APPENDIX.
ADDITIONAL NOTES BY JOSEPH ROBERTSON, LL.D.
Leper Hospital of Glasgow.
Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part I. p. 10.—“In 1350, in the reign of David II., the Lady of Lochow, daughter of Robert, Duke of Albany, erected a leper hospital at the Gorbals of Glasgow, near the old bridge.—(Gibson’s Hist. of Glasg. p. 52; Cleland’s Glasg. vol. i. p. 68.)”
There is some mistake here. If the leper hospital was founded by the Lady of Lochow, daughter of the Duke of Albany, it must have been a hundred years after 1350. The dukedom of Albany was not created until 1378, and the first daughter of that house who married a Knight of Lochow was Marjory, the wife of Sir Duncan Campbell, who died in 1453.
The earliest record notice of the hospital which I have observed is in 1494, when William Steward, prebendary of Killern and rector of Glassfurd, endowed a chaplain to serve in the chapel of St. Ninian, which he had lately built, “ad Hospitale Leprosorum degentium prope Pontem Glasguensem.” He provided that yearly, on the anniversary of his death, twenty-four poor scholars should assemble in the chapel of the hospital to perform certain services, for which one penny was to be paid to each of them, along with one shilling to the lepers—“et leprosis non sociatis degentibus in dicto Hospitali xijd.” The lepers were to ring the chapel bell for the Salve Regina every night, and to pray in the chapel for their benefactors.—(Regist. Episcopal. Glasg., vol. ii. pp. 488-490. Edinb. 1843, Mait. Club.) In 1505 we have “pauperibus leprosis in Leprosario Sancti Niniani trans pontem Glasguensem degentibus.”—(Liber Collegii Nostre Domine Glasguensis, p. 259. Glasg. 1846, Maitland Club.) In 1528, James Houston, sub-dean of Glasgow, founder of the Lady College (now the Tron Kirk) of Glasgow, ordered twelve pennies to be distributed yearly, on the anniversary of his death, to the lepers beside the Bridge of Glasgow, and others, who should appear in the churchyard of the Lady College to say orisons for his soul—“leprosis extraneis et commorantibus juxta Pontem Glasguensem comparentibus in cimiterio prefecto Ecclesie Collegiate oraturis Deum.”—(Lib. Coll. Nostre Domine Glasguensis, p. 51.) The Tron Kirk or Ladye College was on the north side of the Clyde, and within the burgh of Glasgow, so that we have here proof that lepers in 1528 were not forbidden to enter the burgh. Contrast this feeling towards them with the feeling shown in the Leges Burgorum and Statuta Gilde of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, printed in the Acta Parliamentorum Scotiæ, vol. i., and with the banishment of all lepers from Glasgow in 1593 and 1594, as instructed by the Kirk-Session Records, abridged in Wodrow’s Biograph. Collect., vol. ii. part ii. p. 41.
Did this difference of toleration arise from some corresponding difference in the intensity or general diffusion of the disease?
Leper Hospital at Stirling.
The existence of a leper-house at Stirling is proved by entries in the Rotuli Scaccarii Regum Scotorum, MS. in the General Register House.
Observe how literally the situation of the leper-house, as described in the language of record “ad finem burgi,” answers to Henryson’s phrase—“yone hospitall at the tounis end.”
Leper Hospital of Aberdeen.
The leper hospital of Aberdeen was in existence before 1363. A charter of that year describes certain lands as bounded by the king’s highway leading from the burgh of Aberdeen versus domos Leprosorum; and again a domibus dictorum Leprosorum.—(Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, vol. ii. p. 283.)
The use of the plural domos and domibus may possibly denote that there were two hospitals, as at Canterbury and elsewhere—one for men and one for women.
