The Opelousas patriot. [volume] (Opelousas, Parish of St. Landry, La.) 1855-1863, 1857-01-03
The MIRACLES Of Kings In Old Times.

In his "History OF England Mr.. Macaulay
gives us a rapid Sketch OF an ancient and royal
practice now long ~abrogated. The ceremony
of touching persons afflicted with scrofula had
come down almost unaltered from the darkes
of the dark ages to the time of Newton am
Locke. The Stuarts frequently dispensed the
healing influences in the banqueting- house
The days on which this miracle was to BIZ
wrought were. fixed at s~ittings Of the nrip.
council, and were solcmnly notified by air the
clergy in all the parish churches of the realm.
When the appointed time came, several divines
in full canonicals stood around the canopy of
state. The surgeon OF the royal household in
troduced the sick. Apassagc from The sixteenth
chapter Of the Gospel Of st. Mark was read.
When the words, .'They shall lay their hands
on the sick, and they shall recover" had been
pronounced, there was o pause, and one of the
sick was brought up to the king. His majesty
stroked the ulcers and swelling, and hung around
the patients neck q white ribbon, to which was
fastened q god coin. The other sufferers were
then led up in succession; and, as each was
touched, the chaplain repeated the incarnation
They shall lay their hands on the sick, and
they shall recover" Then came the epistlc,
prayers, antiphonies, and a benediction. The
service may still be found in the prayer-books
OF the reign Of Anne. Indeed, it was not till
some time after the accession Of George /, that
the University Of Oxford ceased to reprint the
9 Office Of Healing" together with the /" Lit
urgy." Thcologians ofeminent learning, ability
and virtue, gave the sanction of their authority
to this mammery aud, what is stranger still,
medical men Of high note believed, or affected
to believe, in the balsamic virtues of the royai
hand. We must suppose that every surgeon
who attended Charles II was u man of high re-
putc for skill and more than one Of the sur
gcons who attended Charles Ii has left us a
solemn profession Of faith in the kings miracu-
lous power. One Of them is not ashamed to
tell US that the gift was communicated by the
JUNCTION administered ut the coronation /; tha,
the cures we're so numerous and sometimes so
rapid, that they could not be attmbated to any
natural cause; that the failures were to be as
cribed to wan Of faith on the part OF the ma
tients that Charles once handled q scrofulous
Quaker, and made him o healthy man and a
sound churchman in a moment that, if those
who had been healed lost or sold tho niece Of
gold which hnd been hung around their necks,
the ulcers broke forth again, aud could only be
removed by q second touch and q second tails
man. We connot wonder that when men Of
science gravely repeated such nonsense, the vul.
gar should believe it. Still less can we wonder
that wle,ches tortured by a disease over which
natural remedies had no power, should easily
drink in tales of preternaturaI cures; for nothing
is so credulous as misery. The crowds which
to the palace on the days of healing
were immense. Charles III, in the course of his
reign touched near 10000 persons. The num-
Der seems TO have increased or diminished US
the kings popularity rose or fell. During that
Tory reaction which followed the dissolution of
the Oxford Parliament, the press to get near
him was terrific. l nl6S2 he performed the rite
$500 times. In 1854, the throng was such that
six or seven of the sick were trampled to dcath.
James. in one Of his progresses, touched 500
persons in the choir Of the cathedral of Chester.
The expense Of the ceremony was little less than
$4,000 q year, and would have been much
greater but for the vigilance of the royal sur
geons, whose business it was to examine the
applicants, and to distinguish those who came
for the cure from those who came for the gold.
William had too much sense to be dupeds and
too much honesty to bear a part in what he
knew to be an imposture. lit is a silly SUPER
stition," he exclaimed, when he heard that, at
the close OF Lent, his palace was besieged by a
crowd Of the sick. 4"Give the poor creatures
some money and take them away" On one