The Literature is sacred; clinical practice is profane. This is the foundation upon which the cultus of EBM(Evidence Based Medicine) rests. The term “evidence” has here a very narrow and precise meaning: evidence is what an authorized interpretation of The Literature pronounces to be true. The abyss separating the sacred from the profane is bridged by the intermediary of the academic medical community, which serves the function of the priesthood in more obvious variations on the religious theme. The Literature is a form of revealed Truth akin to the examination of the entrails of sacrificial animals by skilled interpreters. The laity, which includes ordinary medical practitioners, is not competent to discern the omens latent in The Literature. Hermeneutic exegesis and sanctification are necessary to bring forth and make manifest what Nature loves to hide.