RCPI Conference looks back to 17th century, on 400th anniversary of college founder
During a session at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland’s Conference, a physician from the early-17th century was quoted as saying: “There are certainly more persons in Dublin at the present day practising the Art of Medicine than any other art, yet there are very few of them with the qualifications which Hippocrates requires in a Medical Doctor.”
That observation was made in the years before physician John Stearne founded RCPI – then the Fraternity of Physicians of Trinity Hall – in 1654. In a session marking the 400th anniversary of Stearne’s birth year, the college was shown as emerging from a period of immense political turmoil.
In a presentation titled “Ireland in the Age of John Stearne (1624-69),” Prof Robert Armstrong (Associate Professor in History, Trinity College Dublin) outlined how Irish society was changing at the time. Stearne’s mother was “Old English,” her family embedded in Ireland for generations, while his father was “New English,” recently arrived to the country to take-up a position as official of Church of Ireland.
Since the surrender of Hugh O’Neill ended the Nine Years’ War, a collapsed Lordship system saw new generations become professionals, benefitting from being able to pay rent as “freeholders” and live in a country with a more commercial trade system. According to Prof Armstrong, Stearne came to embody this more fluid society.
Shortly after the onset of the Irish Confederate Wars in 1641, in opposition against Charles I’s attempts to impose religious policies across the kingdom, Stearne left Ireland. A presentation by Prof Joe Harbison (Associate Professor, Medical Gerontology, Trinity College Dublin) showed the young physician being enrolled at Cambridge during the conflict.
In his presentation titled “The Life and Legacy of John Stearne: ‘Philosopher, Physician, and consummate Theologian,” Prof Harbison explained that during the wars, Stearne spent several years being active in Cambridge, Oxford and Bedford
The Battle of Rathmines in 1649 saw the beginning of the Cromwellian invasion, whose forces brought the Bubonic Plague with them to Dublin, leading to a public health crisis.
In the early 1650s, Stearne returned, as registrar of Trinity College Dublin. The college was planning to sell one of its buildings – an empty hall – but the physician suggested an alternative: to restore the building into a centre to teach medicine. The Fraternity of Physicians of Trinity Hall was founded in 1654, with Stearne as its first president.
The Fraternity of Physicians of Trinity Hall was a major part of Stearne’s final years – he died in 1669, aged 45.
According to Prof Harbison, Stearne wrote many books in that period, most of which concerned philosophy.
In Aphorismi de Felicitate (Aphorisms on Happiness), published in 1664, Stearne compiled an extensive list of pithy statements. One aphorism seems to summarise an entire philosophy on how to live a happy life: “Health, bodily pleasure, clothing, and home are to be considered.”