ired for a criminal case, since
the cause of religion and piety is that of the commonweal." Some
consideration must be thus given to this testimony, but the value of
it depends on the number of years elapsing after the cures were
performed and the direct connection of the witnesses with the cure in
question.

The craving for the miraculous in bodily cures prejudiced many
historians, especially when the desire to emphasize the importance of
the church was uppermost in the minds of the writers. We can consider,
though, the material at hand, always recognizing that marvellous cures
can be performed when the authority of the physician has all the
weight of an infallible church behind it and the patient is credulous.
We must notice in this connection that the healers up to the time of
the magnetizers depended on religious ceremonies for their efficiency,
with the exception of those who endorsed and propagated "sympathetic
cures."

As we well know, the first healing among Christians was done by Jesus
himself and the apostles; after this for two centuries the exorcists
performed most of the cures. We have accounts of one non-Christian
healer whose cures have probably been handed down to us on account of
his exalted position. Tacitus and Suetonius describe how Vespasian
(9-79) healed in at least two cases. The first was a blind man well
known in Alexandria. In the second case the historians disagree; one
says it was a leg and the other a hand which was diseased and cured.
According to the story, the god Serapis revealed to the patients that
they would be cured by the emperor. Tacitus says that Vespasian did
not believe in his own power and it was only after much persuasion
that he was induced to try the experiment.[58]

The Christians, however, were not to be outdone as healers. Irenaeus
(130-202) gives a long list of infirmities which were cured by the
representatives of the church, and in writing, about the year 180,
draws a comparison between them and the heretics. "For they [the
heretics] can neither confer sight on the blind nor hearing on the
deaf, nor chase away all sorts of demons (except those which are sent
into others by themselves--if they can ever do as much as this): nor
can they cure the weak, or the lame, or the paralytic; or those who
are distressed in any other part of the body, as has often been done
in regard to bodily infirmity. Nor can they furnish effective remedies
for those external accidents which