THE Miraculous Conformist OR An account of several Marvellous CURES performed by the stroking of the Hands of M r VALENTINE GREATARICK WITH A Physical Discourse thereupon In a Letter to the Honourable Robert boil Esq With a Letter Relating some other of His Miraculous Cures attested by E. Foxcroft M.A. and Fellow of Kings-Colledge in Cambr BY HENRY STUBBE Physician at Stratford upon Avon in the County of Warwick Non ideo negari debet quod est apertum quia comprehendi non potest quod est occultum OXFORD Printed by H. Hall Printer to the UNIVERSITY for Ric Davis 1666. To his very worthy and Learned Friend D r THOMAS WILLIS Doctor in Physic and Professor of Natural Philosophy in OXFORD SIR I Doubt not but the fame of the performances of M r GREATERICK may have raised in you a Curiosity to be better informed about the reality thereof I have given M r boil an hasty account thereof in a Letter which I send now to you that you may not be ignorant of it It may seem improper to Dedicate that to one which is sent to another but whether it be that I am too busy or too lazy to Write more or that I manage my friendships with less of ceremony and formality then usual I have resolved upon this course and I am confident that if I am in an error you have goodness enough to pass it by The suppositions I go upon depend so much upon the Doctrine of Fermentation that I could not but think of you when I writ it and who is a more competent judge of the Subject here debated than the best of Philosophers and Physicians It may seem equitable that I tell you why I call the Gentleman the Miraculous Conformist many strange reports have and do run of him but he is reclaimed from all that is fanatique and this gift of Healing was bestowed on him since the Restauration of his Sacred Majesty and the restitution of the Doctrine and Discipline of the English Church God dealing with him as the Shepherd in the Parable who expressed more kindness to the lost sheep being found then to the ninety-nine that had not strayed I have admired much in him that Diseases carrying so great a resemblance in their Nature as to be thought the same and to reside in the same part are stroaked out divers ways That he should be able to tell that upon his first stroking the Patient should be worse and cured by a second as he did in the Lameness of M r Thomas Porter my very worthy and good Friend He told him he could not set his Leg anew but that he would Cure his pain therein yet at first it would seem worse then before his touch which proved true and yesterday I was with him in Worcestershire and found him able to walk three miles without pain You see how here his touch strengthened a part that was incurably weakened by being broken and ill set so that the painfulness seemed inseparable from the misfortune occasioning it I submit all my explication of the accident to you if you read it over twice you do more than ever I had the patience to do I know many imperfections will occur in it some whereof were voluntary knowing that the Learning of the Person I writ to needed not to be troubled with petty Illustrations Some defects have happened through haste and inadvertency it being all written with one impetus of thoughts and pen just as I came from Ragly It is nothing to say some have already approved the Discourse if M r boil and you descent I have only time to tell you that without the noise of much talk and frequent addresses and applications I shall never cease to admire you and to be Straford upon Avon Febr 17. 1665. Sir Your very humble Servant Henry Stubbe SIR SInce the best and most agreeable retribution I can make you for the honour you do me in your remembrances and all your other signal favours is but to gratify your curiosity with any remarkable intelligence that may advance either Physic or Philosophy I shall endeavour to be as generous in my acknowledgements to you as you have always been in obliging me Since my last unto you my Lord Conway did me the honour particularly to invite me to his House and acquaintance giving me withal a fair opportunity of conversing with M r Greatericks and beholding several of those performances the report whereof as it gives just causes of astonishment to you that are more remote so the effects fill with admiration the most learned or suspicious beholders In truth they are such that he is not at all obliged to the ignorant for the esteem he hath acquired nor is it possible for the most tender or superstitious and censorious Zealots to destroy his repute He is a man of a graceful personage and presence and if my fantasy betrayed not my judgement I observed in his Eyes and meene a vivacity and spritelinesse that is nothing common As far as I could inform myself by a long and private discourse he is a man of a very good life of tender and charitable Principles as extensive as the effects of his goodness are He professeth Conformity unto the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England yet without that censoriousness whereby some signalise themselves his thoughts concerning himself are modest and humble and he presumes so well of others that even in some colourable circumstances he regulates his apprehensions by the revealed mercies of God and not the severity of men In fine without prejudice to this Age be it said he seemed to me by his faith and by his charitableness to include in his soul some grains of the Golden Age and to be a relic of those times when Piety and Miracles were sincere I am more full in this Character of him because some will be very inquisitive herein though otherwise the gift of healing be a gratia gratì data not gratum faciens and such as may be conferred on judas going to Samaria and others who at the day of judgement shall say Lord have we not Prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast-out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works I enquired of him how he came by this miraculous gift of healing And he replied that it was the grace of God in him which he understood at first by a strong and powerful impulse in him to essay it and this motion was so prevalent upon him that it incessently run in his mind nor could any business how serious or religious soever divert him from those cogitations insomuch that even his life seemed burdensome to him through the violence of the supposed temptation He imparted this trouble to his Wife who condemned those resveries and desired him to abandon them in this perplexity he heard frequently a voice within him audible to none else encouraging to the trials and afterwards to correct his unbelief the voice aforesaid added this Sign that his right Hand should be dead and that the stroking of his left Arm should recover it again the events whereof were fully verified to him three Nights together by a successive infirmity and Cure of his Arme. Hereupon he set himself to the charitable improvement of that talon which God had given him cureing at first only Cancers in women's breasts and the Kings-evil after which by the suggestion of his accustomed impulse he attempted the Cure of other Diseases according as he found himself prompted thereunto from within He was and is still a stranger