8. Surgeons were limited in their practice in England by law
Despite the advances in surgical and medical training on the continent of Europe during the medieval period, surgeons were still often separate from doctors, and held in lower regard, particularly in England and the Germanic lands. Barber surgeons were far more common than trained surgeons, and they were limited, by law, to performing only specific treatments. Trained surgeons were also limited as to the treatments they could offer, because surgery was seen for what it was at the time, risky, highly-dangerous, and a last resort (other than bloodletting, amputations, and so forth). The stitching of wounds was allowed, but surgery to remove an implanted arrowhead, for example, often was not.
Surgeons were also understood to be liable for damage done. In an age when antiseptics and antibiotics were not available (nor understood), surgery was likely to result in infection, including gangrene, which inevitably killed the patient. More forward-thinking surgeons often treated wounds by dousing them with vinegar or brine, in an age where the only available painkiller was alcohol. That the same alcohol could be used to cleanse the wound was unknown to the surgeon, who likely would not have wasted it on external use anyway. Surgeons were also held in low regard for performing what was considered by many to be the barbaric practice of dissection of human cadavers, which led to the development of a new underworld career, that of the grave robber.