Friday, January the 28th, 2005

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Scrofula and Penitence in the Middle Ages

Scrofula is the Latin word for brood sow, and it is the term applied to a tuberculous infection of the chain of lymph glands in the neck, creating swellings between the angle of the jaw and the top of the breastbone. It has been known to afflict people since antiquity, and during the Middle Ages was known as “the King's Evil”, because it was thought that the monarch's touch would cure it. We may scoff at such naïveté, especially given the rather disturbing personal habits of kings and queens past and present. An early scoffer was Valentine Greatrakes (1628-1666), a Cromwellian soldier during the English Civil War. In the revolutionary mood of the time, he correctly surmised that God could act through himself as well as through the royal personage, and did his own scrofula-healing by gently stroking his patients. He also applied poultices made from carrots, although it is unclear whether these were divinely inspired.

Back in the Middle Ages, of course, when only the King was thought to be capable of curing scrofula by touch, there was also a great enthusiasm for penitence. Natural calamities of all kinds were thought to be the Terrible Judgment of an Angry God, a not unreasonable idea. Pestilence was met with penitence, rather than with carrot poultices, although perhaps I am oversimplifying. No doubt some canny peasants used both approaches.

And what can we learn from this, o tiny ones? Well, if you think you have contracted scrofula, or indeed any other malady, such as Asiatic Bird Flu, a pandemic of which we are promised by world health officials, you would be well advised to repent your sins, preferably in a manner that involves the mortification of the flesh, and while doing so, grate some carrots.

Next week, we shall take a look at Fundamentalist Aztec Sun-worshippers and Swamp Fever.