:10,136 --> 00:03:12,331 hunting for the philosopher's stone. 41 00:03:12,372 --> 00:03:14,863 He was an alchemist. 42 00:03:15,742 --> 00:03:17,801 But of course, we all know that alchemists 43 00:03:17,844 --> 00:03:19,903 were charlatans and magicians 44 00:03:19,946 --> 00:03:22,710 who were trying to turn base metal into gold. 45 00:03:22,749 --> 00:03:27,083 Well, undoubtedly, alchemy had its fair share of fraudsters. 46 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,020 That doesn't mean they all were. 47 00:03:29,055 --> 00:03:32,752 You see, gold is a very peculiar metal. 48 00:03:34,327 --> 00:03:37,160 For a start, you cannot destroy it. 49 00:03:37,197 --> 00:03:38,630 Heat it up, 50 00:03:38,665 --> 00:03:40,189 melt it down, beat it, 51 00:03:40,233 --> 00:03:45,227 whatever you do, gold will always return to the way it was. 52 00:03:45,272 --> 00:03:46,569 The gold we have today 53 00:03:46,606 --> 00:03:48,665 could once have been a viking's collar 54 00:03:48,708 --> 00:03:51,836 or a 17th-century ewer. 55 00:03:51,878 --> 00:03:56,975 At oxford university's chemistry labs, Dr. Allan Chapman explained to me 56 00:03:57,017 --> 00:04:01,181 just why gold obsessed the medieval alchemists. 57 00:04:01,221 --> 00:04:03,052 What the alchemists were fascinated with 58 00:04:03,089 --> 00:04:06,786 is what they called mutability, why certain things did change, 59 00:04:06,826 --> 00:04:09,488 and things like gold never changed. 60 00:04:11,331 --> 00:04:14,664 Gold was the most perfect of all metals. 61 00:04:14,701 --> 00:04:16,032 And as a result, therefore, 62 00:04:16,069 --> 00:04:19,664 what gold became was the study of perfection on earth. 63 00:04:19,706 --> 00:04:22,573 And all of their manipulative procedures about gold 64 00:04:22,609 --> 00:04:24,406 were concerned with trying to actually obtain, 65 00:04:24,444 --> 00:04:26,241 not wealth, it wasn't wealth they were after, 66 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:28,839 it was understanding the inner secrets 67 00:04:28,882 --> 00:04:31,680 by which God had made all the substances of nature. 68 00:04:31,718 --> 00:04:35,518 The alchemists believed that all things in nature 69 00:04:35,555 --> 00:04:37,716 were striving towards perfection. 70 00:04:37,757 --> 00:04:40,988 And since gold was perfect, one day all metals 71 00:04:41,027 --> 00:04:43,086 would transmute into gold. 72 00:04:43,129 --> 00:04:47,225 The alchemists were just trying to give nature and God a hand. 73 00:04:47,267 --> 00:04:50,668 - Teach me how to make gold. - oh, yes, very easy. 74 00:04:50,704 --> 00:04:52,604 Allan showed me one of the experiments 75 00:04:52,639 --> 00:04:56,666 that made the alchemists think they were very close indeed. 76 00:04:56,710 --> 00:04:59,474 Well, here we have mercury in a jar, 77 00:04:59,512 --> 00:05:01,844 it was liquid, it was shiny 78 00:05:01,881 --> 00:05:04,349 and they believed that it was a sort of seed bed 79 00:05:04,384 --> 00:05:06,147 into which you could plant gold. 80 00:05:06,186 --> 00:05:08,916 That's the gold there, some nice gold powder. 81 00:05:08,955 --> 00:05:10,718 - put them together. - A bit like cookery? 82 00:05:10,757 --> 00:05:12,156 - Bit like cookery. - Yes. 83 00:05:12,192 --> 00:05:15,457 What to do with your guests if you wanted to kill them in the 15th century. 84 00:05:20,767 --> 00:05:23,167 And it's now getting a bit like breakfast cereal. 85 00:05:23,203 --> 00:05:26,331 It's a sort of scrunchy, peanut buttery feel to it. 86 00:05:26,373 --> 00:05:29,274 I don't know what you have for your breakfast, Allan. 87 00:05:29,309 --> 00:05:31,539 This so-called butter of gold 88 00:05:31,578 --> 00:05:36,982 is spread on the item to be transmuted into the real thing and then heated. 89 00:05:37,017 --> 00:05:41,317 There it is, we've got a gold-plated Tesco's can lid. 90 00:05:41,354 --> 00:05:43,481 The only one in the world. 91 00:05:44,758 --> 00:05:47,124 The process didn't actually multiply gold, 92 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:51,722 but the alchemists had discovered the technique of gold-plating. 93 00:05:51,765 --> 00:05:53,392 It was just one of their achievements. 94 00:05:53,433 --> 00:05:56,197 They also discovered the first strong acids 95 00:05:56,236 --> 00:05:58,602 and developed techniques such as distillation 96 00:05:58,638 --> 00:06:01,539 that would form the basis of modern chemistry. 97 00:06:04,077 --> 00:06:06,204 And in a way, the alchemists were right. 