id="FNanchor_I_9"/>[i] thirteen times; and for the other hours of the day—1st, 3rd, and 6th of Vespers; and again, at the hour of concluding service, a Pater-noster and Ave Maria seven times; besides the aforesaid prayers each Leper shall say a Pater-noster and Ave Maria thirty times every day, for the founder of the Hospital—the Abbess of Barking, 1190—the Bishop of the place, all his benefactors, and all other true believers, living or dead; and on the day on which any one of their number departs from life, let each Leprous brother say in addition, fifty Paters and Aves three times, for the soul of the departed, and the souls of all diseased believers.” Punishment was meted out to any who neglected or shirked these duties.

Some of the Leper Houses in France excited the jealousy and avarice of Phillip V., who caused many of the inmates to be burned alive, in order that the fire might purify at one and the same time, the infection of the body and that of the soul, giving as an ostensible reason for his fiendish barbarity, the absurd and baseless allegation, that the Lepers had been bribed to commit the detestable sin and horrible crime of poisoning the wells, waters, etc., used by the Christians. The real cause being a desire, through this flimsy excuse, to rob the richer hospitals of their funds and possessions, this is clearly manifest in the special wording of his own edict, “that all the goods of the Lepers be lodged and held for himself.” A similar persecution was renewed about 60 years afterwards, in 1388, under Charles VI. of France.

As soon as a man became a prey to the disease, his doom on earth was finally and irrevocably sealed. The laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, were awful in their severity to the poor Leper; not only was he cut off from the society of his fellow-men, and all family ties severed, but, he was dead to the law, he could not inherit property, or be a witness to any deed. According to English law Lepers were classed with idiots, madmen, outlaws, etc.

The Church provided a service to be said over the Leper on his entering a Lazar House[j]. The Priest duly vested preceded by a cross, went to the abode of the victim. He there began to exhort him to suffer with a patient and penitent spirit the incurable plague with which God had stricken him. Having sprinkled the unfortunate Leper with Holy Water, he conducted him to the Church, the while reading aloud the beginning of the Burial Service. On his arrival there, he was stripped of his clothes and enveloped in a pall, and then placed between two trestles—like a corpse—before the Altar, when the Libera was sung and the Mass for the Dead celebrated over him.

After the service he was again sprinkled with Holy Water, and led from thence to the Lazar House, destined for his future, and final abode, here on earth.

A pair of clappers, a stick, a barrel, and a distinctive dress were given to him. The costume comprised a russet tunic[k], and upper tunic with hood cut from it, so that the sleeves of the tunic were closed as far as the hand, but not laced with knots or thread after the secular fashion of the day. The upper tunic was to be closed down to the ankles, and a close cape of black cloth of the same length as the hood, for outside use.

A particular form of boot or shoe, laced high, was also enjoined, and if these orders were disobeyed the culprit was condemned to walk bare-footed, until the Master, considering his humility said to him “enough.” An oath of obedience and a promise to lead a moral and abstemious life was required of every Leper on admission. The Bishops of Rome from time to time issued Bulls, with regard to the ecclesiastical separation and rights of the afflicted.

Lepers were excluded from the city of London by Act 20 Edward the III., 1346[l].

The Magistrates of Glasgow, in 1573, appeared to have exercised some right of searching for Lepers.

Piers, the ploughman, makes frequent allusions to “Lepers under the hedges.”

The Lazar Houses were often under the authority of some neighbouring Abbey, or Monastery. Semler quotes a Bull, issued by one of the Bishops of Rome, appointing every Leper House to be provided with its own burial ground and chapel; as also ecclesiastics; these in the middle ages were probably the only physicians of the body, as well as of the soul—some appear to have devoted themselves as much to the study of medicine as to that of theology.

It was customary in the mediæval times to address the secular clergy as “Sir.”

STATUS OF LEPERS.

The rank and status of any one, was no guarantee against attacks from this dire disorder, with its fearful ravages. Had the victims been confined, as it is generally thought, to those who dwelt amid squalor, dirt and vice, in close and confined dens, veritable hot beds for rearing and propagating disease of every kind; we should not be surprised, but should be entitled to assume, that to such circumstances, in a very great measure might the origin be expected to be found; but, when we find, that not only was the scourge a visitant here, but, that it numbered amongst the afflicted, members of some of the most illustrious households in this kingdom, aye, even the august monarchs themselves, the source from whence Elephantiasis Græcorum—the malady not being contagious—first originated must be sought for elsewhere.

First amongst our ancient and illustrious families, we find—if he may be so classed—the case of S. Finian, who died 675 or 695[m].

A nobleman of the South of England, whose name unfortunately is not recorded, is reputed to have been miraculously cured at the tomb of S. Cuthbert, at Durham, 1080[n].

A daughter of Mannasseh Bysset, a rich Wiltshire gentleman, sewer[o] to Henry II., being a Leper, founded the Lazar House at Maiden Bradley, dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Virgin, “for poore leprous women” and gave to it her share of the town of Kidderminster, c. 1160. Mannasseh Bysset founded the Lazar House dedicated in honour of S. James, Doncaster, for women, c. 1160.

The celebrated Constance, Duchess of Brittany, who was allied to the royal families of both England and Scotland, being a grand-daughter of Malcolm III. of Scotland, and the English Princess Margaret Atheling, and also a descendant of a natural daughter of Henry I. She died of Leprosy in the year 1201