The Regent and the Privy Council interposed for the repair or restoration of the leper hospital of Aberdeen in 1574; in 1578 it was placed under the charge of a master; and in 1591 there were patients in it.—(Selections from Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, pp. 20, 23. Aberd. 1846, Spald. Club.—Extracts from the Burgh Records of Aberdeen, 1570-1625, pp. 70, 71. Aberd. 1848, Spald. Club. Book of Bon Accord, p. 342.) There would seem to have been an outbreak of leprosy in Scotland about this time. It was in 1584 that the Magistrates of Edinburgh issued orders for finding a commodious place for a leper-house; in 1589 a leper-house was ordered to be built; and in 1591 there were five patients in it. (Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part I. p. 11.) So also in Glasgow, in 1586 the Kirk-Session of Glasgow gave orders that “the Lepper Folk’s House or Spittal beyond the Bridge” should be visited, “to see how the same should be reformed.” These orders were renewed in 1587; in 1588 “the yard of the Lepper House” was built; and in 1589 six lepers are found in the Hospital. (Wodrow’s Biographical Collections, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 40, 41. Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part I. p. 10.) In 1593, “the Lepper House [of Glasgow] was charged to receive none but townsfolks, and all Leppers were banished the town;” and in 1594 the Kirk-Session “beseeches the magistrates to put all Leppers out of toun, for fear of infection.”—(Wodrow’s Biographical Collections, vol. ii. part ii. pp. 40, 41.)
If there were really a new access of leprosy in Scotland about 1580-1590, the disease seems speedily to have abated, at least in Aberdeen. In 1604, when a female leper applied for admission, “the Keys of the Hospital” were given to her, showing that the place was then empty and locked up.—(Selections from the Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, p. 34.) In May 1610 it was ordered that two merks should be given by the Kirk-Session “to the Lepper woman laitlie put in the Lepper Hous, becaus she will not gett any of the rent of the said Hous till Martenes next;” denoting, apparently, that there was but one leper in the hospital at this time.—(Selections from the Ecclesiastical Records of Aberdeen, pp. 73, 74.) In 1612, a female leper, “being expellit furth of this toun, as ane not meit to dwell within the same,” is allowed to take up her abode in the leper-house, although “sche be not borne and bred within this burght.”—(Extracts from the Burgh Records of Aberdeen, vol. ii. (1570-1625), p. 308.) I do not observe record of any later patient. Fifty years afterwards, in 1661, both the leper hospital and its chapel (erected in 1519) were ruined if not razed to the ground, “and scarcelie is the name knowne to many.”—(Gordon’s Description of Bothe Touns of Aberdeene, pp. 18, 19. Aberd. 1842, Spald. Club.)
Mr. Albert Way, in the Promptorium Parvulorum, p. 298, says—“Heutzner, who visited England during the reign of Elizabeth, speaks of the English as very subject to the disease of leprosy.” I have not Heutzner’s book at hand, but it might be looked at to see if he speaks of leprosy being prevalent in England so late as the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
Leper House of Rathven.
The date of the first charter now extant of the leper-house at Rothfan (now Rathven) in the Enzie, was between the years 1224 and 1226, as can be shown from the list of witnesses who attest it. It may be remarked that the founder, John Bisset, is believed to have been a kinsman of that Manaser Bisset, sewer to King Henry II. of England, who founded the leper hospital of Mayden Bradley in Wilts, and whose wife Alice, an heiress, is said to have been herself a leper.—(Monasticon Anglicanum, vol. vi. part ii. p. 643, edit. ult.)
The hospital of Rathven still exists, but has long ceased to be occupied by lepers. Its tenants, in 1563, were simply “beidmen,” and their number had been reduced from seven to six. They had 42 marks for their ordinary charges, and £7 : 4s. for their habits. At the end of the last century every bedeman had half-an-acre of land for life, one boll of oatmeal yearly, and 9s. 6d. also yearly. At that time none of the bedemen lived in the hospital. But it was repaired not many years ago, and when the New Statistical Account of Scotland was published, two of the six bedemen resided in the hospital. It stands in the village of Rathven, in the district of the Enzie, and the shire of Banff.—(Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, vol. ii. pp. 142-145. Aberd. 1847, Spald. Club.)
The Knights of St. Lazarus in Scotland.
In 1296, Friar William Corbet, master of the house of St. Lazarus of Harop (Frater Willelmus Corbet, magister domus Sancti Lazari de Harop), had letters for the restitution of his lands, directed to the Sheriff of Edinburgh (a sheriffdom which then included both Haddingtonshire and Linlithgowshire), from King Edward I. of England, as overlord of Scotland.—(Rotuli Scotiæ, vol. i. p. 25. London, 1814.)