98 00:06:06,246 --> 00:06:08,737 Transmutation not only is possible, 99 00:06:08,782 --> 00:06:11,842 it's one of the key processes in the modern world. 100 00:06:11,885 --> 00:06:16,379 A nuclear power station like this runs on transmutation. 101 00:06:16,423 --> 00:06:21,087 In the process, a metal like uranium is transmuted into other substances, 102 00:06:21,127 --> 00:06:22,822 including other metals. 103 00:06:25,598 --> 00:06:28,396 The alchemists may have been right about something else. 104 00:06:28,435 --> 00:06:31,700 In 1972, Russian scientists reported 105 00:06:31,738 --> 00:06:35,333 that at an experimental reactor in siberia, 106 00:06:35,375 --> 00:06:40,779 the lead shielding had been exposed to such constant nuclear bombardment 107 00:06:40,814 --> 00:06:44,716 that part of it had turned to gold. 108 00:06:47,187 --> 00:06:50,350 In the Middle Ages, all science, what they called philosophy, 109 00:06:50,390 --> 00:06:53,689 had a different purpose from science today. 110 00:06:53,727 --> 00:06:56,525 Any pursuit of knowledge was only useful 111 00:06:56,563 --> 00:07:00,465 if it brought you closer to understanding God. 112 00:07:00,500 --> 00:07:02,798 Even medicine. 113 00:07:04,437 --> 00:07:06,871 Today, there's only one thing we expect from medicine, 114 00:07:06,906 --> 00:07:08,498 to make us better. 115 00:07:08,541 --> 00:07:13,638 But medieval doctors had their sights set on even more ambitious things. 116 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:16,877 Eternal life, for a start. 117 00:07:16,916 --> 00:07:21,751 Meet Artephius, who wrote a treatise on the art of prolonging human life. 118 00:07:21,788 --> 00:07:23,915 And as proof that his theories worked, 119 00:07:23,957 --> 00:07:29,088 he claimed he was no less than 1,025 years old. 120 00:07:32,165 --> 00:07:34,793 What, you mean you were alive at the time of Christ? 121 00:07:34,834 --> 00:07:37,598 - Yes. - Did you meet him? 122 00:07:37,637 --> 00:07:39,070 Yes. 123 00:07:39,105 --> 00:07:40,970 Well, what was he like? 124 00:07:41,007 --> 00:07:45,876 just exactly as you'd imagine the son of God. 125 00:07:45,912 --> 00:07:47,539 oh, right. 126 00:07:49,716 --> 00:07:52,082 Wow. phew. 127 00:07:54,721 --> 00:07:56,746 The alchemists believed that if they could turn 128 00:07:56,790 --> 00:07:59,452 base metal into perfect, immortal gold, 129 00:07:59,492 --> 00:08:01,221 using the philosophers' stone, 130 00:08:01,261 --> 00:08:05,357 they might also be able to use it as an elixir of life 131 00:08:05,398 --> 00:08:07,628 that would make mankind immortal. 132 00:08:07,667 --> 00:08:11,569 The purpose wasn't simply to make people live forever, 133 00:08:11,604 --> 00:08:15,301 but to restore mankind to its condition of perfection 134 00:08:15,341 --> 00:08:17,002 before the Fall. 135 00:08:17,043 --> 00:08:19,409 The eternal life was almost incidental. 136 00:08:20,713 --> 00:08:24,240 of course, no philosopher actually found the elixir of life. 137 00:08:24,284 --> 00:08:26,809 I mean, otherwise I'd be interviewing him now. 138 00:08:26,853 --> 00:08:29,845 But that doesn't mean we should write off medieval doctors. 139 00:08:29,889 --> 00:08:35,486 I'm about to have a consultation with an expert in medieval medicine. 140 00:08:41,935 --> 00:08:44,028 Ah, Faye. 141 00:08:44,070 --> 00:08:47,471 I feel a bit of a fraud coming here to see you as my medieval consultant 142 00:08:47,507 --> 00:08:49,634 cos there's nothing wrong with me, really. 143 00:08:49,676 --> 00:08:52,668 Well, that's ideal because my job is not to cure disease, 144 00:08:52,712 --> 00:08:55,112 but to prevent it. 145 00:08:55,148 --> 00:08:56,809 A medieval physician believed that disease 146 00:08:56,850 --> 00:08:58,442 wasn't something that attacked you, 147 00:08:58,484 --> 00:09:01,544 a disease was something that you suffered from 148 00:09:01,588 --> 00:09:03,556 because you didn't have enough health. 149 00:09:03,590 --> 00:09:06,252 so a physician would try, mainly by food 150 00:09:06,292 --> 00:09:10,922 and by herbs to promote your health and restore your health. 151 00:09:10,964 --> 00:09:15,264 so if I was your patient, how would you distinguish me from other people? 152 00:09:15,301 --> 00:09:17,132 I would try to classify you for instance, 153 00:09:17,170 --> 00:09:19,070 according to the doctrine of the humors. 154 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:22,765 The ancient Greek physician Galen 155 00:09:22,809 --> 00:09:24,640 taught that the health of the body 156 00:09:24,677 --> 00:09:28,010 depended on the delicate balance of four vital fluids. 