This paper focuses on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the concentrated effort to shift away from the teachings of the Catholic Church and towards a rational science rooted in scholastic thought which did not rely on Divine causes and cures for illness. By looking at the growth of the medical programs in Paris and Salerno, northern versus southern trends and attitudes, and the deep influence of not only Christian rituals, but also pagan popular culture, this essay aims to explore the exact nature of the relationship between religion and medicine, and the mediating role that superstition played between them.

This article explores the relationship between Christian persecution under Roman authorities in Late Antiquity and the role that consumption rituals played within it. Considering the similarities between condemned pagan and gnostic consumption rituals, which were often accused of being cannibalistic orgies, this paper determines whether comparisons drawn between these condemned rituals and Christian ones had any tangible similarities, or if Roman authorities projected their prejudices and knowledge of pagan rituals onto the Christian in order to justify their continued persecution.