to all Physic and Chirurgery In the Cure of some tumors he useth incision though that process be but lately taken up after that he observed that the power of his touch did not discuss all but ripen some humours The fame of his performances spread all over Ireland and England and multitudes went from Bristol unto him Hereupon the Right Honourable the Lord Conway employs Deane Rust to inquire into the truth of these Accidents and finding matter of fact to justify the relations from excessive verity he procures him to come out of Ireland to try if he might give any ease to that excellent Lady of his the pains of whose head as great and as unparallelled as they are have not made her more known or admired at home and abroad then have her other endowments Although his hand proved not so fortunate to that Honourable Lady as was wished he not being able to alleviate or remove that headache which had eluded the greatest skill and most effectual remedies that England or France yielded yet did he during his stay at Ragly achieve those things which caused him to be followed and admired by many thousands who if they can say he sometimes failed yet ought not represent him as an Impostor I do not relate unto you the reports of interested Monks and Friars concerning things done in Monasteries and private Cells An infinite number of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy of Warwickeshire and Worcester-shire persons too understanding to be deceived and too Honourable and Worthy to deceive will avow that they have seen him publicly cure the lame the blind the deaf the perhaps not unjustly supposed Daemoniacks and Lepers besides the Asthmas Falling-sickness Convulsion-fits Fits of the Mother Old aches and pains I know you expect not from me the Narratives of what others have seen and told me I shall therefore confine my Discourse to my own observations Although I had not the opportunity of seeing him till I came to my Lord Conwayes yet I found conveniency to visit many that had been touched by him some I observed to have received no help by him at all some I observed to have found a momentany benefit from his touch and some as yet continue so well that I think I may say they are Cured This variety of success amused me something yet I recollected with myself how there were some diseases as well as Devils which even the Apostles could not cast out and I could not persuade myself that Trophimus was the only man or Miletum the only place where Paul left any sick I considered this man to be no Apostle and therefore thought it injurious to expect that from him who propagates no new Gospel which was not to be found in those extraordinary Envoyes of Heaven I saw no incongruity in admitting that God who distributeth various gifts amongst the Sons of Men might issue out the same gift to several persons in a different measure or proportion There are differences of administrations but the same Lord there are diversities of operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all 1 Cor 12. V. 4 5. Besides I thought that how powerful soever the gift were in M r Greatarick yet the sins of the patient might sometimes frustrate the effect of his hands as well as the prayers of the most prevalent Saints Moses Noah or Daniel I was apt to believe that at Corinth there wanted not the gift of healing nor an effectual anointing with Oil James 5 14. yet did the misdemeanours of some draw upon several there irrecoverable Sickness and Death 1 Cor 11. v. 30. However I did not understand that God parted so away with his gifts as not to reserve a paramount command over them still and I though the might as well glorify himself in the continuance of some blind as in causing some to be borne so without regard to their particular sin or that of their Parents These faylours in our Thaumaturgus ought rather to make men look upon and take notice of the omnipotency of God then censure the deficiencies of a limited Creature From these reflections I posted on to the consideration of the real and undeniable performances of his hand I saw him put his Finger into the Ears of a man who was very thick of Hearing and immediately he heard me when I asked him very softly several questions I saw another whom he had touched three Weeks ago for a Deafness in one Ear whom I had known to be so many years I stopped the other Ear very close and I found him to hear very well as we spoke in a tone no way raised beyond our ordinary conversation I saw him lance a Wen that covered the Eye of an old man there issued out abundance of matter in smell and consistence and colour resembling a rotten-Egge after which he crushed out the less digested matter which resembled the Brains of any Creature which being done he stroked the place gently and the flux of blood and pain which was great by reason of his crushing it hard presently ceased I saw yesterday another Woman in whose Throat just by the Windpipe he lanced a Wen and having crushed out the digested and indigested matter and stopped the pain and effusion of blood by some strokes of his hand he bade her put nothing to it but a linen Cloth when I saw it the Wen was perfectly gone and the bags or skin encompassing it so shrunk up by nature that there remained nothing but the scar after incision I asked him concerning Wens whither upon his crushing and lancing them so they would not fill again he answered me No but that Nature as she doth in other tumors would so shrink and contract the skin encompassing the Wen that there should remain no sign of it no not a wrinkle which I was apt to believe from what I had seen I saw a Child brought to him whom he had stroked before and it was much amended but one Tumour upon the right Arm near the Elbow was extremely painful and inflamed he Stroked it and lanced it and crushed out all the matter even the indigested cores and Stroking it the pain and inflammation ceased immediately not one drop of blood issuing out after that I saw another Leg that upon his Stroking had very much abated the swelling the whole Foot to the Ankle was swelled and inflamed many holes there were in it but there issued little or nothing from them he took it and crushed it extremely bringing out much blood and indigested matter in cores as big as nutmegs and then stroking it all the pain and flux of blood ceased but the weakness being habitual to the part was not removed at that instant I saw a Woman taken with a violent fit of the Falling-sickness he came to her and causing her breast to be opened and chafed her Stomach with his Hand a while presently her paroxysm abated and he asked her whither the pain was gone she pointed to her Throat and indeed she seemed as if she were in danger of being strangled there he Stroked her Throat lightly and asked where her pain was she pointed to her Breast he stroked that and then she made signs that it was returned to her Throat whereupon he Stroked with his hand upwards her Breast and Neck and she began to belch wind with such a vehemency that is scarce to be imagined and withal st●eyning as it were to vomit she brought up some crude phlegm with an infinity of wind and then rose up well to her thoughts These were the principal