428 CURE BY Y E TOUCH. 



After the schism between church and state, however (so 

 they say), it would be a tendency of the ancient church to 

 prove that the royal gift of cure by stroking was imparted 

 through priestly benediction, not inherited; that, moreover, 

 it was not imparted in perpetuity to a sovereign, but quamdiic 

 se bene gesserit. The case does not admit of doubt (so they 

 allege), that so long as it was convenient for church and 

 king to remain in good accord, the spiritual theory of im- 

 parted virtue would be adopted as most consistent. All other 

 theories are so manifestly inconsistent, they say, that, being 

 adopted, the fallacy must at once be detected. 



To have admitted the healing faculty of kings and queens 

 as being of the same sort with the healing faculty of seventh 

 sons and other common strokers, would be, say they, an ob- 

 vious abrogation of regal prerogative. To have attributed a 

 cure wrought to the power of a medal given, would, again, 

 not have been politic. In the interests of kingcraft, it was 

 always necessary to show that the virtue was neither personal 

 nor symbolical ; neither the result of ordinary stroking nor of 

 influence conveyed through a mere piece of metal: where- 

 fore (they go on to say) when ties between Rome and the 

 British throne were severed, the pretence of cure by stroking 

 began to sit uneasily on British kings. It is easy to perceive 

 (so allege the scoffers) that the pretension of this virtue was 

 made a ground of violent religious contest even so early as 

 the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth,* and only restrained 

 within bounds by the fear of indictment for high treason.f 



* And yet, if we are to believe Clowes, instances occurred of cures 

 wrought by the virgin Queen upon Catholics said Catholics being driven 

 to afford testimony thereto. A letter from a gentleman at Rome, published 

 in London anno 1721, confirms the above. 'A Roman Catholic in Eliza- 

 beth's reign,' writes he, ' grew terribly afflicted with the king's evil. Hav- 

 ing applied to doctors without success, he was at last touched by the Queen, 

 and perfectly cured. Being asked how the matter stood with him, his 

 answer was, " He was now satisfied, by experimental proof, that the Pope's 

 excommunication of her Majesty signified nothing." ' 



f Much later, i.e. in 1684, Thomas Russell was tried for high treason, 



