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    rather , of practising this quackery . Some French writers ( says Carte ) ascribe this gift of healing to the king ' s devotion towards the relics of St . Marculf , in the Church

    of Corbigny , in Champagne , to which the kings of France , immediately after their coronation at Rheims , used to go in solemn procession : and it must be owned there was formerly a great

    veneration paid to this saint in England . It was in memory of him that a room in the palace of Westminster , frequently mentioned in the rolls of Parliament , was called the chamber of St . Marculf :

    being probably the place where our kings touched for the eviL It is now ( our historian adds ) called the painted chamber : and though the name of that saint hath been long forgot in this nation , yet the sanative virtue of our kings still

    continues . " * Of the most noted among our sovereigns , as practitioners in this healing art , thefollowingis thought a pretty complete list . Nothing seems to Be known in this way of

    Harold II . or yet of the four succeeding princes ; but that Henry II . practised very successfully , is said to be attested by

    Petrus Blesensis , who had been his chaplain . f It seems highly probable that Henry III . likewise was often applied to , and successfully practised in the same way , as John of Geddesden , a

    • Carte , i . 357 . f Carte adds , that Archbishop JBrad-4 bardiney Lord Chancellor Fortescue , and ther grave authors , give the like testimony in behalf of the cure , as well as the practice , by that prince ' s successors ; —[ Richard I . John , Henry III . and the

    three Edwards , we may suppose ] Carte , as before .

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    physician , who is said to live about that time , advises a scrofu - lous patient , after his remedies had proved ineffectual , to apply to the king for a cure : for which he has

    been much blamed , and seemingly not without reason , as , in case Jbe deemed the royal touch a certain cure or remedy , he ought to have sent the patient to the king at first , without troubling him with operation and medicine . *

    flenry ' s great son , Edward I . also appears to have been no mean master of this same art ; and so , probably , might be his son , Edward II . though otherwise no

    great conjurer ; but as to his son , Edward III . few , if any seem to have gone beyond him in this sanative employment . Bradwardine , who attended him in his wars , and whose counsel is said to have

    contributed to his success , gives a pompous advertisement , in his book De Causa Dei , of the wonderful cures wrought by that prince . F . le Brun ^ however , pays no regard to this . Me looks

    upon it as a crafty stratagem , and says , he does not doubt but that Edward ' s pretensions to the crown of France , excited his zeal to touch those who were diseased ; which is not unlikely , princes often , when nothing but politics lie at

    the bottom , chusing to make religion to swim on the the top . f Edward ' s grandson , Richard II . cannot be supposed to drop or lay aside a practice for which his grandfather and immediate predecessor on the throne had been

    so celebrated . Nor is it at all likely that his successors , of the rival house of Lancaster , should

    * Occasional Thoughts , as before , 58 . flbid .

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    Richards ' s History of the Royal Touch . 7

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1813, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2424/page/7/