things I saw him do he being then upon his departure for London but I received from himself and others sufficient accounts that he had Cured almost all manner of distempers even Quartane-Agues and Fevers and whosoever shall seriously consider the things he doth perform will not find in reason any thing to stop his Credulity I might now end this Letter and leave You & those other worthy members of the Royal Society to determine concerning these Effects which I apprehend miraculous but since the Freedom You allow me with you permits me to speak any thing I shall without derogating from the power of God and with all due Veneration to so extraordinary Characters of his Goodness propose unto You some Thoughts which occurred to me hereupon as confused as they are they may administer to others some occasion of greater Inquiries I considered that there was no manner of Fraud in the performances that his Hands had no manner of Medicaments upon them for I smelled to them and handled them and saw them washed more than once after some Cures and before others nor was his Stroking so violent as that much could be attributed to the Friction I observed that he used no manner of Charms or unlawful words sometimes he Ejaculated a short Prayer before he cured any and always after he had done he bade them give God the Praise I did not remember that ever the Devil did cure any Diseases no not when his Glory was concerned in it as in the Magicians of Pharaoh upon whom the Boyl was Exod 9 11. wherein you cannot object any particular interposition of God any more than in the other accidents whereby the Magicians were suffered to try their skill against Moses I knew the Devil went about seeking whom he might destroy that he plagued job with Botches but where are the Examples of his Cures or when did he ever do any Good and ascribe the glory unto God I reflected upon the Performances of King Pyrrhus who cured Diseases with his Finger so did Vespasian cure two by touching them as Tacitus and Suetonius avow so the Kings of England and some years after them the Kings of France have not been doubted generally to cure the King's-evil Queen Elizabeth did for some time discontinue the Touching for the King's Evil doubting either the Success or Lawfulness of that way of Curing But She soon quitted that Fit of Puritanisme when the Papists defamed her as if God had withdrawn from her the gift of Healing in that manner because she had withdrawn herself from the Roman Church There are some who think that God hath bestowed upon all Kings some such Character or Gift to show how particularly he is concerned for them and differenceth them from other men but they know it not From these cogitations I descended to the Alexicaci Salutatores or Be●sedevios of which the Roman Casuists and Physicians speak much I must refer you to Delrius for your farther information for my memory fails me so as I cannot give you an account of them so full as I would They cure by Anointing with their spital by breathing and stroking of the patient Rodericus à Castro medic polit l. 4. c. 3. allows of the verity of their Cures by replying nothing to this objection in favour of them In confirmationem adducunt experientiam & varia curationum genera mirè frequentia & praxin quotidianam militum qui solo afflatu osculo aut nudi lintei applicatione sanant etiam atrocissima vulnera qui omnes dono sanitatis in variis morbis se praeditos gloriantur In Turkey also and Africa they have persons of the like qualifications which they boast to have received from the favour of their Prophet Mahomet But undoubtedly God hath permitted all Religions though not the Protestants till now to have their real Miracles that men may learn to try Miracles by the Truth and not the Truth by Miracles I considered likewise the Nephritick and Eaglestones and several other Annulets and Periapta whose operation is certain and undeniable yet could not all these Considerations instruct me further in the Explanation of these Miraculous Accidents then to conclude That God had bestowed upon Mr. Greatarick a peculiar Temperament or composed his Body of some particular Ferments the Effluvia whereof being introduced sometimes by a light sometimes by a violent Friction should restore the Temperament of the Debilitated parts re-invigorate the Blood and dissipate all heterogeneous Ferments out of the Bodies of the Diseased by the Eyes Nose Mouth Hand and Feet I place the gift of healing in the temperament or composure of his body because I see it necessary that he Touch them or otherwise rub their Eyes with his spital Besides the right Honourable the Lord Conway observed one Morning as he came into his Lordship's Chamber a smell strangely pleasant as if it had been of sundry Flowers and demanding of his man what sweet water he had brought into the Room he answered None whereupon his Lordship smelled on the hand of Mr. Greatarick and found the fragrancy to issue thence and examining his Bosom he found the like scent there also But this is observable but at some times for I could observe no such scent in his Hands Deane Rust observed his Urine to smell like Violets though he had eat nothing that might give it that scent S r Amos Meredith who had been his Bedfellow said that in the Night he had observed the like agreeableness of smell in M ● Greataricks Body at some hours I place it in the temperament of his Body because I have the precedent of Ancient Miracles and Modern ones wrought by the efficacy of a Corporal Touch. Besides it is evident how several Diseases are contracted that way and why may not some benign and wholesome effluvia be communicated in the same manner As there are some who are said to fascinate by their Aspect so Rodericus à Castro Med polit l. 4. c. 1. saith è converso quosdam esse quorum Oculi creduntur habere vim beneficam ad res inspectas vulgo Benzedeiros I remember the Presbyterian Assembly of Divines say that nothing more kindly restores decayed Nature than the Embraces of an Abishag of a young sprightly and Beautiful Damsel as you may see in their large Notes upon the first Chapter of the first Book of Kings To explain the nature and manner of M r Greataricks working upon the patients for their Cure I shall premise some things First That all the Diseases and distempers M r Greatarick meddles with have their essence either in the mass of Blood and Spirits or nervous Liquor or in the particular Temperament of the parts of the Body Secondly That of the Diseases and Infirmities which he meddles with he Cures none wherein there is a decay in Nature but only such as wherein she seems only oppressed by some Heterogeneous Ferment either exciting an Ebullition and pain or Coagulating and fixing the blood and spirits This is a confessed truth by him he refusing still to touch the Eyes of such as their sight is quite perished so for Ears that are Deaf upon any such accident that hath extinguished the Natural faculty of the part And there being the same reason for inward distempers as to their causes his failing as to many and the relapse of many after a momentany amendment is to be ascribed to this cause as I shall show further by and by Thirdly It seems to me very