Hospital's Secularization in Late Medieval and Ear...
ZOU Xiang
QuFu Normal University
Hospitals played a very important role in the social and medical relief in the history of Humankind.In different periods,its aims,functions,organization and administration are different,so the development of hospitals bares the sign of the times.In many articles about English hospitals,occidental researchers divide the history of hospitals into two periods,namely the religious relief institution period in ancient times,and the medical institution period in modern times.For example,Lindsay Granshaw and Roy Porter made this division in their symposium.[1]Like most researchers,Martin McKee and Judith Healy,despite their opinion that the real history of hospitals in Europe began in 19th century,also hold the opinion that the hospital has two stages.However,in addition to the division of the two phases,few have studied the evolution of the hospital from a religious relief institution to a medical institution.Drawing on original materials and research results,the chapter,through combining the study of the history of hospital's with a wider appreciation of social history,will argue that there was a transformation period between the two aforementioned stages that have hitherto received most attention from historians.For England during the Reformation,secularization is especially obvious.This transformation was very important for the hospital's specialization in the later times,it also testified that the social transformation of England in early modern times was a part of the wider overall transformation of the society.This chapter discusses the intricate interactions of the hospital's secularization within the wider framework of English social history,and intends to stir the scholars’interests in this problem.