virtue of his Coronation; and also the position given the Sovereign as 'Supreme Governor' of the Church would appear to invest him with an ecclesiastical status.[1]
I admit, however, as must all candid persons, that on the whole the Church has grossly neglected all forms of psychic healing; and so welcome the more gladly the definite stand taken in the Lambeth Report, 1908.
That Report is the unanimous act, not merely of the Church of England, but of those numerous bodies in communion with her: on the committee which drew up the report were bishops from America, India, Scotland, Central Africa, New Zealand, and England—a fact that can vouch for the significance of the Report's admissions and contentions. This Report I shall take as the basis of my inquiry into the official attitude of the Church of to-day towards Medicine and Psychic Healing.
The Report opens with a statement that is refreshing in its admission of ignorance after the ready words of many sciolists and 'quack' healers.
'Your Committee, which has had under
- ↑ With touching for scrofula may be compared the blessing of 'cramp-rings.' The Sovereign of England used, on Good Friday, to bless rings which afterwards were distributed to sufferers from cramp or epilepsy. The last monarch to do this was Mary Tudor.