imaginable that there may be given by God such a Natural Crasis and Effluvia consequential thereunto that the stroking with his Hand for some space so as to communicate the Virtue may restore the Blood and Spirits to that vigour and strength which is natural to them and resuscitate the contracted imbecility of any part That which makes me to conceive this is that I observe that there are things outwardly applied which by their opposition to particular Ferments do destroy several Distempers not only inwardly taken but outwardly applied as the Cramp rings and small Manati-stone the Cramp the Nephritic-stone drives out gravel and the Stone Peony-roots gathered in due time the Epilepsy There are several things which outwardly applied revive oppressed Nature not only as Odours but by friction and outward application this needs no Illustration Having these grounds to confirm me in the manner Medicaments may operate methinks I can as easily comprehend that there may be a Medicament and whether that be a Man or a Stone or a Plant it is all one which may invigorate the blood and spirits so as to continue that work of Circulating Depurating and Sanguifying as before the oppression they did provided there be no essential distemper contracted but that Nature be oppressed only not destroyed wholly or in part for so far as Nature is mutilated and destroyed the reparation of that essential damage is possible only to God or such as he hath obliged in a more eminent manner than M r Greatarick pretends unto This last imagination of mine cannot seem more irrational to any man than the Learned'st men of the last Age both Divines and Casuists thought all sorts of Annulets and I am sure I can bring for Mr Greataricks more Experiments than all this Age can show to justify the received Annulets and Cataplasms for if I argue from visible effects no Amulet or Periapt ever produced more evident Testimonies of its force than M r Greataricks hath rendered of his Efficacy And if they go to explicate the ways and means whereby those Annulets work the notion I have concerning M r Greataricks is the most facile for I imagine no more to be in him than a particular Temperament or implanted Ferment which upon his touching and stroking shall so far invigorate the blood spirits and innate temperament of the part Nature being only oppressed that they perform their usual duties This being done it is Nature Cures the Diseases and distempers and infirmities it is Nature makes them fly up and down the Body so as they do they avoid not his Hand but his Touch and stroke so Invigorateth the parts that they reject the Heterogeneous Ferment till it be outed the Body at some of those parts he is thought to struck it out at Considering that our life is but a Fermentation of the Blood nervous Liquor and innate constitution of the parts of our Body I conceive I have represented those hints and proofs which may render it imaginable that M r Greataricks by his stroking may introduce an oppressed Fermentation into the Blood and Nerves and resuscitate the oppressed Nature of the parts I now proceed to show that those effects which are so admired upon the stroking of M r Greataricks Hand viz that the pains fly before his Hand until he drive them out at the Fingers Mouth Eyes Toes etc. are the effects of Nature in vigorated and not immediately of his Touching I saw him Struck a man for a great and settled pain in his left Shoulder which rendered his Arm useless upon his stroking it the pain removed instantly into the end of the musculus Deltodes being Stroked there it returned to the Shoulder again thence upon a second Stroking it flew to the Elbow thence to his Wrist thence to his Shoulder again and thence to his Fingers whence it went out upon his last stroking so as that he moved his Arm vigorously every way I asked M r Greaterick about the Courses pains and diseases took to go out of the Body he told me he could not tell what course any pain or Disease would take to go out that the ways of God were unsearchable that it was not in his power to force them any way but that he followed them only and if the party could not tell where the pain was for such are only stroked out he could not cure them nor were they cured but eased if it came not out Of this I saw an instance in a Woman whom the Falling-sickness by its long continuance joined with Melancholy had infatuated so as that being out of all Fits she could not tell what ailed her she falling into her Fit there he opened her Breast and with a few strokes reduced her to herself but she not being able to tell what was become of the pain she had felt he could proceed no further then to remove that Paroxysm How Nature may cause those irregular motions of pains backward and forward shall be my next enquiry Where bold and commanding Medicines are not made use of it is Nature not Physic that cures Disease we are but Servants to Nature to remove impediments or strengthen her that she may effect the work upon this account it was that the Ancient Physicians were so cautious to distinguish the times of Diseases and to instruct Practitioners what they were to do at the several times when to moderate the dangerous symptoms when to Purge by Stool or Urine they were to attend unto Concoction and not to meddle much before except in case of Turgency When they proceeded thus warily there were several Translations or removals of Diseases and pains which are now scarce observable by reason of the Minoratives the Purges the Vomits and other Physic which is given not because it is best but because in fashion In those times when Nature was so left to herself I observe several Translations or removeals of Diseases which came into my mind when I saw the effects of M r Greataricks Stroking Hypocrates in his Epidem l. 6. part 3. § 34 tells us that the Gout ceaseth if a man fall into the Colique and that fit of the Colique abates as his Gout increaseth Thus Nature removeth the pain So in his Aphorisms he tells us that long Fevers Terminate in swellings and pains of the Joints And elsewhere That a Dysentery suppressed creates an Apostemation in the Side Bowels or joints That swellings of the Spleen and Bowels or inflammations thereof frequently terminate in joynt-aches So Quartane-agues often Terminate in the Gout It were infinite to relate out of Hypocrates the Translations and removals of pain which he relates viz. of Coughs and Asthmas falling into the Joints and Testicles of Ulcers and outward distempers which have removed into the Head and Bowels All the Prognostics illustrate this nor can any man be ignorant of the translations of Humours and pains from noble to ignoble parts and from ignoble to noble ones nor of the alteration of distempers upon such translation of the Morbifique Matter as of Asthmas and Coughs turning to the Gout or Tumour of the Testicles of Agues turning into pains in the Joints of Fevers ending in a Parotis or other abscessus Not to mention the vagrant nature of Humours in the beginning of Diseases when they are Turgent and continually vary their station These Considerations made me think that God had been pleased to bestow upon M r Greataricks such a Complexion and