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Angels were minted: up to this time they had been

current at IOS.

As his quarrels with Parliament advanced, and his supplies of money fell short, Charles was put to various shifts. The author of Xeipefox says, 'small pieces of Silver was his gift, for alas he could not arrive to others, 'twas not the golden Age with him.'

John Browne1 states that Charles, when a prisoner at Hampton Court, put over a woman's neck 'a Silver Two pence, strung in a white Silk Ribband', and he adds, 'All people which did here [Hampton Court] come to be touched had only silver given to them.' Another of Browne's records is of Sir John Jacob sending his daughter to Holmby House to be touched. Sir John sent his own gold with her, and Charles hung this round her neck, with a result that left nothing to be desired in the matter of efficacy.

The commonly accepted opinion, that Charles II was the first to use a medalet as a touch-piece, must be rejected in the light of the further knowledge that has been recently acquired. In the British Museum is a bronze medalet about the size of the touch-piece of Charles II. It has on the obverse a hand stretched out over four human heads, with the words 'He touched them'; on the reverse a rose and thistle under a crown, with the words, 'And they were healed.' This was formerly believed to be a seventeenth-century trade-token, but Henry Symonds has brought forward evidence to show that in all probability it is a touch-piece of Charles I. In 'the accounts of the Wardens of the Exchange and moneys within the Tower, 1625-1649' he notes under date 1635-6: 'Allowance of a payment to the chief

1 Charisma, ch. x.

2 Medallic Illustrations, Plate 33, No. 23.
3 Numismatic Chronicle, 1910.

graver for making tokens used for the healing of the King's Evil, and delivered to William Clowes, serjeant chirurgeon, at 2d. the piece: the number being 5500.' Henry Symonds possesses one of these medalets bored with a large hole.

Wiseman,' who served with the royalists as a surgeon in the Civil War, says that Charles sometimes touched without giving anything at all.

The large number of King's Evil Proclamations issued in this reign bears eloquent testimony to the capricious and restless activity with which Charles managed and mismanaged his affairs. These Proclamations are set out at length in the Appendix, and will only be cited here in so far as they establish fresh departures of practice.

The Proclamation of June 18, 1626, fixes Easter and Michaelmas as seasons for healing in the future. It also requires of each applicant a certificate, under the hand of the Clergyman and Churchwardens of his parish, testifying that he has not been previously touched for the Evil by the King. Justices of the Peace, Constables, and other officers are charged not to allow any one to pass but such as have this certificate; and to ensure publicity the order is to be affixed in every market town.

Many Proclamations simply reaffirm previous ones. Several order postponements on account of plague or smallpox.

A Proclamation of July 28, 1635, requires the certifi cate of the Clergyman and Churchwardens to be countersigned and sealed by one or more Justices of the Peace. This was clearly intended to make the coming of unsuitable cases more difficult. The certificate was to be a passport, and Crown officers were again directed to send back any not so provided. And to obtain even 1 Chirurgical Treatises: King's Evil.

greater publicity than before, the Proclamation, besides being publicly exposed in every market town, was to be read in every Church, twice a year, at Shrovetide and Bartholomewtide.

By a Proclamation of July 1, 1638, fixed times were prescribed for healing, fourteen days before and after Easter and Michaelmas respectively. Access to the King for healing during his Progresses was forbidden. A further certificate of examination by one Physician. and one Surgeon at least was demanded,, because persons had come for cure who were not suffering from the Evil. The Churchwardens of each parish were instructed to see that the Proclamation was permanently exposed in the Church. Besides these official Proclamations unofficial orders were also issued, as occasion arose. Thus under date of Sunday, March 26, 1643, the Mercurius Aulicus says that Charles had an order posted on the gates of the Court, and on all the posts and passages into the city of Oxford, forbidding any to come to be touched till the following Michaelmas.

A Book of Common Prayer of 16341 affords incontestable evidence of the form of the Office of Healing used by Charles I: it is identical with that of James I transcribed above from a Broadside in the Society of Antiquaries. It is placed at the end of the book in company with the ceremonies for consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. The book has the impression that many of the Proclamations carry: 'Imprinted at London by Robert Barker, Printer to the King's most Excellent Majestie: And by the Assignes of John Bill.'

How the Office of Healing first found its way into the Book of Common Prayer, and by what authority it maintained its position for a century, has never been explained. Lathbury asserts that it was never even 1 British Museum 3406. f. 5. 2 History of Convocation.

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