How to Cite
Esch, Arnold and Schmugge, Ludwig: Der Papst und die Ärzte. Medizinische Gutachten in den Entscheidungen der Pönitentiarie, in Menschen in ihrer Gegenwart: Die Fülle spätmittelalterlichen Lebens im Spiegel der Apostolischen Pönitentiarie, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2024 (Online-Schriften des DHI Rom. Neue Reihe: Pubblicazioni online del DHI Roma. Nuova serie, Volume 10), p. 45–61. https://doi.org/10.17885/heiup.1345.c18670
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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ISBN 978-3-96822-261-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-3-96822-262-2 (PDF)
Published
04/04/2024
Der Papst und die Ärzte. Medizinische Gutachten in den Entscheidungen der Pönitentiarie
Abstract The papal curia made use of medical expertise to give themselves „scientific“ backing when granting clemency. In the course of the second half of the fifteenth century, as can be seen from the papal registers, the Penitentiary based its decision to grant or refuse a requested grace, in many cases, on medical reports, as had been common practice in forensic medicine in Italy since the thirteenth century. This was so for applications for food licences, manslaughter in selfdefence, medical malpractice, priestly ordination despite castration, the dissolution of marriages due to impotence and requests from nuns for licences for baths.