157 00:09:28,047 --> 00:09:32,245 A person in whom blood predominated was sanguine. 158 00:09:32,285 --> 00:09:34,810 phlegm predominated, you were phlegmatic. 159 00:09:34,854 --> 00:09:36,321 (Coughs ) 160 00:09:36,356 --> 00:09:39,917 Black bile made you the melancholic type. 161 00:09:39,959 --> 00:09:43,793 And yellow bile made you the colonic type. 162 00:09:45,398 --> 00:09:48,993 Doctors first diagnosed the patients' type or humor 163 00:09:49,035 --> 00:09:51,697 and then adjusted the treatment accordingly. 164 00:09:51,738 --> 00:09:54,639 What do you think about me then? What humor would I be? 165 00:09:54,674 --> 00:09:58,132 I think...there's definitely a sanguine streak to you. 166 00:09:58,177 --> 00:09:59,371 (Whistles ) 167 00:09:59,412 --> 00:10:01,243 sanguine means that you're dominated 168 00:10:01,281 --> 00:10:03,806 by the humor blood, which is the humor of youth. 169 00:10:03,850 --> 00:10:06,011 I would also say because you're an intellectual, 170 00:10:06,052 --> 00:10:09,317 that like most intellectuals, your predominate humor 171 00:10:09,355 --> 00:10:11,118 - is melancholic. - (sighs ) 172 00:10:11,157 --> 00:10:14,126 The cold and dry humor of old age. 173 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:16,390 If you were my medieval doctor and I was your patient, 174 00:10:16,429 --> 00:10:17,953 how would you start to examine me? 175 00:10:17,997 --> 00:10:20,557 Well, the first thing I would do is take your pulse, 176 00:10:20,600 --> 00:10:24,229 and I would try to understand how your body's innate heat 177 00:10:24,270 --> 00:10:26,261 was cooking through your body. 178 00:10:26,306 --> 00:10:30,072 And the pulse would tell me whether in fact you had a fever, 179 00:10:30,109 --> 00:10:32,737 and if you did have a fever I would probably let blood, 180 00:10:32,779 --> 00:10:35,043 because letting blood would lower the fever. 181 00:10:35,081 --> 00:10:37,982 (Trickling) 182 00:10:38,017 --> 00:10:44,354 After I take the pulse, I would want to do a uroscopy. 183 00:10:44,390 --> 00:10:46,255 You want me to pee in the bottle? oK. 184 00:10:46,292 --> 00:10:48,556 I'll go and do that right away. 185 00:10:52,332 --> 00:10:55,733 I feel a bit embarrassed about giving you this, Faye, but... 186 00:10:55,768 --> 00:10:58,032 What you look at first is the color, do you? 187 00:10:58,071 --> 00:11:01,268 Yes, what I would be doing is looking at the color, 188 00:11:01,307 --> 00:11:04,799 the texture, whether anything's floating in it. 189 00:11:04,844 --> 00:11:08,575 I would want to touch it and also I'd want to taste it. 190 00:11:08,614 --> 00:11:10,980 What? 191 00:11:11,017 --> 00:11:14,544 - You were having me on! - What do you mean? 192 00:11:14,587 --> 00:11:16,555 This isn't urine at all. 193 00:11:16,589 --> 00:11:18,580 You taste it. 194 00:11:22,061 --> 00:11:24,086 oh, no, it's apple juice. Yes, I'm sorry. 195 00:11:24,130 --> 00:11:25,757 Yes, it is. sorry about that. 196 00:11:27,266 --> 00:11:29,598 In fact, medieval medical treatises 197 00:11:29,635 --> 00:11:32,468 warned doctors that some patients might try to fool them 198 00:11:32,505 --> 00:11:35,599 by offering wine or water instead of urine. 199 00:11:35,641 --> 00:11:38,974 The striking thing about medieval physicians 200 00:11:39,012 --> 00:11:42,175 was that they cared for the person as a whole. 201 00:11:42,215 --> 00:11:44,979 It's an attitude that's only recently started to creep back 202 00:11:45,018 --> 00:11:47,316 into mainstream medicine. 203 00:11:48,755 --> 00:11:51,656 Now, I'm not saying medieval medicine had all the answers, 204 00:11:51,691 --> 00:11:54,922 I mean, if I'd lived then I'd have died aged 27 205 00:11:54,961 --> 00:11:56,519 of a burst appendix. 206 00:11:56,562 --> 00:12:00,191 But that doesn't mean medieval doctors were just quacks. 207 00:12:00,233 --> 00:12:03,066 Maybe they even had something they could teach us. 208 00:12:06,739 --> 00:12:09,230 Here at soutra Isle in scotland, 209 00:12:09,275 --> 00:12:12,802 Brian Moffat has been carrying out some remarkable detective work. 210 00:12:12,845 --> 00:12:14,278 over 8OO years ago, 211 00:12:14,313 --> 00:12:17,840 a massive monastic complex stood here. 212 00:12:17,884 --> 00:12:21,445 It included a hospital in which medical research 213 00:12:21,487 --> 00:12:22,977 was at the cutting edge. 214 00:12:23,022 --> 00:12:24,956 Throughout the Middle Ages, 215 00:12:24,991 --> 00:12:28,427 this was the hospital's natural pharmacy, 216 00:12:28,461 --> 00:12:31,259 an outdoor pharmacy, as you can see. 217 00:12:31,297 --> 00:12:33,162 You mean this is their chemist shop, is it? 218 00:12:33,199 --> 00:12:40,037 Well, in a real sense, yes, this was the source of their drugs. 