m was not so thoroughly credited as the cause of
diseases, relics were still considered to hold their power over
physical infirmities. In addition to this, the missionary efforts and
successes of the church had some influence in establishing and
continuing cures by relics and similar means. The missionaries found
that their converts had formerly employed various amulets and charms
for the healing of diseases, and that they continued to have great
faith in them for that purpose. To wean them from their heathen
customs, Christian amulets and charms had to be substituted, or, as
was sometimes the case, the heathen fetich was continued, but with a
Christian significance.

The early Scandinavians carried effigies carved out of gold or silver
as safeguards against disease, or applied those made out of certain
other materials, as the mandragora root or linen or wood, to the
diseased part as a cure of physical infirmities. Some of these images
were carried over into Christianity, for in Charlemagne's time,
headache was frequently cured by following the saintly recommendation
to shape the figure of a head and place it on a cross. Fort tells us
that "The introduction of Christianity among the Teutonic races
offered no hindrance to a perpetuation, under new forms, of those
social observances with which Norse temple idolatry was so intimately
associated. Offering to proselytes an unlimited number of demoniacal
aeons, similar in individuality and prowess to those peopling the
invisible universe, Northern mythology readily united with Christian
demonology."[21]

The relics of the saints came to be the favorite substitute for the
heathen charms. With the acceptance of the demoniacal cause of
disease, exorcism by relics gradually grew in importance until it was
firmly established and a preferred form in the sixth and subsequent
centuries. Down to this time there still existed a feeble recognition
of a possible system adapted to the cure of maladies, so far, perhaps,
as the practice was restricted to municipalities. The rapid
advancement of saintly remedies, consecrated oils, and other puissant
articles of ecclesiastical appliance, enabled and encouraged numerous
churchmen to exercise the AEsculapian art; this, together with the ban
put upon physicians and scientific means, soon gave the church the
monopoly of healing. Perhaps the most thorough attestation of the
contempt into which physicians had fallen, compared with saintly
medici