In 1376, King Robert II. granted a charter to his eldest son, John, Earl of Carrick, Steward of Scotland, of the lands of Prestisfelde, St. Giles’ Grange, and Spetelton, in the sheriffdom of Edinburgh, then in the King’s possession by reason of the forfeiture of the Friars of Harehope, abiding at the faith and peace of the King and kingdom of England, contrary to the faith and peace of the King and kingdom of the Scots, (racione forisfacture Fratrum de Harehope ad fidem et pacem Regis et regni Anglie, ac contra fidem et pacem nostras existencium). The grant was to lapse when the Friars of Harehope became reconciled to the faith and peace of the King and kingdom of the Scots.—(Registrum Magni Sigilli Regum Scotorum, p. 132. Edin. 1814.)
These notices do not enable us to fix the position of Harop or Harehope, showing only that it had lands near Edinburgh. The only other notice of the house which I have observed rather perplexes the question than otherwise. It occurs in the history of the deprivation of English priests of their Scotch benefices, given by Fordun (Scotichronicon, lib. xi. cap. xxi.), and, with some variations, in a memorial of a Scotch monk claiming the Priory of Coldingham, about 1422, printed in the Priory of Coldingham, pp. 246-258. Lond. 1841, Surtees Soc. It is here said that Harehope, or Holme, was founded by King David, the son of St. Margaret; that certain lands in Lothian were annexed to it, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, namely Spitalton and St. Giles’ Grange; that the monks (monachi) and laymen of the house, being Englishmen, conspired against the realm of Scotland; that King David therefore declared their lands forfeited, and bestowed them on Walter of Wardlaw, Bishop of Glasgow, for his life; that after Bishop Wardlaw’s death the lands were given to his kinsman the Laird of Ricarton, by whose heirs they were possessed at the time this record was written. The memorial printed in the Priory of Coldingham expressly quotes the Ricarton charters—“Ut patet in cartis dicti domini de Ricarton exinde confectis.” If these be still extant, they may remove the doubts which meanwhile may attach to the question whether the “Harehope or Holme” of Fordun and the Scotch Prior of Coldingham be certainly the same with the “Harehop” of the Rotuli Scotiæ in 1296, and the charter of King Robert II. in 1376. The possessors of the latter are described as Friars (fratres), of the former as monks (monachi)—an all-important distinction in that age, and not at all likely to be overlooked. Then, again, Fordun and the Scotch Prior of Coldingham say nothing of the grant of the possessions of Harehope to the Earl of Carrick,—if, indeed, they do not relate grants of these possessions incompatible with the charter of King Robert II. in 1376. On the other hand, we have, both in that charter and the notices of Fordun and the Scotch Prior of Coldingham, mention of the same lands of Spitaltoun and St. Giles’ Grange as the possessions of Harehope.
The Spitaltoun here referred to may perhaps be identified with the “Spittle toun” of Upper Liberton, near Edinburgh. At the same time there is a Spitaltoun in the lands of Warristoun, near Ricarton.
In Spottiswood’s Account of the Religious Houses in Scotland, it is said that the hospital of St. Mary Magdalene, near Linlithgow, “was formerly governed by the Lazarites.”—(Bp. Keith’s Catal. of Scotch Bishops, p. 477, edit. 1824.) It is added that the hospital at Lanark “belonged likewise to this sect.” It does not necessarily follow from the words of the charter in the Registrum de Neubotle (p. 149) that the Friars of St. Lazarus, there spoken of, had their Hospital in Linlithgow. The words are,—“Unam particam terre cum crofto de quarta parte illius tofti quod tenui de Fratribus de Sancto Lazaro in villa de Lynlitgu in burgagis scilicet illum particum terre que iacet ex orientali parte illius tofti.” The object here seems to be rather to indicate the position of the piece of land as being in Linlithgow than to describe the Friars of St. Lazarus as being located there.
Endowments of Scotch Leper Hospitals, Part I. p. [31].
Glasgow.—In 1593 the rental of the leper-house of Glasgow was £7 : 15s. in money, and 18 bolls of meal.—Wodrow’s Biographical Collections, vol. ii. part ii. p. 40; Glasg. 1848, Mait. Club.