219 00:12:40,073 --> 00:12:43,702 In this gorge, there were some 4OO species of plant, 220 00:12:43,743 --> 00:12:45,836 many with medicinal properties. 221 00:12:45,878 --> 00:12:49,405 And the monks used these for treating their patients. 222 00:12:49,449 --> 00:12:51,713 so what sort of herbs are we looking for? 223 00:12:51,751 --> 00:12:54,584 Well, here are two. 224 00:12:54,620 --> 00:12:58,056 Number one is yarrow. 225 00:12:58,091 --> 00:13:02,152 It's a wound treatment, usually in the form of poultices. 226 00:13:02,195 --> 00:13:06,689 It has behind it perhaps two millennia of clinical trials. 227 00:13:06,732 --> 00:13:07,994 Really. Really. 228 00:13:08,034 --> 00:13:12,164 Down below, the tiny yellow flower is tormentil. 229 00:13:12,205 --> 00:13:14,696 It has a tuberous root 230 00:13:14,740 --> 00:13:17,072 which has a long history as a worm treatment, 231 00:13:17,110 --> 00:13:21,240 to get rid of parasitic intestinal worms in humans and livestock, 232 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:23,805 again, for a good millennium. 233 00:13:23,850 --> 00:13:29,846 Is it possible these early physicians had knowledge that we've now lost? 234 00:13:29,889 --> 00:13:32,380 Take this plant, for example, the heath pea. 235 00:13:32,425 --> 00:13:35,019 The monks claimed that a couple of its tiny tubers 236 00:13:35,061 --> 00:13:38,656 could put off feelings of hunger and thirst for weeks. 237 00:13:38,698 --> 00:13:41,929 so, say, in scotland the crops failed in october, 238 00:13:41,968 --> 00:13:45,961 they would be no other food available until the following May. 239 00:13:46,005 --> 00:13:49,702 Entire communities lived on this alone. 240 00:13:49,742 --> 00:13:51,471 so the reports tell us. 241 00:13:51,511 --> 00:13:52,842 Have you ever used it yourself? 242 00:13:52,879 --> 00:13:56,337 Yes, I was able without any trouble, 243 00:13:56,382 --> 00:14:01,081 and without any discomfort to have no further food or drink for five days. 244 00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:02,587 No drink for five days? 245 00:14:02,622 --> 00:14:04,112 That's right. 246 00:14:04,157 --> 00:14:07,251 Written evidence shows that monastic physicians 247 00:14:07,293 --> 00:14:09,625 weren't just relying on ancient knowledge, 248 00:14:09,662 --> 00:14:12,927 they were actually experimenting with new cures. 249 00:14:12,965 --> 00:14:15,433 In fact, the deal for poor patients 250 00:14:15,468 --> 00:14:17,299 was that they would receive treatment 251 00:14:17,336 --> 00:14:20,794 if they allowed themselves to be experimented on. 252 00:14:20,840 --> 00:14:23,502 one intriguing object discovered at soutra, 253 00:14:23,543 --> 00:14:26,068 15 feet down in the hospital drains 254 00:14:26,112 --> 00:14:29,206 was this fragment of heel bone. 255 00:14:29,248 --> 00:14:34,345 There are grooves which are running in a very regular almost parallel fashion 256 00:14:34,387 --> 00:14:37,015 - along the edges of the bone. - I see. 257 00:14:37,056 --> 00:14:39,616 With quite a bit of thickening of the bone around them, 258 00:14:39,659 --> 00:14:42,093 suggesting that there was something 259 00:14:42,128 --> 00:14:46,189 which has made this bone grow irregularly. 260 00:14:46,232 --> 00:14:50,635 And the likeliest thing would be something like a club foot, what we call talipes. 261 00:14:50,670 --> 00:14:54,504 But whether this was a selective surgery of the foot... 262 00:14:54,540 --> 00:14:57,168 - It could have been amputated? - It could have been amputated 263 00:14:57,210 --> 00:14:58,905 as part of an abnormal foot. 264 00:15:00,179 --> 00:15:03,114 And what Brian found in the hospital waste, 265 00:15:03,149 --> 00:15:06,380 lying next to the bone was another revelation. 266 00:15:09,088 --> 00:15:11,522 Roughly three inches away from the heel bone, 267 00:15:11,557 --> 00:15:12,990 is a clump of seeds. 268 00:15:13,025 --> 00:15:17,985 A combination of three toxic species of plants. 269 00:15:18,030 --> 00:15:21,193 Black henbane, hemlock and opium poppy, 270 00:15:21,234 --> 00:15:24,067 they are brought together for only one purpose. 