Xj6 ORIGIN OF M€NACHISM. 



a fheep-fkin gown, as a memorial of his friendfhip $ 

 and his efleem for Hilarion was afterwards fo great^ that 



his miraculous gift; and fome fevere pamphlets were written 

 againft him . but he found zealous defenders even amongft the 

 phyficians. He himfelf publifhed in 1666, a letter to the Hon. 

 I^r. Boyle : in which he gave a Ihort hiftory of his life, with the 

 divine impulfes he had at various times received. To it were an- 

 nexed a great many certificates figned by perfons of known pro- 

 bity, and particularly by Mr. Boyle, and by Dr. Wilkins, Dr. 

 Whichcot, Dr. Cudworth, and Dr. Patrick, famous divines, who 

 attended the truth of the wonderful cures he had performed ; but 

 neverthelefs his reputation lafled no great while ; for it appeared 

 at laft, that all thofe miraculous cures were entirely founded on 

 the credulity of the public. — GafTner, a prieft in Germany, had, 

 a few years ago, the reputation of healing miraculoufly a great 

 number of difeafes that he cured. This was much for our times# 

 But what is ftill more extraordinary, Gaflher had actually wrought 

 cures upon the lick by his exorcifms on the fpot, and had been in 

 this practice a long while, rhe hiftory of which I know, and 

 which I, and other far more expert phyficians than rnyfelf, could 

 "hot cure. We mould have cured them too, if we had been in af- 

 ters of fo much influence on the minds of men, as yet properly 

 fpeaking every phyfician ought to be ; for, in the devil, as the 

 caufe of any difternper, I truly believe as little as in the removal 

 -of a malady by means of this driving out of the devil. Yet, 

 that GalTner cured people of nervous complaints, by an ex- 

 ceedingly ftriking command over the imagination and the nerves of. 

 the vulgar, of this I am fully convinced. But, by the by, it 

 was lingular enough, that juft after the time that M. Lavater 

 was ftnving to gain the general afient to hi3 doctrine of the ever- 

 continuing poffibility of miraculous gifts, this catholic prieft 

 fhould be making luch a noife in Suabia and Bavaria, and feem 

 to do practically what Mr. Lavater in Zurich had promiled 

 exegetically. 



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