Ayr in 1507, for “George Yong, Prior of Kingiscase, accusyt Thome Greif of four barrels of beyr, and the said Thomas grantyt 24 shillings, but denyit ye beer.”60 We have already seen that there were chapels annexed to the Kingcase and Aberdeen Hospitals. Our history of the other lazar-houses in Scotland is so imperfect as not to enable us to state whether they were equally well provided; but certainly many of the richer leper and other hospitals in England had, as appears from their better preserved records, free chapels attached to them, with resident regular or secular canons. In the Sherburne Leper Hospital, near Durham, there were, besides the prior, four priests and four attendant clerks.61 The hospital of St. Giles, Norwich, was provided with a master or prior, and an establishment of eight regular canons acting as chaplains, two clerks, seven choristers, and two sisters; while the only permanent residents to whose wants they were required to minister were eight poor bed-ridden subjects!62

Both the ecclesiastical officers of the leper hospitals, and the leprous inmates themselves, were in general strictly enjoined, by the foundation charters and regulations of their institutions, to observe strict religious formulæ, and especially to offer up prayers for the souls of the founder and his family. That the duties connected with this last office were in some instances by no means slight, will be sufficiently apparent by the following extract from the laws of the leper hospital at Illeford, in Essex, which I translate from the regulations established for the house in 1346 by Baldok, Bishop of London:—63

“We also command that the Lepers omit not attendance at their church, to hear divine service, unless prevented by grievous bodily infirmity; they are to preserve silence there, and hear matins and mass throughout, if they are able; and whilst there, to be intent on prayer and devotion, as far as their infirmity permits them. We desire also and command that, as it was ordained of old in the said hospital, every leprous brother shall, every day, say for the morning duty a Pater noster and Ave Maria, thirteen times; and for the other hours of the day respectively, namely, the first, third, sixth hour of the vespers, and again at the hour of the concluding service, a Pater noster and Ave Maria seven times; and besides the aforesaid prayers, each leprous brother shall say a Pater and Ave thirty times every day for the founders of the hospital and the bishop of the place, and all his benefactors, and all other true believers, living or dead; and on the day on which any one of their number departs from this 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 deceased believers. But if any one shall openly (manifeste) transgress the said rules, or any one of them, for each transgression let him receive a condign punishment according to the amount of the offence, from the Master of the said hospital, who is otherwise called the Prior. But if a leprous brother secretly (occultè) fails in the performance of these articles, let him consult the priest of the said hospital in the Penitential Court.”

In several of the hospitals the passions of the inmates were endeavoured to be restrained by the laws laid down by their Superior. Thus the articles of the leper-house of St. Julian, at St. Albans, contain the following significant regulations of Abbot Michael de accessu Mulierum. “And since by the access of women scandal and evils of no slight nature arise, we above all things forbid that any woman enter the hospital of the brothers, with the exception of the common laundress of the house, who must be of mature age and discreet manner of life (maturæ aetatis et bonae conversationis), so that no suspicion can attach to her. And she must not presume to enter the house at suspicious times, but at the proper hours, so that her entrance and exit may be seen by all. But if a mother or sister, or any other honest matron, come there for the purpose of visiting the infirm, she may have access to the one with whom she wishes to speak, and this may be done by the permission of the Custos; without which they are not to enter, whatever may be their rank. But women of light fame and evil reputation are by no means to enter the houses.”64

The Custos, Master, Dean or Prior, and in some houses the Prioress,65 seems in general to have had full control over the leprous inmates of the hospital. Thus, in the laws which have been transmitted to us of the Sherburne Hospital, it is laid down that members were to be punished for disobedience or idleness, at the discretion of the prior, by corporal correction with the birch, “modo scholarium.” Offenders who refused to submit to this chastisement had their diet reduced to bread and water, and after the third offence were liable to be ejected.66

Matthew Paris has left us a copy of the vow which the lepers of the hospital of St. Julian, at St. Albans, were obliged to take before admission. I append a translation of it as a document highly illustrative of this part of our subject:—

“I, brother B, promise and, taking my bodily oath by touching the most sacred Gospel, affirm, before God and all his saints in this church, which is constructed in honour of St. Julian the confessor, in the presence of Dominus R. the Archdeacon, that all the days of my life I will be subservient and obedient to the commands of the Lord Abbot of St. Albans for the time being, and to his archdeacon; resisting them in nothing, unless such things should be commanded as would militate against the Divine pleasure. I will never commit theft, nor bring a false accusation against any one of the brethren, nor infringe the vow of chastity, nor fail in my duty by appropriating anything or leaving anything by will to others, unless by a dispensation granted by the brothers. I will make it my study wholly to avoid all kind of usury, as a monstrous thing, and hateful to God.67 I will not be aiding and abetting, in word or thought, directly or indirectly, in any plan by which any one shall be appointed custos or master of the Lepers of St. Julian, except the person appointed by the Lord Abbot of St. Albans. I will be content, without strife or complaint, with the food and drink, and other things given and allowed me by the