271 00:15:24,103 --> 00:15:26,936 This is a specialized anesthetic, 272 00:15:26,973 --> 00:15:30,238 rendering someone free of pain throughout surgery 273 00:15:30,276 --> 00:15:32,506 while amputation went on. 274 00:15:33,446 --> 00:15:36,904 When we accuse medieval medicine of being dangerous, 275 00:15:36,949 --> 00:15:40,214 it's worth bearing in mind that today in the united states 276 00:15:40,253 --> 00:15:43,416 more people die of medical mistakes each year 277 00:15:43,456 --> 00:15:48,860 than from road accidents, breast cancer and AIDs combined. 278 00:15:50,863 --> 00:15:53,161 We like to believe the Middle Ages 279 00:15:53,199 --> 00:15:55,997 was an age of superstition and ignorance. 280 00:15:56,035 --> 00:16:01,132 We even cling to total falsehoods to support that belief. 281 00:16:02,942 --> 00:16:04,307 Take geography. 282 00:16:04,343 --> 00:16:07,369 In the Middle Ages they thought the earth was flat. 283 00:16:07,413 --> 00:16:10,109 It's a well known fact, except that it's a fact 284 00:16:10,149 --> 00:16:13,482 that was made up in the 19th century. 285 00:16:16,822 --> 00:16:19,723 Medieval sailors knew the world was round. 286 00:16:19,759 --> 00:16:23,058 I mean, how else did things disappear beyond the horizon? 287 00:16:26,599 --> 00:16:31,036 In fact, people in the Middle Ages wrote about the world being round. 288 00:16:31,070 --> 00:16:32,537 Here's Roger Bacon. 289 00:16:32,571 --> 00:16:37,167 ''The curvature of the earth explains why we can see further 290 00:16:37,209 --> 00:16:39,074 ''from higher elevations.'' 291 00:16:45,251 --> 00:16:49,517 so, why is it we're so convinced that medieval people 292 00:16:49,555 --> 00:16:51,420 thought the world was flat? 293 00:16:51,457 --> 00:16:56,656 Well, one of the chief culprits was a 19th-century American novelist 294 00:16:56,696 --> 00:16:58,926 by the name of Washington Irving. 295 00:16:58,964 --> 00:17:02,331 He wrote fantasies, like The Legend of sleepy Hollow 296 00:17:02,368 --> 00:17:04,393 and Rip van Winkle. 297 00:17:07,807 --> 00:17:12,801 In 1828, Irving also wrote a biography of Christopher Columbus, 298 00:17:12,845 --> 00:17:16,747 which included a jolly exciting scene in which... 299 00:17:16,782 --> 00:17:17,976 Thank you. 300 00:17:18,017 --> 00:17:20,349 ..just before his great voyage of discovery, 301 00:17:20,386 --> 00:17:22,877 Columbus was confronted by the ignorance 302 00:17:22,922 --> 00:17:26,619 and bigotry of the church authorities at salamanca. 303 00:17:27,526 --> 00:17:30,552 They accused him of heresy, for saying the world was round, 304 00:17:30,596 --> 00:17:33,156 when the church taught that it was flat. 305 00:17:33,199 --> 00:17:37,135 Except the church had never taught that the world was flat. 306 00:17:37,169 --> 00:17:39,228 The scene was entirely fictitious. 307 00:17:41,907 --> 00:17:44,501 But if they didn't believe the world was flat, 308 00:17:44,543 --> 00:17:47,205 why were their maps so terrible? 309 00:17:47,246 --> 00:17:49,180 I mean, they hadn't a clue, had they? 310 00:17:49,215 --> 00:17:52,184 Look at this, they've got jerusalem here in the middle 311 00:17:52,218 --> 00:17:53,583 like a bull's-eye. 312 00:17:53,619 --> 00:17:56,349 They've got Rome down there. 313 00:17:56,389 --> 00:17:58,448 up there they've got Noah's Ark. 314 00:17:58,491 --> 00:18:02,018 And over there a whole lot of monsters. 315 00:18:02,061 --> 00:18:03,722 I mean, come on. 316 00:18:03,763 --> 00:18:06,926 I asked peter Barber from the British Library 317 00:18:06,966 --> 00:18:09,764 to tell me what on earth was going on. 318 00:18:11,237 --> 00:18:14,331 The point is, it isn't a map, because in the Middle Ages 319 00:18:14,373 --> 00:18:17,968 this would have been regarded as a visual encyclopedia. 320 00:18:18,010 --> 00:18:21,207 In a way, it's geographical, but the purpose of the geography 321 00:18:21,247 --> 00:18:24,375 is to provide a framework for knowledge and for philosophy. 322 00:18:24,417 --> 00:18:28,080 And also a history, which begins with Adam and Eve, 323 00:18:28,120 --> 00:18:32,819 - goes on to the Tower of Babel. - Yes. 324 00:18:32,858 --> 00:18:35,383 There's jerusalem. 325 00:18:35,428 --> 00:18:38,625 - And down there is Rome. - Yeah. 326 00:18:38,664 --> 00:18:39,995 on another level, 327 00:18:40,032 --> 00:18:42,728 it's also the history of the past, 328 00:18:42,768 --> 00:18:44,895 including the history of Alexander the Great, 329 00:18:44,937 --> 00:18:47,497 who accounts for these weird creatures here. 330 00:18:49,575 --> 00:18:51,907 These are the people whom Alexander the Great in legend 331 00:18:51,944 --> 00:18:53,571 is supposed to have encountered. 