Temperament that his Touch or Stroking should instantly maturate Diseases or render them Turgent whereupon the part touched being strengthened and the blood and spirits Invigorated the Heterogeneous Ferment or pain which if not occasioned by some evident and external cause is caused by an Heterogeneous Ferment is expelled from the corroborated place to some other more weak that being corroborated it is driven upon another and so on till it be quite ejected If the Disease be such as lies in nothing but a Dyscrasy of the part it is cured without any such removeall of pain and so for such Coagulations of the Nervous liquor as in Palsyes etc. there is no such removeall of pain and pursuing it either because they are not Dolorifique or that they Transpire in the part There remain yet two things to be debated viz 1. How comes it to pass that these Heterogeneous Ferments removing thus by the force of Resuscitated Nature do not terminate in Apostemes or issue out in some gross Body but go out in a vapour and invisibly 2. How comes all this to happen in so short a time To the first I answer That it is not unusual for Nature to discharge herself of Heterogeneous Ferments by insensible Transpiration as well as Apostemes Sweat Diarrhaea and Urine so the Mesels are cured so many Crude and hard tumors and in this Plague few swellings broke yet were they cured Nor is it to be said that the matter occasioning those tumors was discussed so as to be reimbibed in the blood again for in the Plague the recurses of the Pestilential Ferment are Mortal and such as took Powders and Antidotes gently promoting a Diaphoresis not sweat escaped they who did not died with those Bubones It is an affect of prejudice occasioned by the contemplation of the usual effects of Nature and not of Reason to imagine that the Morbifique cause consists in a gross Body because it is often evacuated so It is usual for those subtle Ferments so to commix themselves and to occasion that transposition of Parts and Texture that Nature cannot eject the one without the expense of the other Thus we see that Beer or Ale in its Fermentation or Working casts out abundance of Barm yet is not that Body the Ferment but it is implicated and incorporated therewith for with it there issues out abundance of Bear so that the Brewers either power the same or new in again to fill up the Barrel If the same Ferment be precipitated by Vinegar or Allome there is not the like diminution So Kergerus Kerger de ferment sect 2. c. 8. p. 139. saith that in Germany they put common Salt or cold Water into their Bear and precipitating the Ferment make it potable presently Many such instances are to be found in Dr Willis and Kerger which sufficiently evince that the Ferment is distinct from the gross Body it comes out in So in Diseases however some have vainly imagined to themselves a maturation of them and that the Morbifique matter being concocted issued out in that white Hypostasis at the end of Diseases yet is it no such thing nor is there any such concoction in Nature as they fancy but the Morbifique matter or Ferment being intimately commixed with some good and profitable parts of the Blood and Humours is ejected together with them according to the nature of the Eumuctory by which the Crisis or Metastasis is made or the nature of the Bodies constituting that humour Nature dealing therein just as she does in the Fermentation of Beer and Wine in the aforesaid Kerger and D r Willis whence proceed their ways of curing Agues by Precipitation of the Morbifique Ferment without any such Evacuations of gross Bodies This Paradox appears further by the several Crises of Diseases sometimes by Vomit sometimes by Stool sometimes by bleeding at the Nose and Sweat In all which circumstances the Urine show one sort of Concoction whilst the Morbifique Ferment issues out several ways in several Bodies Nor is it to be doubted I think that all gross bodied Ferments have their Virtue and efficacy from a subtle Body which is no more in that gross Body than the Spirit of Sugar is in Sugar of which See Angelus Sala's Saccharologia many other instances might be given as that if the grand Ferment were a gross Body how comes it to evaporate as I have seen in the Distillation of Sugar Sugar-cance-juyce and other Liquors Fermented for Spirits without any diminution of the Liquors From all which it appears that one may conceive how upon the efficacious Touch of M r Greataricks he refuscitating the Blood and innate Temperament the Morbifique Ferment may be ejected and the remaining gross Body by a Transposition of its Texture and a new impregnation of Vitality be reimbibed into the Blood and become nutritious Thus he cures Asthmas all the obstructions from impacted phlegm in the Lungs being discharged and the phlegm Naturalised But if the gross body of the Morbifique matter be Incorrigible and Preternatural than the efficacy of his Touch doth not discuss them but the strengthening the part and Nature the whole collection is separated and ripened as I observed which appears in Wenns and scrofulous tumors some whereof he maturates and others are discussed To the second Question how all this happens in so short a time I answer that it is the efficacy of the Ferment implanted in Mr Greataricks' Body We are not to deny powerful causes proportionate effects We are all Indians and Savages in what we have not accustomed our senses what was Conjuring in the last Age is Mathematics in this And if we do but consider the sole effects of Gunpowder as it is severally to be used and revolve with ourselves what we would have thought if we had been told those Prodigies and not seen of them will we think it strange if men think the actions of extraordinary Ferments impossible Here I might instance in the effects of Poisons from Macastar and Brasil but the acts of sensation of pain sufficiently show the effects of sudden causes that Lipothymies and shivering should happen upon a fright a touch of cold Water or a pinch that tumors should in an instant imbody to a great bulk that in such as are Planetstruck or said to be so all or any of their Limbs should be taken away these are such events that if we could not allege Annulets and outward applications to produce a sudden alteration for the better would make it seem credible that there may be as powerful means for man's Recovery as his Sickness I forbear to mention the sudden effects of Sleep and Waking Freezing and Thawing or of Heat and Cold all which would illustrate the sudden and powerful motions of Nature SIR I shall now draw to a Conclusion having given you by these impertinencies a greater trouble than myself in Writing them I knew not how to entertain myself better nor you worse But I am sure that the suppositions I have made agree exactly with the Phaenomena of M r Greataricks Cures And from hence it is easy to judge why some are not Cured others find but a momentany alleviation and some are perfectly recovered All which are undenianbly true let any man salve these accidents more agreeably than I have done Et Phyllida solus habeto It is worth consideration Whether such as come unto him ought not first to advise with a discreet