| 1. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, libraries were burnt and doctors were no longer trained. | | |
| 2. The only strong institution to survive was the Roman Catholic Church. It supported the idea of disease being a punishment from God. | | |
| 3. Doctors were encouraged to care for the sick but not to find new ways of curing them. Curing them was God’s work. | | |
| 4. Galen’s books were preserved in monasteries and the Arab world. | | |
| 5. Study of the human body became virtually impossible as dissection was banned. | | |
| 6. From the seventh century AD monasteries began to be built and they provided treatment for the sick. | | |
| 7. Monks experimented with herbs and natural cures and built up a great deal of practical knowledge. | | |
| 8. The attacks by the Vikings from the eighth century meant that large areas of Europe reverted to paganism. | | |
| 9. The breakdown of law and order made travelling impossible therefore; the training of doctors was no longer possible. | | |
| 10. Many of the libraries were destroyed so knowledge was lost. | | |
| 11. The collapse of Roman Empire ended strong government so public health systems collapsed. | | |
| 12. The Catholic Church discouraged scientific experiment. | | |
| 13. There was a return to the belief in the spiritual cause and cure of disease, e.g. pilgrimages and relics. | | |
| 14. The collapse of the Roman Empire brought and a decline of learning in Europe. | | |
| 15. Education was controlled by the Church and its main task was the training of priests. | | |
| 16. Women could not train to be doctors in the Christian world. There was opposition to women practising medicine. | | |
| 17. There were many wars, some of which lead to the destruction of the libraries that held the knowledge built up by the Romans. | | |
| 18. The Byzantine Empire, where Roman ideas and knowledge survived, was virtually cut of from western Europe. | | |