Rothfan or Rathven.—In 1563 the money rent of the hospital of Rathven seems to have been £35 : 4s. In 1798 the hospital had 3 acres of land, 6 bolls of oatmeal, and £3 : 15s. of money rent.—Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff, vol. ii. pp. 143-145; Aberd. 1847, Spald. Club.
Number of Inmates in Leper Hospitals.
A passage in the will of “old John of Gaunt, time-honour’d Lancaster,” in 1398, seems to support the opinion expressed at p. [18], that the leper hospitals in general did not contain many patients.—“Item, jeo devise a chescun maison de lepres deinz v. lieues entour Londres charges de v. malades, v. nobles en l’onur des v. plaies principalx de Nostre Seigneur, et a ceux qi sont meyns charges, trois nobles en l’onur de la Benoit Trinite.”—(Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. i. p. 227; Lond. 1836. Surtees Soc.)
Dates of the Appearance of Leprosy in Great Britain.
Ireland.—Ireland is excluded from consideration, else proof of the existence of leprosy in that island in the end of the seventh century might be adduced. St. Finan, a native of Munster, who died between 675 and 695, “was surnamed Lobhar, or the Leper, from his having been afflicted for thirty years of his life with some cutaneous disorder.”—(Dr. Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, vol. iii. pp. 83-88; Dublin, 1822.)
England.—As to England, says Mr. Albert Way, “it has been affirmed that leprosy was brought into Europe by the Crusaders; in the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, however, which has been attributed to Aelfric, occurs the word ‘Leprosus = hreofliz, oððe, licðrowera,’ Jul. A, II. f. 123.”—(Promptorium Parvulorum, vol. i. p. 297; Lond. 1843. Camden Soc.)
To the instances given by Sir James Simpson, Part I., p. [39], of the occurrence of leprosy in England before the first Crusade, may be added the case of a noble Englishman of the south of England—nobili viro sed leproso—miraculously cured at the tomb of St. Cuthbert at Durham, as related by Reginald of Durham from the recital of a fellow-monk, Turold—“qui se hæc audisse a veteranis canonicis asseruit, in quorum presentia et aspectu hoc gestum fuit.” The canons here spoken of were ejected from Durham in 1083—thirteen years before the first Crusade. Reginald of Durham wrote before 1195. He speaks of the disease thus:—“Accidit ut lepræ morbum passim eam enutriendo incurreret, ita ut, modico interposito tempore, tota vultus illius superficies horribilis videntibus appareret. Suis etiam quandoque, sanie ulcerum difluente, factus est evitabilis; et in consortii communione nonnullis effectus intolerabilis.” Yet, when he journeyed from the south of England to the tomb of St. Cuthbert he was “nobilibus juvenum ministrantium, amicorum et parentum, constipatus agminibus.”—(Reginaldi Dunelmensis Libbellus de Beati Cuthberti Virtutibus, cap. xix. pp. 37-41; Lond. 1835. Surtees Soc.)
The disease was probably not unknown among the Anglo-Saxons, yet the silence of their laws (the word Leper is not to be found in the index to Thorpe’s Collection) with regard to it, contrasts strongly with the frequent enactments for its prevention in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries both in England and Scotland, and (if we allow the Welsh laws the antiquity which is claimed for them) in the tenth and eleventh centuries in Wales. May not the anomaly be explained by supposing that the disease broke out with new severity about the beginning of the twelfth century?
Scotland.—No trace of leprosy is to be found in Adamnan’s Life of St. Columba, written in the seventh century. But of one of St. Columba’s contemporaries—St. Kentigern of Glasgow, who died about 600—it is related that in that city he cleansed lepers—“mundabat leprosos.” These are the words of his biographer, Joceline of Furnes, who wrote towards the end of the twelfth century.—(Vit. S. Kentigerni, cap. xxxiv.; Pinkert. Vit. Antiq. Sanct. Scotiæ, p. 270.) The same biographer relates that at St. Kentigern’s tomb in Glasgow lepers were cured—“leprosis cutis munditia restituitur.”—(Vit. S. Kentigerni, cap. xliv.; Pinkert. Vit. Antiq. SS. Scot., p. 295.)
So also it is related of St. Boniface of Rosemarky, who appears to have flourished in the beginning of the eighth century, that he cleansed lepers—“leprosos mundabat.” These are the words of the Breviary of Aberdeen (Proprium Sanctorum pro tempore hyemali, fol. lxx.), printed in 1510, but quoting and using older materials.
