Les Rois Thaumaturges

Les Rois Tha uma turg es . Étud e su rle Cara ct Ère SURNATUREL At TRIBUE A LA PUISSANCE ROYALE Par ti cu li er eme nt en Fran ce et en Angl e - te rre . By Marc Bloch, Professeur a I’Universite de Strasbourg. En Depot: Librairie Istra, Maison d’Edition, Strasbourg, 15, rue des Juifs, Paris, 57, rue de Richelieu. Humphrey Milford: Oxford University Press, 1924. Professor Bloch has written a most exhaustive and erudite study of the “divinity that doth hedge a king.” As he states, the origins of the conception of mystic powers possessed by royal persons are lost in the obscurity attendant upon the beginnings of most human institutions. Certain it is that from the earliest periods down to a comparatively few centuries ago certain superhuman attributes were ascribed to those hereditary rulers who reigned by divine right. Because the supposed power of healing by the royal touch or other means figured among the origin of the tradition. He states that these, we must by no means allow ourselves to Henry i was most anxious to conciliate his think that the European or English kings whose English subjects. He married an English wife thaumaturgic properties are the special object and was anxious to attach his dynasty in every of study by Professor Bloch were considered possible way to that of the English kings before either by themselves or their subjects in the the Conquest. The most ancient narratives that light of mere sorcerers. Their mystical functions tell of the miraculous cures wrought by Edward were merely an appanage of their office, the the Confessor were written during the reign essential duties of which were to rule their of Henry i, and the official interpretation of the people, administer justice and conduct their cures brought about by the royal touch of affairs in war and peace. Henry i, as given by William of Malmesbury The most generally recognized mystic power and other writers, was that the gift was a direct of the kings of France and England was that of inheritance of Henry’s from Edward. Bloch curing scrofulous ulcers by their touch. These concludes that the royal rite of touching was ulcers were most often what we would now never claimed or exercised by the Anglo-Saxon term broken-down tuberculous glands. Their kings of England, that Henry i, seizing on a usual location was in the neck and in former vague statement that Edward the Confessor times when there was no rational treatment for had laid hands on the sick with healing power, them, the destruction of tissue seems frequently transferred the virtue appertaining to a saint to have extended to the face. Such strumous into a royal appurtenance and thus originated conditions, owing to bad hygienic conditions, the theory of the divine right inherent in English were formerly much more common than they kingship. are at the present day, and owing to the prev- Bloch points out that the idea that kings or alence of the idea of their cure by the royal chiefs possessed supernatural healing powers is touch, received the name in France of the mal found amongst most primitive peoples, but the le roi, and in England of the king’s evil. The problem presents itself as to why after a long earliest written reference to a French king’s period of abeyance the medieval royalties of possession of this power Bloch cites from a France and England should have decided to manuscript of one Guibert, an ecclesiastic, who reassume the prerogative. It should be remem- writing early in the twelfth century stated that bered that both the French and English kings he had seen cures of scrofulous ulcers wrought of all the earlier dynasties claimed to trace the by the touch of Philippe i and his son Louis origin of their respective houses back to the vi. Bloch quotes a statement from a contem- dark periods of the history of the various porary manuscript that Robert n, the grand- Germanic tribes from which they all first origi- father of Philippe i, was so saintly a man that nated. All these primitive Germanic kings or his touch possessed healing properties, but the chiefs in turn claimed supernatural descent, faculty is attributed more to Robert’s saintli- tracing their genealogy back in most instances ness than to his royalty. The first English king to Wotan. Hence the theory of the divine right to whose mystical medical powers there is of kings and their supernatural powers goes contemporary written testimony was Henry n, back into the darkness of oblivion. of whom Pierre de Blois, a French monk at his The miraculous powers of the primitive chief- court, wrote that he had seen him touch and tains and kings was, however, generally used cure strumous ulcers; but the popular tradition in a collective direction, towards procuring the credits Edward the Confessor as the first welfare of groups of people, not of individuals. English sovereign to exercise his therapeutic Thus by their intervention rain was caused when powers in this manner, and there are many necessary and good harvests procured, pests statements made by early English chroniclers were averted and success in war assured. The to the effect that Henry i and other English power of healing individual ills was brought sovereigns were wont to cure by their royal forward when religion forbade attempts to touch. Bloch quotes the well-known story that interfere with the grand phenomena of nature. Edward the Confessor touched the sick when a With the advent of Christianity kings ceased to be youth at the court of the Duke of Normandy. demigods although the old conception of certain Bloch presents a very ingenious theory as to divine attributes was very slow in dying out. It was not until the eighth century that the of other nations towards the French and English ceremony of anointing the king, consecrating claims, giving some curious assumptions put him with holy oil, came into vogue, in imitation forth on behalf of other dynasties. Thus it was of the ancient Hebrew custom. Pepin, the son claimed that the king of Denmark cured leprosy. of Charles Martel, had himself thus consecrated, This power was, however, not to be regarded and the custom was quickly adopted by the as supernatural, because it was asserted the kings of England. The object of such consecra- Danish sovereigns possessed a secret remedy. tion was undoubtedly to impart a more or less The kings of Castile were said to be able to sacred character to the recipient, rendering exorcise in cases of demoniac possession. It those who rebelled or attacked a king guilty was claimed in the seventeenth century that of sacrilege. the kings of Spain had inherited this power from As years passed certain ceremonial usages their Castilian ancestors, and in addition the developed about the ceremony of touching. power of healing strumous ulcers by touch from The practice became strictly confined to those the princes of Aragon, from whom they were who suffered from ulcerated cervical glands. also descended. Accordingly applicants for relief were obliged One of the most interesting chapters in the to subject themselves to examination by one book is that on the “cramprings.” From the of the physicians or surgeons attached to the reign of Edward n to that of Mary Tudor it court. In France there was used a formula: was customary for the sovereigns of England “Le roi te touche, Dieu te guerit.” In England to make an offering of gold and silver at the a special service was instituted. It was custom- service of the mass of Good Friday. This gold ary for the king to give his patient a gift of a and silver was then made into rings which were small sum of money and in time special pieces supposed to possess curative power against of silver were carried for this purpose, “touch- muscular pains, rheumatism and epilepsy. pieces,” many of which are still in existence. Bloch offers the very plausible suggestion that The first reference to the royal touch in Edward n originated this custom, or rather medical literature which Bloch has found was formulated its observance in a vain effort to written by Gilbert Anglicus in the first half of bolster up his tottering claim to rule. the thirteenth century. It is mentioned in the Although the association of the royal office “Treatise of the Four Masters,” by Bernard of with a sacredotal character dates back accord- Gordon, and by Henri de Mondeville. The ing to the modern view to the primitive times surgeon John of Ypres mentions the practice when the king or chief of a tribe was also its but seems to doubt its efficacy, while writers high priest, such ethnological conceptions were of a somewhat later date, Gui de Chauliac, far beyond the grasp of the medieval mind. In John of Gaddesden, and Richard Mirsfield all the eyes of their subjects the kings of France refer to the royal touch as a recognized and England were invested with sacredotal therapeutic procedure in the treatment of powers simply because at their coronation they strumous ulcers. With the exception of the had also been consecrated, anointed with the Fleming, John of Ypres, who hated the French holy oil. From this standpoint in those credulous and therefore decried the supernatural power ages it was very easy to invest the office with attributed to their kings, there is no mention certain gifts or attributes which belonged to made by any medical writer, except the French saints or ecclesiastics. Hence the facility with and English authors, of the royal touch.

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