The Roman Catholic Christian Church was the most powerful authority. The church linked disability to God’s punishment for sin. There were ideas that disabled children were the result of sex with the Devil. Yet, it also insisted on the duty of all Christians to do good works. The richer you were, the larger your good works should be. Good works included supporting anyone in need in society. The church made it clear that both sides benefited. The helper would be more likely to go to heaven. The person who was helped, would have a better life in this world. Think: would you describe the medieval attitude to disability as straightforward or complicated? Shakespeare writes about many types of disability. These include: blindness, limping, alcoholism, morbid obesity, infertility, war wounds, learning disability, epilepsy, senility and ‘madness’. Sometimes his characters are genuinely disabled, and sometimes they pretend to be disabled for a purpose. Think: can you remember any Shakespeare characters that you have studied who are disabled? In pre-industrial society, people made a living for themselves. There was less employment organised in workplaces, with rigid timetables and targets. If people could earn a living, then they would. The rest of society did not decide who was disabled. People were not put into groups and given a label as they were in later centuries. Think: What are the advantages and disadvantages of this way of thinking?
The Roman Catholic Christian Church was the most powerful authority. The church linked disability to God’s punishment for sin. There were ideas that disabled children were the result of sex with the Devil. Yet, it also insisted on the duty of all Christians to do good works. The richer you were, the larger your good works should be. Good works included supporting anyone in need in society. The church made it clear that both sides benefited. The helper would be more likely to go to heaven. The person who was helped, would have a better life in this world. Think: would you describe the medieval attitude to disability as straightforward or complicated? Shakespeare writes about many types of disability. These include: blindness, limping, alcoholism, morbid obesity, infertility, war wounds, learning disability, epilepsy, senility and ‘madness’. Sometimes his characters are genuinely disabled, and sometimes they pretend to be disabled for a purpose. Think: can you remember any Shakespeare characters that you have studied who are disabled? In pre-industrial society, people made a living for themselves. There was less employment organised in workplaces, with rigid timetables and targets. If people could earn a living, then they would. The rest of society did not decide who was disabled. People were not put into groups and given a label as they were in later centuries. Think: What are the advantages and disadvantages of this way of thinking?