St. Aelred of Rievaux, who died in 1166, relates that lepers were cleansed at the tomb of St. Ninian at Whithern in Galloway—“ad ejus namque sacratissimum tumulum curantur infirmi, mundantur leprosi.”—(Vit. S. Ninian, cap. xi.) He mentions specially two cases:—
“Visi sunt præterea venire in civitatem viri duo leprosi. Qui præ sumptuosum æstimantes cum lepræ contagio scabiem tangere, quasi delonge poscunt auxilium. Accedentes autem ad fontem, et sanctum arbitrantes quidquid sanctus contigerat Ninianus, lavacio illo se abluendos putarunt.... Mundantur leprosi tactu lavacio, sed meritis Niniani.”—(Vit. S. Niniani, cap. xi. § 4; Pinkert. Vit. Antiq. SS. Scot., pp. 22, 23.)
All these writers—St. Aelred of Rievaux, Joceline of Furnes, and the compiler of the Aberdeen Breviary—wrote so long after the Saints whose miracles they commemorate, that their testimony cannot avail as proof in itself of the existence of leprosy in Scotland in the seventh and eighth centuries. Besides, they speak only in general terms—“leprosos mundabat,”—which may be little or nothing more than a rhetorical flourish. But the passages which have been quoted are at least sufficient to demonstrate that in the twelfth century the existence of leprosy in Scotland from a remote age was a matter of unquestioned belief. Of the general prevalence of the disease on this side of the Tweed in that and the subsequent age, there is abundant evidence elsewhere in the Leges Burgorum and other ancient capitularies of Scotch law.
The canon of the Scotch Church, “De monitionem faciendo leprosis,” printed in the Registrum Episcopatus Aberdonensis, vol. ii. p. 32, and elsewhere, belongs to the thirteenth century, probably to the latter part of that century. If, as seems to be the case, it be merely a diocesan statute, and not a statute for the whole of Scotland, it will only show more forcibly the general prevalence of the disease. The diocese for which it was enacted was apparently Aberdeen, containing at that time about eighty parishes, and the number of lepers must have been great before it could be found necessary to guard against the injury done to the parochial clergy by the withdrawal of the dues and oblations of the inmates of the leper hospitals.
Leprosy in Wales.
The Venedotian Code (the Laws of the Women)—
“Should her husband be leprous, or have fetid breath, or be incapable of marital duties; if on account of one of these three things she leave her husband, she is to have the whole of her property.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 39. Lond. 1841.)
The Dimetian Code (of Women)—
“For three causes, if a woman desert her husband, she is not to lose her agweddi [dowry]; for leprosy, want of connection, and bad breath.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 255.)
The Laws of Howel Dda, according to the Gwentian Code (of Women)—
“For three causes a woman loses not her agweddi, although she may leave her husband; to wit, on account of leprosy, bad breath, and default of connection.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 365.)
These citations are from Aneurin Owen’s translation of the Welsh text of the Welsh laws, published in parallel columns with the Welsh text by the Record Commissioners. These laws are of uncertain date; they are commonly attributed to Howel Dda, but bear interpolations or alterations of much later date. The oldest MSS. of them are of the twelfth century.
I add the passages regarding lepers which occur in the Latin versions of the Welsh Laws, the oldest MSS. of which are of the thirteenth century:—
“Tribus de causis potest femina habere suum egwedy [suam dotem], licet ipsa uirum relinquat; scilicet, si sit leprosus uir; et si habeat fetidum anhelatum; et si cum ea concumbere non possit.”—(Liber Legum Howel Da, lib. ii. cap. xx., sec. xxxi. Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 796; Lond. 1841.)
“Tribus de causis habebat femina suum aguedi [suam dotem], licet ipsa virum suum relinquat; id est, si leprosus sit vir; et si fetidum hanelitum habueret; et si cum ea coire non possit.”—(Liber Legum Howel Da, lib. ii. cap. xxiii. sec. xiii. Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 827.)
“Leprosi cum seculum dimittunt ebedyw [i.e. heriot seu caulp] dare debent dominis suis.”—(Liber Legum Howel Da, lib. ii. cap. xxii. sec. ix. Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p.797.)