Physician what their Distempers are and where Originally seated the better to direct him in his Stroking For it is not unusual for the Disease to be seated in one place and to discover itself in another by the Symptoms in regard to which they have recourse to him only for in such cases if they have no better success than such have who meet with ignorant Physicians that go about to cure Symptoms without regard to the principal cause it is no marvel if they are not Cured Thus I have observed some who upon a giddiness and qualms of the Stomach occasioned by Hysterical vapours have been stroked by him several times without any or inconsiderable benefit in the parts sensibly affected So in the Kings-evil I have observed some that have received only a momentany advantage only because that such Diseases affect the Mesentery with glandulous tumors as well as the outward parts and if the whole Morbifique Ferment be not expelled the Disease recurres paululum fermenti totam massam fermentat Another thing to be considered by the Patient to be stroked Valles Method Med. l. 3. c. 3. is that there may be a complication of Diseases in which the Cure of one may be impeded by another as in the Spleen and Scurvy Eugalenus and others observe so in Sore-eyes occasioned by the Evil or a suffusion proceeding from an Acid or Nidorous quality in the Stomach and many Diseases whereto Malignancy is joined In these cases the Heterogeneous Ferments may be united in a loser way and upon his Touch separate and whilst the one is driven out the other may remain in the Body and by unloosing the Texture of the Body of the blood and other Humours give opportunity for more formae subjugatae of the same kind with the former to discover themselves In like manner it is possible that where the Morbifique Ferment is not sufficiently united and embodied so as that one part ejected by way of Similar Attraction I confess I must favour that Philosophy from the Phenomena of Physic and Nature too his Touch may disunite those incoherent Corpuscles and the patient not regarding the smaller and scarce sensible pains the which depends upon the parts and Humours the Ferment incorporates with may direct him to pursue the most afflicting pain which may not be the greatest whilst the other remains in the Body and afterwards occasions the same distemper or perhaps another whose pains may so resemble the former that we may take it for the same as our senses discern not betwixt the Salt of one Plant and another or betwixt the cauteriseing with Iron or Gold but there is a difference herein which by effects a diligent and curious observer may discover Concerning these intimations I discoursed with M r Greataricks who seemed well satisfied with them and did thereunto willingly ascribe several miscarriages and Faylours Another thing I proposed unto him was whether after that he had touched several persons and diminished the Preternatural Ferment or diverted it and put the Humours into a Turgency whether it might not be convenient to Vomit Purge and take those courses Physic directs us unto And from this he was so little averse that in my hearing he recommended to a Gentlewoman the taking some Cochiae Pills after he had touched her Eyes I asked also if after he had dissipated and repelled a settled Humour it might not be convenient to corroborate the Part with Topics which he approved of and though but to few I saw him give Eyesalve to some Patients You know what pains we Physicians take in Revulsions and Derivations of the Humours Morbifique from several Parts and do not you think a great part of our work were done could M r Greaterick's miraculous Touch remove or put into motion those Humours we cannot repel or stir Let us Sir be just and ingenious and confess that this Antichrist of Physicians may be of the greatest service to them in the World if they prefer the recovery of their Patients before their Credit or Rules of Art Rarà non sunt artis You have observed how great things Nature does when alleviated and the effects of that principle of Restitution when the prohibiting causes are removed As to the allaying of pains after crushing of sores or bruises and the miraculous staunching of Blood I think both them depend upon the restauration of the Temperament of the part and Blood As to pains it is easy to grant this And as to the effusion of Blood you know there is a Balsam in it which heals itself to illustrate which I recommend to you a Note of Plateru● in his Observations I want my Library how an Hangman of Basil cut off men's Hands and stopped the Bleeding of the Veins and Arteries by slitting the Arse of an Hen and thrusting the Hand into it If this do not convince you the Discourses of Sympathetique Cures may do it especially an Observation of Panarolus may convince you that such steams as vapours may effect it which is the reason why I assign not one Ferment to him but think there may be more which yet may not produce their effects in every case nor exert their influences in all cases no more than the Menstruum upon a disagreeable occasion produce all its effects This needs not to be illustrated to you I think I have now rendered you a tolerable account of this Miraculous man of whom I dare make that Proclamation which a Roman Emperor did upon the occasion of the Ludi seculares or sports celebrated once in an hundred years Come and behold what no man living hath seen or shall see again I would not be understood to derogate from this miraculous Gift not yet ascribe more unto it than I ought lest I should hear the reprehension in job Will you tell a lie for God There are a sort of men if they were only Women it were tolerable that think it not lawful to have recourse unto his Cures Though I have already too much cause not to intermeddle with Divinity or cases of Conscience any more yet I cannot but take notice of their Principal Objection for to say that Miracles are ceased is a groundless folly if not a difingenuous impudence in giving the Lie to several Histories of various Religions They say Whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin that it being impossible for them to be convinced that this man works by the immediate gift of God they cannot repair to him lest they be found to repair to a delusion of the Devil But I reply That the principle of doing nothing that is not of Faith is sufficiently invalidated by M● Hooker in his Church-Policy and it is a Principle hath occasioned so much of Troubles in our State that I wonder it is not laid aside In Moral Philosophy which is not established on demonstrations and Physic I am sure it will put us all to confusion for who knows the efficacy of things Natural how Purges and Vomits etc. do work Nay who knows whether second causes have any effect but that God doth operate ad praesentiam causarum secundarum as the admirable Durandus held And may not the Devil do so How shall this be reduced to Faith I am sure and have seen things ascribed to the Devil that it is now confessed have another Original Did all that came to Christ believe in him you know the story of the ten Lepers if to come to Christ were not to believe in him further than that they thought he could Cure