V WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS 183 



which Eginhard is ocular witness appear to 

 belong to classes of disease in which malingering 

 is possible or hysteria presumable. Without 

 modern means of diagnosis, the names given to 

 them are quite worthless. One "miracle," how-\ 

 ever, in which the patient, a woman, was cured by ( 

 the mere sight of the church in which the relics \ 

 of the blessed martyrs lay, is an unmistakable \ 

 case of dislocation of the lower jaw; and it is ] 

 obvious that, as not unfrequently happens in such 

 accidents in weakly subjects, the jaws slipped 

 suddenly back into place, perhaps in consequence 

 of a jolt, as the woman rode towards the church. | 

 (Cap. v. 53.) l 



There is also a good deal said about a very 

 questionable blind man one Albricus (Alberich ?) 

 who, having been cured, not of his blindness, 

 but of another disease under which he laboured, 

 took up his quarters at Seligenstadt, and came out 

 as a prophet, inspired by the Archangel Gabriel. 

 Eginhard intimates that his prophecies were ful- 

 filled ; but as he does not state exactly what they 

 were, or how they were accomplished, the state- 

 ment must be accepted with much caution. It is 

 obvious that he was not the man to hesitate to 

 " ease " a prophecy until it fitted, if the credit of 



1 Eginhard speaks with lofty contempt of the " vana ac super- 

 stitiosa pnesumptio " of the poor woman's companions in trying 

 to alleviate her sufferings with ' ' herbs and frivolous incanta- 

 tions." Vain enough, no doubt, but the " mulierculae " might 

 have returned the epithet "superstitious" with interest. 