332 00:18:53,612 --> 00:18:57,013 I've just noticed that God has got a cricket ball in his left hand. 333 00:18:57,049 --> 00:18:59,984 Well, it may look like a cricket ball, and it's certainly a ball, 334 00:19:00,019 --> 00:19:01,782 but it is actually the world. 335 00:19:01,821 --> 00:19:06,315 Ah, so this is visual proof that they see the world as a globe. 336 00:19:08,427 --> 00:19:11,624 Mappa didn't mean map, it simply meant a cloth. 337 00:19:11,664 --> 00:19:15,600 The purpose of these mappae was not to show you the shape of the world, 338 00:19:15,634 --> 00:19:17,932 it was to help you understand God. 339 00:19:23,042 --> 00:19:27,172 The people who needed geographically accurate maps were mariners, 340 00:19:27,213 --> 00:19:28,612 and they had them. 341 00:19:28,647 --> 00:19:30,911 This chart dates from the 13th century, 342 00:19:30,950 --> 00:19:33,714 although we have no idea who drew charts like this 343 00:19:33,752 --> 00:19:35,811 or even how they were made. 344 00:19:35,855 --> 00:19:37,823 They're a bit of a mystery. 345 00:19:40,659 --> 00:19:45,323 Washington Irving's fantasy of Columbus and the bigoted churchmen 346 00:19:45,364 --> 00:19:48,959 also panders to another major misconception. 347 00:19:49,001 --> 00:19:52,334 And that is the idea that it was the medieval Church 348 00:19:52,371 --> 00:19:54,839 that suppressed knowledge and that persecuted 349 00:19:54,874 --> 00:19:57,968 those who sought to extend the boundaries of science. 350 00:19:59,211 --> 00:20:01,145 In fact, throughout the Middle Ages, 351 00:20:01,180 --> 00:20:03,740 scientific experimentation was carried out 352 00:20:03,782 --> 00:20:07,684 by churchmen and with the blessing of the church. 353 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:10,416 Roger Bacon was a friar, often writing for the pope. 354 00:20:10,456 --> 00:20:16,224 He wrote, ''Experiment is the only safe guide in such investigations. '' 355 00:20:16,262 --> 00:20:19,288 Mind you, ''safe'' is a relative word. 356 00:20:21,267 --> 00:20:25,328 In the 11th century, a monk at Malmesbury Abbey, by the name of Elmer, 357 00:20:25,371 --> 00:20:26,861 one day fitted himself out 358 00:20:26,906 --> 00:20:31,366 with a pair of wings and jumped from the high tower. 359 00:20:31,410 --> 00:20:35,244 His flying machine carried him a full 2OO yards... 360 00:20:35,281 --> 00:20:36,612 Wheee! 361 00:20:36,649 --> 00:20:39,846 ..before he crash-landed, breaking both legs. 362 00:20:39,885 --> 00:20:42,217 When Elmer lay in bed recovering, 363 00:20:42,254 --> 00:20:44,654 he told the Abbot he knew what had gone wrong. 364 00:20:44,690 --> 00:20:47,557 His flying machine needed a tail. 365 00:20:47,593 --> 00:20:51,222 The Abbot forbade him to take the experiment any further 366 00:20:51,263 --> 00:20:55,199 and manned flight was put on hold for 9oo years. 367 00:20:55,234 --> 00:20:56,223 (Birds twittering) 368 00:20:58,571 --> 00:21:00,971 Men of the church were forever exploring 369 00:21:01,006 --> 00:21:02,837 new boundaries of knowledge 370 00:21:02,875 --> 00:21:07,141 in every conceivable sphere of human activity. 371 00:21:09,281 --> 00:21:11,340 Even these fabulous buildings 372 00:21:11,383 --> 00:21:13,578 are the result of experimentation. 373 00:21:13,619 --> 00:21:17,612 Experimentation on a monumental scale. 374 00:21:20,225 --> 00:21:24,093 When Canterbury Cathedral burnt down in 117 4, 375 00:21:24,129 --> 00:21:28,190 the monks decided to build something altogether more ambitious. 376 00:21:28,233 --> 00:21:32,192 They allowed a French architect by the name of William of sens 377 00:21:32,237 --> 00:21:37,038 to talk them into an entirely new kind of architecture. 378 00:21:39,278 --> 00:21:41,769 Taller, lighter, finely chiseled 379 00:21:41,814 --> 00:21:44,078 and with graceful pointed arches, 380 00:21:44,116 --> 00:21:47,882 nothing like it had been seen in England before. 381 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,787 It soared to the glory of God, the church, 382 00:21:50,823 --> 00:21:53,189 the archbishop and the architect. 383 00:21:53,225 --> 00:21:56,160 And not necessarily in that order. 384 00:21:57,997 --> 00:22:00,989 John Burton, the surveyor of the fabric at canterbury, 385 00:22:01,033 --> 00:22:03,695 showed me just how William of sens 386 00:22:03,736 --> 00:22:05,704 improved on the ancient Roman designs 387 00:22:05,738 --> 00:22:09,071 that still exist in the old part of the cathedral. 