David's Adultery with Bathsheba and the Healing Power of the Capetian Kings

Abstract

"David's Adultery with Bathsheba and the Healing Power of the Capetian Kings." This study is based on hitherto unnoticed glosses on David's adultery with Bathsheba (2 Kings 11) dating from as early as the 1180s and probably even from the 1170s onward. It explores the cultural context of the healing touch of the kings of France. It also shows that mentions of this ability were current at the Paris schools in the last quarter of the twelfth century. A corollary: Parisian sympathizers of the so-called Gregorian reform did not fully silence reports of what Marc Bloch called “the royal miracle." Before 1200-1230, the ideal of a royal power to heal is accepted by masters of all political bents, including opponents of the growth of royal power. But after 1200-1230, the idea is upheld only by men favoring the king's preeminence in matters of taxation and law-making; opponents tend to either ignore, deride, or explain away glosses mentioning the healing touch. The royal miracle had become an object of, and argument in, partisan politics.

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