Scotland in the Middle Ages bards to the Lord of the Isles, existed in Scotland and a larger number in Ireland, until they were suppressed from the seventeenth century. Members of bardic schools were trained in the complex rules and forms of Gaelic poetry. Much of their work was never written down and what survives was only recorded from the sixteenth century. In the late Middle Ages, Middle Scots, often simply called English, became the dominant language of the country. It was derived largely from Old English, with the addition of elements from Gaelic and French. Although resembling the language spoken in northern England, it
Midwifery in the Middle Ages the early modern wave of witch persecutions, has prompted several theses that argue for a direct connection between the two phenomena." Several historians have engaged in what Kathryn Taglia describes as "the debate around the issue of witchcraft and midwives." On one side of this debate, citing Thomas R. Forbes' "The Midwife and the Witch", Minkowski writes that "there is little question that Western European countries shared a deep concern for the potential of witchcraft practice by midwives," elaborating that "by the late Middle Ages, the church and civil authorities mandated close supervision of midwives, as expressed in required professional