EDWARD THE CONFESSOR*.

To begin in order of time, I shall give you the narrative in Mr. Stowe's words, from the Latin account by Alfred, Abbot of Rivaulx. Thus then it is:

"A young woman, married, but without children, had a disease about her jawes, and under her cheeke, like unto kernels, which they termed akornes, and this disease so corrupted her face with stench, that shee coulde scarce without great shame speake to any man. This woman was admonished in her sleepe, to go to King Edwarde, and get him to washe her face with water, and shee shoulde bee whole. To the Court shee came; and the King hearing of this matter, disdained not to doe it; having a bason of water brought unto him, hee dipped his hand therein, and washed the womannes face, and

* Dr. Plot, in his Natural History of Oxfordshire, c. 10, § 125, Plate 16, No. 5, gives a Drawing of the Touch-piece, supposed to have been given by Edward the Confessor. The ribbon, he says, was white.

touched the diseased place; and this hee did oftentimes, sometimes also signing it with the signe of the Crosse, which after hee hadde thus washed it, the hard crust or skinne was softened and dissolved; and drawing his hand by divers of the holes, out of the kernels came little wormes, whereof they were full with corrupt matter and blood, the King still pressed it with his handes to bring forth the corruption, and disdained not to suffer the stench of the disease, untill hee hadde brought forth all the corruption with pressing this done, hee commanded her a sufficient allowance every day for all thinges necessary, untill she hadd received perfect health, which was within a weeke after; and whereas shee was ever beefore barren, withinone yeere shee had a childe by her husband. And although this thing seeme strange, yet the Normans sayde that hee often did the like in his youth, when he was in Normandy *."

It does not appear that the King knew of this Gift before; but he continued to use it

* Stowe's Annals, p. 98,

ever after, and his successors followed him in the practice.

But this is not all: for Stowe affords us but one instance of the cure of a blind man by King Edward; whereas the Abbot's account* extends to six men totally blind, besides another who had lost one of his eyes; all of whom were restored to perfect sight by the King †.

WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR

Had business enough upon his hands to employ his time, without thinking of such a matter as this; but however, that he might, in quieter times, enjoy this Kingly attribute (though only a Bastard Son of a Territorial Duke), Voltaire tells us, that some dependants endeavoured to persuade the world, that this Gift was bestowed upon him from

* See the "Decem Scriptores."

+ Mr. Browne likewise believes that several blind persons were restored to sight by King Charles II.

Heaven *. Whether he ever exercised it does not appear. Nothing but a special bounty of Heaven could convey to him this privilege; and such interference was necessary; for it was anciently held not to be inherent in any but lawful Kings, and not to extend to Usurpers; so that it must have slept during all the wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, till resumed by Henry VII. as will be mentioned in its place.

EDWARD III.

Mr. Joshua Barnes, the most copious Historiographer of this Reign, does not positively say that King Edward exercised this Gift, presuming only that he had a double right to it, as Heir to both the Realms of England and of France; and, consequently, more eminently endowed than Philip of Valois, the then French King *. The French, no doubt,

See Davies, ii. 180.

† Barnes's History, b. ii. ch. 7. sect. 5.

would deny it to him, as an usurping claimant of their Crown; though they could not refuse his right, as derived to him as a legal King of England.

HENRY VI.

I have already conceived the Gift of heal ing by the Touch to have been, as it were, in abeyance during the Civil Wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster; and therefore have found no historical record of Cures performed by this Saint-like King, who had such ample religious claims. I have called him Saint-like, because he never was canonized, though it was attempted and refused by the Pope in the Reign of Henry VII. for reasons to be seen in Fuller's Church History of Britain *.

Two reasons against the canonization are suggested by different Writers: -1. That the then Pope thought King Henry VI. too

*Book iv. p. 154.