since they saw him Cure how is it in M r Greataricks The thing they come for is good such as may be begged of God there is nothing evidently unlawful practised about them where is their Charity that thinks no Evil where is their Divinity that think a good and perfect work should come elsewhere then from Heaven If the case be not to be tolerated because not ordinary as there is but one Mr Greataricks so there is but one Sun To be extraordinary hinders it not from being consistent with Faith but to be unlawful or absolutely impossible as to impossibilities we know not what is impossible with God or Nature And for the unlawfulness thereof let M r Greatarick's works bear witness of him If he doth the things that never man did except Christ and the Apostles etc. judge what we are to think I conclude with this Apology for my recommending some Physical directions after his Stroking that it takes not off from the Miracle no more than that God gave the gift of Tongues to the Apostles yet needed they Rhetorical instructions to embellish their Language S t Paul was balbus sermone and you know that the polite style of S t Luke evinces the imperfections of the Language in the other Writers o● the New-Testament as Isaiah disgraceth Amos in the Old All things are not given to all men in perfection but the gifts that are given to every man are given them to profit with I beg your pardon for the tediousness as well as rudeness of these lines since by them I express myself to be Your affectionate humble-servant HEN STUBBE Stratford upon Avon Feb 18. 1665. The account of a Leprosy cured by M r Greatarick in the presence of the Lord Conway A Boy about fourteen years Old Son to a Prebend of Gloucester recommended to the Lord Conway by the Bishop of Gloucester came with a Letter to Ragly he was afflicted with a Leprosy judged incurable and had been so ten years At his coming to my Lords he found M r Greatarick touching people in the Field whereupon he pressed upon him and got him to struck his Body all over this happened upon Wednesday on Friday Morning the Boy came to my Lord and delivered his Letter whereupon my Lord sent for him up to his Chamber and causing him to be stripped they found that the moist Salt and brinish Humour which caused a moist Leprosy was dried up and in some places Scaled off the Skin under it was Red as under all crusts falling off there was no itching or pricking at all nor Heat with which Symptoms he had been formerly troubled M r Greatarick stroked him again and rubbed his Body all over with spital My Lord ordered the Boy to return if he were not Cured but he came no more Proofs that he revives the Ferment of the Blood M r Bromley's brother of Upton upon Severne after a long Quartane Ague had by a Metastasis of the Disease such a chillness in the habit of the Body that no Clothes could possibly warm him he wore upon his Head many spiced Caps and ten pounds' weight of Linen on his Head M r Greatarick stripped him and rubbed him all over and immediately he sweat and was hot all over so as that the Bath never heated up as did the Hand of M r Greataricks this was his own expression But M r Greatarick causing him to cast off all that multitude of Caps and Clothes it was supposed that it frustrated the happy effect for he felt the recourse of his Disease in some parts rendered the Cure suspicious But as often as M r Greataricks came and rubbed him he would be all in a flame again for half an hour the Experiment whereof was frequently practised for five or six days at Ragly Of the Metastasis of Diseases A Woman of Worcester having a pain driven into those parts which modesty would not permit her to let M r Greatarick stroke she went away as if she had been cured but is since sick of an intolerable pain there Such consequents are usual when the Disease is not stroked out HAving been lately requested by the Learned D r Henry Stubbe of Stratford upon Avon to set down in Writing some few of those very many observables I had seen in the Cures or Attempts of M r Valentine Greatarick since his coming into England in order to a design wherewith that knowing Physician intends shortly to oblige the Curious I could no ways refuse his so just demand Wherhfore wholly quitting all Philosophical Researches and disquisitions to the framers of new Hypotheses or at least to those who are better versed in such as are already extant I shall barely relate matter of Fact in four or five of the most eminent instances whereof I have been an Eye-witness Thursday Feb 1. 1. M ris Reynolds a Shopkeepers Wife of Alcester in the County of Warwick having been ever since Hay-harvest disabled in her Arms and Hands in so much as she was not able to use them or even to undress herself was that day and twice afterward touched by M r Greataricks she found them considerably strengthened at the first time and much more after so that she could put them behind her Back comb her Head and use her Needle and thus she continues to this day The same day in the Town-Hall I saw two Women delivered of the shaking Palsy which was driven out at their Toes ends Tuesday Feb 13. 2. I accompanied M r Greatericks to the City of Worcester and lodged with him in the House of M r Withie an Attorney We had not been there full an hour when beside a multitude of infirm people there came to him one M ris Bickeridge dwelling within half a mile of Tewxbury bringing with her four of her Children two Sons and as many Daughters The elder of the youths is now two and twenty years of Age and about two years since was strucken with the dead Palsy which in continuance of time hath so disabled him that he can neither stand or feed himself I saw little or no effect upon M r Greataricks stroking him either that night or the next day The other three the remaining Son and two Daughters by the report of their Mother fell all down in the street as they were coming along with her to M r Greataricks These had all been troubled with Convulsions or fits of the Falling-sickness for about four years The Youth upon the application and short chafing of M r Greataricks Hand was restored I saw him well the next day in the Citty-Hall and the next after heard that he continued so and was seen playing in the Street Susan one of the Girls as her Mother told me was so thickly pursued with her Fits that of a Twelve month before she had not spoken above once in a Month And Margaret the other Girl had lain utterly Speechless for three Weeks last passed Both these after somewhat a longer chafing were soon freed and restored to Speech and ability of walking up and down the Room but they both relapsed into their Fits and became again Speechless Margaret lay in that condition for twelve hours that she could neither speak or stand On Wednesday morning Feb. 14. her Mother brought her into the City-Hall and within ten Minutes She was restored to Speech but her Pain held Mr. Greataricks' Hand in play near an Hour after Being thus returned to her speech she was willed by Mr. Greatarick to move her Hand upon the place and point wheresoever her pain removed he being presently ready to apply his Hand to the part affected she did so and forthwith it avoided his Touch skipping