The Dimetian Code (of Murder)—
“If there be a relative of the murderer, or of the murdered, who is an ecclesiastic in holy orders, or in an ecclesiastical community, or leprous, or dumb, or an idiot, such neither pays nor receives any part of galanas” [assythment, or fines for murder].—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 200.)
The Dimetian Code (Triads)—
“There are three persons, no one of whom, by law, can be a qualified judge; one of them is, a person having a defect, as one who is deaf, or blind, or leprous, or an insane person,” etc. etc.—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 200.)
The next class of passages is taken from what are called the “Anomalous Welsh Laws,” which, in the state they are now found in, are supposed to be of the sixteenth century:—
“If a person become a surety, and before the termination of the suit he should become leprous, or a monk, or blind, .... he must fulfil his promise while he lives.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 403.)
“There is to be no objection to a pleader, but for having violated his religious profession, and quitting the world, or his becoming a separated leper.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 516.)
“Three sons who are not to have patrimony—The son of a priest, the son of a leper, and the son of a man who had paid his patrimony as blood land. The son of a leper is not to have it, because God has separated him from worldly kin—that is, such son as a leper may have after being adjudged to a lazar-house; and a son a priest shall have after taking priestly orders; and the third has no patrimony, as his father, prior to him, had determined it by law.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 556. See also p. 603.)
“Three persons to whom saraad [fine for insult] is not due—A leper, a natural fool, and an alltud [an alien serf] who is not married to an innate Cymraes: And, nevertheless, there is worth in law attached to each of them, and whoever shall ill-use them and injure them in person and property is subject to a dirwy [fine or punishment].—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 656.)
“Three persons who are not to be invested with the judicial function—An inefficient person, as one that is deaf, or blind, or maimed, or leprous, or insane, or mute,” etc. etc.—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 671.)
“A leper cannot be a pleader.”—(Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales, p. 764.)
The Welsh term for leper is Clafwr, obviously an adaptation of the Latin word.
It should be kept in view that the license which the Welsh laws give to the wife to leave a leprous husband is in direct contradiction to the canon law as declared by Pope Alexander III. to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1180:—“Mandamus quatenus si qui sunt in provincia tua viri vel mulieres qui lepræ morbum incurrunt, ut uxores viros et viri uxores sequantur, et eis conjugali affectione ministrent, sollicitis exhortationibus inducere non postponas. Si vero ad hoc induci non poterunt, eis arctius injungas ut uterque altero vivente continentiam servet. Quodsi mandatum tuum servare contempserint, vinculo excommunicationis adstringas.”—(Corpus Juris Canonici, vol. ii. col. 656. Edit. 1747.)
The same Pope, in the same year, decreed that lepers might marry:— “Leprosi autem si continere nolunt, et aliquam quæ sibi nubere velit invenerint, liberum est eis ad matrimonium convolare.” He settled another and more delicate point:—“Quodsi virum sive uxorem divino judicio leprosum fieri contigerit, et infirmus a sano carnale debitum exigat, generali præcepto Apostoli, quod exigitur est solvendum: cui præcepto nulla in hoc casu exceptio invenitur.”—(Corpus Juris Canonici, vol. ii. col. 656. Edit. 1747.)
Pope Urban III. found, in 1186, that subsequent leprosy was a sufficient reason why betrothed persons should not be compelled to marry.—(Corpus Juris Canonici, vol. ii. col. 657. Edit. 1747. See also col. 344.)
Nomenclature of the Disease.—The terms “Leprosi” and “Elephantuosi.”
The “MS. History of the Durham Cathedral and Diocese,” referred to in Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part II. p. 77, was printed in Wharton’s Anglia Sacra in 1691, and more perfectly in the Historiæ Dunelmensis Scriptores Tres, by the Surtees Society in 1839. The passage quoted stands thus (pp. 11, 12):—
“Præterea Hospitale de Schyreburne construxit, et elefantiosos in episcopatu suo circumquaque collectos, ibidem instituit, aptisque eorum usibus habitaculis ampliant; et ne quid sollicitudini caritatis deesset, ad eorum perpetuam sustentationem et nonnullorum susceptionem terras et ecclesias concessit et confirmavit. In geminum creditur esse bonum, quod et pauperum necessitatibus liberrime prospexit, et societatem immundorum a cohabitacione mundorum segregavit.”