388 00:22:09,108 --> 00:22:10,871 see, what we're in at the moment, 389 00:22:10,909 --> 00:22:13,275 this rather dark and dank sort of area really, 390 00:22:13,312 --> 00:22:17,112 and that was caused by the fact that this is Romanesque architecture. 391 00:22:17,149 --> 00:22:21,984 It's very simple, very basic architecture based on the semicircular arch. 392 00:22:22,021 --> 00:22:25,718 It's very shallow and it's pushing a lot of weight down. 393 00:22:25,758 --> 00:22:29,524 And so the walls have to be extremely thick to counteract that. 394 00:22:29,561 --> 00:22:33,691 And these thick walls, of course, do not allow large window openings. 395 00:22:33,732 --> 00:22:36,257 And what William of sens was coming up with 396 00:22:36,301 --> 00:22:38,201 was a way of overcoming that problem. 397 00:22:38,237 --> 00:22:40,501 He's being pushed by the theologians as well, 398 00:22:40,539 --> 00:22:43,133 they were saying, ''God is light, 399 00:22:43,175 --> 00:22:45,871 ''let's see what we can do, how we can bring light in, 400 00:22:45,911 --> 00:22:49,574 ''and actually worship in a very light, bright space.'' 401 00:22:49,615 --> 00:22:52,015 And so what they did, they tried to experiment with this 402 00:22:52,051 --> 00:22:55,487 and see how they could make the structure thinner and strong. 403 00:22:55,521 --> 00:22:58,422 And to do that, they actually put curtain walling up really. 404 00:22:58,457 --> 00:23:01,051 It's the early curtain walling and brought the light in. 405 00:23:01,093 --> 00:23:03,323 - This is what we call the Gothic? - The Gothic, yes. 406 00:23:12,371 --> 00:23:15,807 Here, we're looking across at the Romanesque part of Canterbury. 407 00:23:15,841 --> 00:23:17,934 It's just a very heavy mass. 408 00:23:17,976 --> 00:23:21,036 If you look at the tower you'll see that's just a heavy mass of masonry 409 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,241 coming straight down to the ground. 410 00:23:23,282 --> 00:23:26,410 And the openings are relatively small to the space. 411 00:23:26,452 --> 00:23:31,048 And if we look across here, we can see the solution to the problem. 412 00:23:31,090 --> 00:23:33,081 The flying buttress. 413 00:23:35,027 --> 00:23:39,930 In that roof, above, are the vaults which have loads forcing outwards, 414 00:23:39,965 --> 00:23:41,432 just pushing, pushing out. 415 00:23:41,467 --> 00:23:46,370 And the flying buttress at right angles to the main wall is pushing back, 416 00:23:46,405 --> 00:23:48,373 not letting it collapse. 417 00:23:48,407 --> 00:23:51,399 so the structural development here is opening up the wall 418 00:23:51,443 --> 00:23:54,241 and giving some beautiful, beautiful shapes inside 419 00:23:54,279 --> 00:23:55,746 and a massive amount of light. 420 00:23:55,781 --> 00:23:58,011 (Terry ) And this at the time was just revolutionary? 421 00:23:58,050 --> 00:23:59,449 oh, totally revolutionary. 422 00:23:59,485 --> 00:24:02,147 It was the...it was the great new architecture. 423 00:24:08,460 --> 00:24:13,659 The cathedral builders were experimenting at the limits of their technology. 424 00:24:13,699 --> 00:24:17,191 And they learnt what those limits were the hard way. 425 00:24:17,236 --> 00:24:22,572 The fact is, our great cathedrals were always falling down. 426 00:24:24,643 --> 00:24:28,704 Winchester cathedral's tower collapsed in 11O7. 427 00:24:28,747 --> 00:24:32,979 Gloucester Abbey, 117O. Lincoln cathedral, 1237. 428 00:24:33,018 --> 00:24:36,215 st. David's, 122O. Ely, 1322. 429 00:24:36,255 --> 00:24:38,985 st. Albans, 1323. y ork, 14O7. 430 00:24:39,024 --> 00:24:41,015 And Ripon, 145O. 431 00:24:44,830 --> 00:24:49,460 of course, the Church's motive wasn't pure blue skies research. 432 00:24:49,501 --> 00:24:51,492 Like a lot of modern science, 433 00:24:51,537 --> 00:24:54,563 there were often economic or political imperatives 434 00:24:54,606 --> 00:24:57,541 behind the pursuit of knowledge. 435 00:24:57,576 --> 00:25:01,706 Take the Abbot of st. Albans here, in 1323. 436 00:25:01,747 --> 00:25:07,549 He undertook one of the most ambitious engineering projects of his day. 437 00:25:14,259 --> 00:25:18,025 Abbot Richard of Wallingford was an enthusiastic astronomer 438 00:25:18,063 --> 00:25:20,588 and mathematician, and a leper. 439 00:25:20,632 --> 00:25:23,760 Although I don't suppose he was that enthusiastic about the leprosy. 440 00:25:23,802 --> 00:25:26,794 But why did he make this and what is it? 441 00:25:26,839 --> 00:25:28,431 Well, it's a clock. 