Healing by Touch

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Healing by Touch

In England, Scotland, and also in France, the idea that a touch of the royal hand was a sure remedy for scrofula was long prevalent, and consequently this complaint acquired the now familiar name " king's evil. " In France, so far as can be ascertained, this interesting practice dates from the reign of Louis IX, and in England from that of Edward III, who is recordedto have performed a considerable number of cures. He initially would wash the affected part of the sufferer, but gradually the actual bathing was discontinued, and most subsequent kings merely touched while offering prayers on behalf of the patient.

Eventually the religious ceremony used on such occasions grew more elaborate, and during the reign of Henry VII a special "king's evil" petition was drawn up. It is found in some editions of the Service Book printed as late as the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The belief that kings ruled by divine right was strong in Scotland, and so it is natural to assume that the early inhabitants of that land regarded their sovereigns as capable of miracles. There is little or no evidence, nevertheless, that the Stuarts, prior to the union of the Crowns, practiced touching for king's evil. Scarcely was Charles I on the British throne, however, before he began to demonstrate his powers, and scrofulous persons flocked from far and near accordingly. They came in such numbers that early in the fifth year of his reign Charles found it essential to specify certain times for their reception at court; the proclamation that he issued on the subject is found in the Historical Collections of John Rushworth, sometime secretary to Oliver Cromwell.

In the proclamation the king spoke at length of the many cures wrought by his "royal predecessors." This may allude purely to the Plantagenets or Tudors, but it is equally possible that these references indicate touching for scrofula on the part of the early Stuarts.

John Evelyn, in his Diary, writes repeatedly of Charles II's activities in this relation, while Samuel Pepys refers to the same thing, and in one passage states that the sight failed to interest him in the least, for he had seen it often before. The practice of healing by the royal touch did not end with the ousting of the Stuarts in 1689. The lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson was taken by his father when a boy to London from Litchfield to be touched "for the evil" by Queen Anne, in 1712. The Chevalier de St. George attempted healing by touch on several occasions, and his son Prince Charles, when in Scotland in 1745, made at least one attempt.

At a late period, coins that had been touched by the king were believed to ward off evil or scrofula. These were known as "royal touch-pieces" and specimens of several are preserved in the British Museum, London.

Healing by Touch in Ancient Times

The natural process of healing was thought by early peoples to be effected by a mysterious power possessed only by God and his servants—emperors, kings, priests, and saints. The common man believed he must have faith in order to be healed, and great ceremony often accompanied healing "miracles." Healers used the laying on of hands and special words and prayers, as well as objects like talismans, amulets, rings, and images of saints.

The healing of the sick by touch and the laying on of hands was found among the people of India and Egypt, and especially among the Jews. Egyptian sculptures depict healers placing one hand on the patient's stomach and the other on his back. The Chinese, according to the accounts of early missionaries such as Athanasius Kircher, in China … Illustrata (1667), healed sickness by the laying on of hands. In the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament) are numerous examples of healing by touch.

One instance is the healing of a seemingly dead child by Elisha, who stretched himself three times upon the child and prayed. The manner in which Elisha raised the dead son of a Shunamite woman was even more remarkable. He told Gehazi to go before him and lay his staff upon the face of the child. When that failed, Elisha laid himself upon the child, placing his hands upon the child's hands so that the child's body became warm again and he opened his eyes.

Elisha's healing powers survived his death:

"And Elisha died, and they buried him, and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land in the coming of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha, and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood upon his feet" (2 Kings 13:20, 21).

Naaman the leper, when he stood before Elisha's house with his horses and chariots, having been told to wash seven times in the Jordan said, "Behold I thought, he will surely come out to me, and stand, and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper" (2 Kings 5:11).

The Christian New Testament is particularly rich in examples of the efficacy of the laying on of hands, healing by this method being a major theme in the early Christian church. "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery" (1 Tim. 4:14) was the principal maxim of the apostles, for the practical use of their powers for the good of their brethren in Christ.

St. Paul was remarkable for his powers: "And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay sick of a fever and of a bloody flux; to whom Paul entered in, and prayed and laid his hands on him and healed him" (Acts 28:8). And again:

"And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight" (Acts 9:17-8).

Among the many stories of Jesus' healings are several from the Gospel of Mark:

"And they brought young children to him, that he might touch them, and his disciples rebuked those who brought them. But Jesus said, 'Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them" (Mark 10:13-14,16).

Also:

"… they brought unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they besought him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and touched his tongue and, looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said unto him, 'Ephphatha'—that is, Be opened. And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain" (Mark 7:32-35).

Other passages on healing are scattered throughout the four gospels. In the histories of the saints, innumerable examples are recorded. They took their lead from Jesus' words: "In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover" (Mark 16:17-18).

The saints are said to have accomplished everything through absolute faith in Christ, and were therefore able to perform miracles. St. Patrick, the Irish apostle, healed the blind by laying on his hands. St. Bernard is said to have restored 11 blind persons to sight and 18 lame persons to the use of their limbs in one day at Constance. At Cologne he healed 12 lame individuals, caused 3 dumb persons to speak, and made 10 who were deaf to hear; when he himself was ill, St. Lawrence and St. Benedict appeared to him and cured him by touching the affected part. Even his plates and dishes were said to have cured sickness after his death.

The miracles of Saints Margaret, Katherine, Elizabeth, and Hildegarde, and especially the miraculous cures of the two holy martyrs Cosmas and Damianus, belong to this class. They were said to have freed the emperor Justinian from an incurable sickness. St. Odilia embraced a leper who was shunned by all, warmed him, and restored him to health.

Remarkable above all others are those cases where persons who were at the point of death have recovered by holy baptism or extreme religious fervor. The emperor Constantine is one of the best examples. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was reputed to have the power of assuaging colic and afflictions of the spleen by laying the patients on their backs and passing his big toe over them (Plutarch, Vita Pyrrhi ). The emperor Vespasian cured nervous conditions, lameness, and blindness solely by the laying on of his hands (Suelin, Vita Vespas ). According to Coelius Spartianus, Hadrian cured those afflicted with dropsy by touching them with the points of his fingers, and recovered himself from a violent fever by similar treatment. King Olaf healed Egill on the spot by merely laying his hands upon him and singing proverbs, according to the Edda.

The kings of England and France cured diseases of the throat by touch. It is said that the pious Edward the Confessor of England and Philip I of France were the first who possessed this power. The French formula used on such occasions was "the King touches you, go and be healed," and the phrase was spoken with the act of touching. In France this power was retained until the time of the Revolution, and it is said that at the coronation the exact manner of touching and the formula "the King touches you, God heals you" were imparted to the new monarch.

Among German princes this curative power was ascribed to the counts of Hapsburg, and it was also believed that they were able to cure stammering by a kiss. According to Pliny, "There are men whose whole bodies possess medicinal properties, as the Marsi, the Psyli, and others, who cure the bite of serpents merely by the touch." He claimed this was especially true of the island of Cyprus, and later travelers confirmed these cures. In later times the Salmadores and Ensalmadores of Spain became famous for healing almost all diseases by prayer, laying on of hands, and by breathing upon the sick.

In Ireland, Valentine Greatrakes cured king's evil and other diseases by touch. One Richter, a nineteenth-century inn-keeper at Royen, in Silicia, cured many thousands of sick persons in the open fields by touching them with his hands. Under the popes, laying on of hands was called chirothesy. Franz Anton Mesmer and his assistants also employed touch for healing purposes.