_Touching for the Evil_ (Vol. iii., p. 93.).--St. Thomas Aquinas refers the
practice of touching for the evil by French kings to _Clovis_. See a work
published in 1633, by Simon Favoul, entitled, _Du Pouvoir que les Rois de
France ont de guérir les Ecrouelles_; also a work by Du Laurens, entitled,
_De Mirabili Strumas sanandi vi, regibus Galliarum Christianis divinitus
concessa, libri duo_, Paris, 1609, in 8vo.
Edward the Confessor is said to have been the first English king who
touched for the evil. Consequently the English can hardly be said to have
owed their supposed power to their pretensions to the crown of France.