442 00:25:28,473 --> 00:25:32,034 Actually, this is a reproduction based on the designs 443 00:25:32,077 --> 00:25:34,011 and descriptions he left behind. 444 00:25:34,046 --> 00:25:37,607 That part of the mechanism strikes a bell on the hour. 445 00:25:37,649 --> 00:25:40,413 But this is the most intriguing part of the clock. 446 00:25:40,452 --> 00:25:42,386 This is an astronomical clock. 447 00:25:42,421 --> 00:25:45,618 It shows the position of the sun here. 448 00:25:45,657 --> 00:25:47,750 And the moon. 449 00:25:47,793 --> 00:25:49,624 It even shows the phases of the moon. 450 00:25:49,661 --> 00:25:52,721 It can even predict a lunar eclipse. 451 00:25:52,764 --> 00:25:55,255 That's when the dragon swallows the moon. 452 00:25:55,300 --> 00:25:58,098 The whole clock takes 18 and a third years 453 00:25:58,136 --> 00:26:00,730 to complete one cycle of the heavens. 454 00:26:00,772 --> 00:26:03,502 It's a formidable feat of engineering. 455 00:26:03,542 --> 00:26:06,033 But, why did he make it? 456 00:26:06,078 --> 00:26:11,038 Well, the Abbot's reasons were economic and political. 457 00:26:12,651 --> 00:26:15,245 y ou see, the church had been locked in a power struggle 458 00:26:15,287 --> 00:26:17,278 with the townspeople of st. Albans 459 00:26:17,322 --> 00:26:21,122 over who controlled the town's commercial enterprises. 460 00:26:21,159 --> 00:26:23,957 By building such a revolutionary clock, 461 00:26:23,996 --> 00:26:26,521 Richard was demonstrating that the church 462 00:26:26,565 --> 00:26:30,524 was technologically superior to the townsmen. 463 00:26:34,773 --> 00:26:36,832 What's more, by chiming every hour, 464 00:26:36,875 --> 00:26:38,740 instead of just the time for prayers, 465 00:26:38,777 --> 00:26:43,714 Richards's clock would take control over the working day of the town. 466 00:26:43,749 --> 00:26:45,478 From now on, it was the Church 467 00:26:45,517 --> 00:26:47,849 who would issue the time for town council meetings, 468 00:26:47,886 --> 00:26:50,047 for the opening and closing of markets, 469 00:26:50,088 --> 00:26:53,854 and for the beginning and end of each and every day's work. 470 00:26:57,629 --> 00:27:00,996 This was God's universe made visible. 471 00:27:01,033 --> 00:27:06,437 Nowadays we assume that science and religion are poles apart. 472 00:27:06,471 --> 00:27:09,668 But the medieval church was not opposed to science. 473 00:27:09,708 --> 00:27:11,608 It wanted to use it. 474 00:27:11,643 --> 00:27:14,305 After all, since the Bible contained the truth, 475 00:27:14,346 --> 00:27:20,080 how could the church be threatened by understanding the truth better? 476 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:24,712 It was only later, in the time of Galileo, 477 00:27:24,756 --> 00:27:28,192 that the vatican became frightened of science. 478 00:27:28,226 --> 00:27:31,320 Newton, who was obsessed with alchemy 479 00:27:31,363 --> 00:27:34,264 and interpreting the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, 480 00:27:34,299 --> 00:27:36,597 was no more rational than the alchemists, 481 00:27:36,635 --> 00:27:41,038 who with their experiments, sought to uncover the truth hidden in nature. 482 00:27:41,073 --> 00:27:44,099 It was their understanding and their explorations 483 00:27:44,142 --> 00:27:48,442 which became the very foundation of modern science. 484 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,745 Back in the 13th century, Roger Bacon recorded the things 485 00:27:51,783 --> 00:27:53,410 he foresaw in the future. 486 00:27:53,452 --> 00:27:57,855 ''Great ships guided by one man, that will move with greater swiftness 487 00:27:57,889 --> 00:27:59,823 ''than if they were full of oarsmen. 488 00:27:59,858 --> 00:28:03,692 ''A carriage which will move with inestimable speed 489 00:28:03,729 --> 00:28:07,221 ''and without the help of any living creature. 490 00:28:07,265 --> 00:28:12,999 ''It is possible that a device for flying shall be made.'' 491 00:28:14,006 --> 00:28:18,443 That was 75o years ago. so what took us so long? 492 00:28:18,477 --> 00:28:23,210 partly our ignorance of our own past, perhaps? 493 00:28:31,523 --> 00:28:34,083 Next time on Terry Jones' Medieval Lives, 494 00:28:34,126 --> 00:28:35,718 the outlaw. 495 00:28:35,761 --> 00:28:38,059 Did Robin Hood really exist? 496 00:28:38,096 --> 00:28:40,758 Did outlaws never wear trousers? 497 00:28:40,799 --> 00:28:45,634 And how many cows enjoyed a career as executioner?