Peter Elmer, The Miraculous Conformist: Valentine Greatrakes, the Body Politic, and the Politics of Healing in Restoration Britain

Abstract

The Miraculous Conformist is a well-researched and very readable demonstration of the highly politicised nature of medicine. It is the story of an Irish gentleman faith healer who achieved fame and notoriety as ‘the Stroker’ during a visit to England in 1666. The ability of Valentine Greatrakes (1629–83) to cure numerous ailments, from headaches to cancer, usually by vigorous rubbing of the patient's fingers or toes, was attested to by a large number of witnesses. Peter Elmer argues that Greatrakes was successful because both his character and his medical claims were understood by most English natural philosophers and clergymen to accord with a form of politics likely to maintain peace. Greatrakes found favour with prominent establishment figures that agreed with his relatively latitudinarian view of authority and social order, his modest piety and his support for a liberal form of Anglicanism. Elmer also draws attention to the importance of Greatrakes' fascination with witchcraft and occasional identification as a thaumaturge. The Miraculous Conformist offers us a picture of someone driven to seek favour with whoever held authority, especially when his economic interests were threatened. As a young man in Cromwellian Ireland he acquired the attributes of flexibility and opportunism on finding his monarchical instincts and education at odds with the regime. Elmer details Greatrakes' connections with influential English establishment figures throughout the 1660s and explores the relationship between politics and natural philosophy. Among Greatrakes' supporters were the natural philosopher Robert Boyle, the theologian and natural philosopher John Wilkins and the Church of England clergyman Joseph Glanvill.