Laying on of hands Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==State use== {{main|Royal touch}} {{more citations needed section|date=May 2014}} The laying on of hands, known as the [[royal touch]], was performed by [[Monarch|king]]s in [[England]] and [[France]], and was believed to cure [[scrofula]] (also called "King's Evil" at the time), a name given to a number of skin diseases. The rite of the king's touch began in France with [[Robert II the Pious]], but legend later attributed the practice to [[Clovis I|Clovis]] as [[Merovingian]] founder of the [[Holy Roman Empire|Holy Roman]] kingdom, and [[Edward the Confessor]] in England. The belief continued to be common throughout the [[Middle Ages]] but began to die out with [[the Enlightenment]]. [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Queen Anne]] was the last British monarch to claim to possess this divine ability, though the [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] [[pretender]]s also claimed to do so. The French monarchy maintained the practice up until the 19th century. The act was usually performed at large ceremonies, often at [[Easter]] or other holy days. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page