Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/487

 128. III. Nov., 1917.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

481

Hois. Cette vertu de les guerir est nou- velle," and therefore the author explains that the king who first possessed this virtue was Philip I.

This belief is often found in law books. Petrus Gregorius in his " Prasludia optimi iurisconsulti, probique magistratus. . . .Lug- duni, M.D.LXXXIII.," lib. i. cap. 11, pp. 50-51, says :

" Ego horum testis sum qui bis Tholosje, in ecclesia Metropolitana sancti Stephani, anno 1565 plures curari a Carplo IX. cum Gallias lustraret, vidi : testantur itidera omnia circum- vicina regna, a quibus, medecinae causa, ad regem singulis annis tarmatim acurrunt."

Touching for the king's evil is also men- tioned in " Repetitio Gulielmi Benedicti luriscon. In cap. Raynuntius de Testa- ment is. . . .Lugduni,M.D.LXH.," seccio " Duas liabens fih'as," No. 86, fol. 17 v., and sec. "Et uxorem nomine Adela," dec. v. n. 35, fol. 97 ; and it is also given, as an instance of a miracle performed by a person who was not a saint, in " Commentariorum Felini Sandei, luris Canonici Interpret is

acutissimi ad V. libros Decretalium,

Pars Secunda. . . .Lugduni, M.D.LXXXVU.," lib. ii. tit. xx. cap. lii. fols. 149v.-150.

Among old books, I think the best on the subject is the work of Andrew Laurence, "' De Mirabili Strumas sanandi vi solis Galliae Regibus Christianissimis divinilus concessa. Liber primus," and " De Stru- marum natura, generationis, modo, differ- entiis, causis, signis, curatione quae fit arte, & industria medica. Liber Secundus." have seen both printed in " Operum Andreae Laurentii, Ferrerii Domini, Gall. Regis Christian. Consiliarii ac Medici Pri-

marii Tomus Alter [II.] Francofurti

. . . .M.DC.xxvm." ; but there are two earlier editions of 1599 and 1609. The second book consists of twelve chapters, and occupies pp. 27-46, being a scientific treatise on the matter scientific as far as the ideas of the epoch permitted it. The first book contains only ten chapters, in which the author studies successively the ritual of the ceremony, which is the origin of the power (Clovis was the first king of France to possess it, but St. Louis added the making of the sign of the Cross), the same virtue enjoyed by kings of other countries, and other extraordinary powers attributed to some other persons, and also to beasts, plants, stones, magical words, &c.

" Le Toucheur royal (Remedes d'Autre- fois, 2* me serie), par le Dr. Cabanes. Paris, A. Maloine, ed. 1913," pp. 23-74, is a very good modern account of the history of touching for the king's evil in France, and

has also some notes on the same belief in other countries.

In ' Le Mars Franois ' is quoted Per A. Beuter's assertion that the kings of Aragon and Catalonia enjoyed also such a privilege. Though I have very carefully perused Per A. Beuter's ' Coronica,' I did not succeed in finding this assertion any- where. The only instance of this belief in Catalonia which I came across is in a frag- ment of the memoirs of Mn. Antoni de Busquets, canon of Majorca Cathedral, about the Prince of Viana's death and miracles (1461), published by Mr. E. Aguilo in the ' Calendari Catala pera 1'any 1902,' edited by Mr. Joan Bta. Battle, p. 158 :

" Despres de la mort del Princep stant sobre lo lit una dona que tenia lo coll perdut de porcellanes no hauia haguda oportunitat en vida de venirli davant dix : Pus nol he vist en vida perque goris yo crech ell me gorra en la sua mort, e axi ella puja sobre lo llit e pres la ma del dit senyor e mes les al coll e ten tost fonch gorida. Sabuda la cosa vench una donsella coneguda per tot Barcelona qui tenia la cama dos palms pus curta que 1'altra, on besantli la ma la cama se alarga e ana daqui avant be."

This may be rendered in English as follows :

" After the Prince's death, when he was lying on his death-bed, a woman who had a sore neck with scrofula, and who had had no opportunity during the Prince's life to present herself before him, said : ' I did not see him in his lifetime in order to be cured, but I trust he will heal me after his death '; so she went to the bed and took the lord's hand and put it on her neck, and as soon as she did it she was healed. When the news of the cure spread, a girl known to everybody m Barcelona also went there. She had one leg several inches shorter than the other, and c kissing the dead Prince's hand, her limb grew, and ever afterwards she was all right."

English kings had also the same power, and the belief in the efficacy of the touch was in olden days current in England, Dr. Johnson, when a child, being a well-known instance of it. " Reges Anglife etiam mine tactu, ac quibusdam hymnis ncn sine cere- moniis prius recitatis * strumosos sanant,' it is said in " Polydori Virgilii Urbinati

Anglicse Historise iibri vigintiseptem

Basilese, M.D.LVI.," lib. viii. p. 143.

The curative power that some rings blessed by the kings had is thus described by this author :

"Bex Edoardos [the Confessor] allatus

fuit a quibusdam Hierosolyma vementibu annulus, quern ipse diu antea pauperi clam dederat, qui pro amore quern erga divum loannem evangelistam habebat, eleemosynam petierat.

He goes on to say that the king died an was buried in Westminster Abbey :