exceeding swiftly from one part of the Head to the other as from the Forehead to the Crown from thence to the Pole then to the Right Side now to the Left into the Neck Shoulder Arm Hand th' opposite Hand to the Thigh calf of the Leg Ankle Foot and from thence as quick as thought to the head again where shifting according to the former or like Order he was sometimes fain to apply both his Hands but then many times the Pain got between the interstices of his Fingers from whence upon a fresh Application it flew to other parts as before and always with such incredible speed that it much amazed the Bystanders and Mr. Greataricks would often affirm that in his Opinion it was some Evil Spirit gotten into the Body of the Child At length having vexed it from part to part for as I guess the best part of an Hour it passed out at her Toes Thursday Feb. 15. The next day the other Sister Susan was brought in speechless She was restored to her Speech and freed from her pains in like manner but with far less ado and in much shorter time We heard no more of them after On Wednesday Feb. 14. in the City-Hall at Worcester M ris Walling a School-Mistress dwelling upon Mavern Hill fell into a most horrid Fit of the Falling-Sickness her Motions were exceedingly vehement and Convulsive with so much violence and impetuosity as if her Limbs had then been rending in sunder I never saw any Hysterical Paroxysm half so dreadful all her Joints seemed to be cramped and sometimes so distorted as if She had been upon the Wrack M r Greataricks by stroking her Breast for that purpose first bared soon restored her to such Sensibility as that she was able to speak and direct him to the place whither her Pain shifted which it often did with inexpressible Agility from one extreme part of her Body to another And it was very observable that whither soever her Pain retired that part was as it were cramped and seemed by her Motions Cry out and Shrieks to be affected with intolerable Dolour sometimes it was in her Throat and then it nigh choked her and there ensued excessive Belching as I have also often observed in sundry Asthmatical and Pthisical Persons stroaked by him And in this case was he fain to leave her for that time Night growing on and an infinity of diseased people pressing upon him for help The next day being Thursday Feb. 15 Whilst we were at Mr. Withies sitting at Dinner word was brought to Mr. Greataricks that one was fallen in his Chamber and as at other times he was wont to quit all things to afford relief in this sad Distemper He immediately and I with him left the Table we were no sooner gotten into the Chamber but we found it was the same M ris Walling fallen into a new Fit which was now rather more vehement than that of the day before it now sometimes affected her in the Eyes and sometimes in her Nose and that with such anguish as she seemed oftimes ready to tear it off Upon the removal of her Pains she often gave such Shrieks as if her Heart had been bursting in sunder Mr. Greataricks was also persuaded that this Woman was possessed with a Devil but she seemed much troubled and aggreived at that his opinion saying to him That however God might permit her to be afflicted with Bodily Distempers yet she trusted and was full of confidence that he neither had or would give up her Body to be inhabited by the Devil Her Acquaintance testified that she had been of an unblameable life and conversation and that her Education hath been more Liberal then is ordinarily found in that Sex may appear by what follows For to a Gentleman standing by Mr. Greataracks a good while during her Fit and saying to him Credo quòd obs●ssa sit she suddenly and very brusquely replied Sic credo sic credo at non Diabola sed vento In fine she continued under his Hand betwixt three and four Hours and was at length freed her pains being chased by him out at her Toes February 15. 4. The next Instance is of one Hester jordan dwelling at Bidderly under the Clee-hill side in Shropshire who as her Friends related having in her Infancy at three years of age by what mischance I know not taken Poison presently lost both Speech and Hearing and so hath continued ever since she now being 22 years Old The same Thursday at night at a Gentleman's House within the precincts of the College at Worcester by the application of M r Greataricks Hand to her Tongue and Ears both speech and hearing were recovered in a few minutes And although her speech were not very Articulate yet one might easily understand she intelligibly enough imitated any word spoken in her Ear For when Mary was spoken to her she returned Maa For Father Faa for Mother Moa etc. February 16. On Friday M r Greataricks having the night before been summoned to Court by an express from the Right Honourable the Lord Arlington set out towards the Right Honourable the Lord Viscount Conway's house at Ragley and in his way thither alighted at a Worshipful Knights in Warwickeshire where amongst many others we met with a Gentleman of Kin to the Lady of that Family who seemed much to slight and utterly to disbelieve the efficacy of M r Greataricks hand but within a while he was convinced by very painful experience For having complained to a Lady then present that he of long time had had a dimness in his left Eye though indeed it looked as fair as the other and therefore he was forced to make several protestations ere he could gain any belief but being once credited he was soon advised by the Lady to essay M r Greataricks hand He made very dainty of it at first and M r Greataricks also affirming that he would Touch none who was not desirous he should In fine both at length overcame by the importunity of the Ladies submitted the one to touch the other to be touched His Eye accordingly being touched the Gentleman straight protested that he saw much more clearly with it then before and so stood by soon after he complained of a pain and heaviness in his Head he had before been much troubled with a Paralytical Humour and for that cause had several successive years repaired to  upon a new application of M r Greataricks Hand he said his pain was now gone and so went aside again soon after he complained that he was sick at Stomach and seemed to be in a very vomiturient condition M r Greataricks caused him to unbutton and slip off his Shoes and Stockings and with his hand chased that illness of Stomach down into his Leg and after out at his Toes so that he said he now felt nothing Not long after he again complained of a pain in his Head M r Greatericks stroked it down into his Eyes which watered extremely and the Lids were in continual Trepidation and by his complaints and gestures they appeared to be very full of pain After a while they began to mend M r Greatarick stroke his Head again and by so doing brings a fresh supply of Humours into them again which caused the like unpleasing Phaenomena as before And this recourse from Head to Eyes was repeated at least twenty times as sundry Persons of Honour and Integrity who were then present can testify Feb. 22. 1665 6. The truth of these Narrations is attested by me E. Foxcroft M. A. and one of the Fellows of the Kings-Colledge in Cambridge FINIS