Religio Medici

Religio Medici (1643) is a spiritual memoir by English physician and author Sir Thomas Browne. Translated as "The Religion of a Doctor," Religio Medici expresses Browne's views on a wide range of scientific and religious subjects. Because some of these views were unorthodox at the time and controversial, Browne may not have intended the tract to be published. It was only in 1642 when an unauthorized copy went into circulation that Browne released an official version for consumption the following year. A best-seller across Europe at the time of its publication, the book later went on to influence writers and thinkers for centuries to come, including Thomas de Quincey, Carl Jung, and Virginia Woolf, who maintained that Religio Medici paved the way for all future memoirs. William Osler, who is frequently credited as "the father of modern medicine," considered Religio Medici so influential to his career that he reportedly memorized it by heart.

After completing his medical studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, Browne set about cataloging his values and belief systems into a comprehensive spiritual tract. One of the key themes of his philosophy concerns the importance of separating one's attitudes on science and religion. For a physician, one of the clearest implications of this belief is that a doctor must not only tolerate but also respect individual patients' religious or philosophical beliefs, even if they conflict with one's own. In seventeenth-century Europe, such religious tolerance was practically unheard of in the professional and peasant classes alike. A citizen was not only expected but also required by law to practice the religion of the state, be it Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox. In no state was Judaism the official religion, therefore, Jews were ostracized and frequently persecuted for their beliefs. Such beliefs, however, according to Browne, should not preclude the physician from treating patients.

This tolerance stems largely from Browne's own belief that individual churches and sects should not "usurp the gates of heaven, and turn the key against each other; and thus we go to heaven against each others' wills, conceits, and, with as much uncharity as arrogance, do err." For this reason, Browne strongly opposes the religious mandates put forth by most European states at this time, which led to bitter and bloody conflicts like the Thirty Years War, which raged during the period in which Browne wrote Religio Medici.



While Browne expresses deep and unprecedented tolerance for others' belief systems, he is adamant in his own religious beliefs. A Protestant, Browne abides by the notion of sola fide or "faith alone." In short, this means deep and abiding faith in God, Jesus, and the resurrection is sufficient justification for a sinner to be pardoned and her soul saved. This differs from Catholicism, which tends to emphasize "works" or good deeds as part of the grace required to gain admission into heaven. In discussing his beliefs, Browne also attests to the existence of hell and the promise of the last judgment, the eschatological worldview that says the second coming of Jesus Christ will hearken God's final and eternal judgment of every human being on the planet.

While Browne believes that science can illuminate religious truths, he is a strict adherent to the scientific rigors of empiricism and observation pioneered by rationalists like Sir Francis Bacon and which are now associated with what is referred to in the twentieth century and beyond as "the scientific method." Doing so necessitates a clear separation between the spheres of religion and science, at least when conducting medical procedures or formulating diagnoses.

Nevertheless, Browne recognizes a strong moral component to the science of medicine. To him, medicine is more than a trade or profession; it is a moral pursuit built on a foundation of service to others. This moral component also renders one's medical career into a journey of personal fulfillment. "For by compassion," Browne writes, "we make others' misery our own, and so, by relieving them, we relieve ourselves also." When a disease is beyond Browne's capacity to cure, he professes great shame and is reluctant to charge the patient a fee, calling this "scarce honest gain." This conceiving of the physician as a person of great moral character, for whom honesty and compassion are paramount, was unprecedented at the time.



In one of the only surviving contemporary reviews of Religio Medici, the French physician Guy Patin wrote: "A new little volume has arrived from Holland entitled Religio Medici written by an Englishman and translated into Latin by some Dutchman. It is a strange and pleasant book, but very delicate and wholly mystical; the author is not lacking in wit and you will see in him quaint and delightful thoughts. There are hardly any books of this sort. If scholars were permitted to write freely we would learn many novel things, never has there been a newspaper to this; in this way the subtlety of the human spirit could be revealed."