“Elephantuosi” is here put as equivalent to “Leprosi.” In the Chronicle of Battle Abbey, written about 1180-1200, some slight distinction seems to be implied between the words. The writer is speaking of the Abbot Walter, who died in 1171:—
“Leprosorum maxime et elephantiosorum ab hominibus ejectioni compatiens, eos non solum non abhorrebat, verumetiam in persona propria eis frequenter ministrans, eorum manus pedesque abluendo fovebat, et intimo caritatis pietatisque affectu blanda oscula imprimebat.”—(Chronicon Monasterii de Bello, p. 135; Lond. 1846. Anglia Christiana.)
But, after all, the two terms may here be used merely rhetorically. There are other instances of such a tautology. Ducange (t. iii. coll. 49, 50), quotes Elephantiæ lepra and “Leprosi enim vere atque Elephantia debent habere.” At the same time he cites from an old Latin-French Glossary, “Elephancia = une maniere de mesclerie.” In the same way some writers distinguish between mesellerie and cordrerie. On the other hand, the Catholicon Anglicum, an Anglo-Latin Dictionary of the year 1483, has “A Lepyr = lepra, elefancia, missella.”—(Promptorium Parvulorum, vol. i. pp. 297, 298. Lond. 1843. Camden Soc.)
Description of a Leper.
Reginald of Durham (sometimes also called Reginald of Coldingham), a Benedictine monk, who wrote before 1195, gives the following description of a leper girl who had been for three years in the hospital at Budele, near Darlington, in the bishopric of Durham:—
“Nempe omnem facierum illius superficiem laceræ putredinis cicatrix nunquam sana totam obduxerat, et falliculis [l. folliculis] crudæ carnis sparsim patentibus et hiulco meatu saniem venenoso meatu rimantibus, horridam cunctis visu reddiderat. Labiorumque ipsius extrema circumquaque marcentia diriguerant, quia particulares quasdam ejus regiones usque ad profunda quædam dimensionum dispendia vis sæva diutini languoris consumendo exederat. His itaque aliisque illius aegritudinus modis corpus ejus dilaceratum periit,” etc.—(Libellus de Vita et Miraculis S. Godrici, p. 456. Lond. 1847. Surtees Soc.)
The leprosy is cured by a miracle at the tomb of S. Godric at Finchale, when the appearance of the face is thus described:—
“tota sana comparuit, omnisque lepræ prioris fœda scabies jam recesserat, labiaque illius sana ac tenua, facies vero tota incontacta ac clara, velut parvuli cujusdam triennis apparebat. Quæ una cum matre sospes domum rediit, quæ illo prius tota lepræ pustulis et sanie contracta pervenit.”
Among other witnesses to the miraculous cure, Ralph Haget, sheriff of Durham,
“dicebat quod facies ejus cutis licet sana, tenera sit et clara, tamen ubi cicatrices ulcerum quondam fuerant illa superficies videtur aliquantulum comparere subrufa; labiorum vero extrema quæ frustris carneis pinis fuerant valliculata, tota sunt plena atque rotunda, sed aliquanto altius prominentia.”
This was confirmed also by Norman the priest of Hailtune, who got the girl into the lepers’ hospital at Badele, near Darlington, and who subsequently showed her to his parishioners in his church.—(Libellus de Vita et Miraculis S. Godrici, pp. 457, 458.)
The same writer, in the same work, gives other descriptions of leprosy. A young shepherd of the north of England “lepra percussus cunctis horrori fuit.” He is miraculously cured—“tumorque omnis cum deformi rubore fugatus abscesserat, novaque coloris insoliti superficies in facie et toto corpore ipsius relucebat; et nulla omnino pustula vel cicatricis macula in ipso residendo comparuit.”—(Lib. de Vit. et Mirac. S. Godrici, p. 431.)
A woman—“diutino tempore toto corpore lepræ fuerat contagio maculisque cum pustulis horrende perfusa ... cunctis horrida et detestenda, nulli pene ad videndum tolerabilis fuerat.”—(Lib. de Vit. et Mirac. S. Godrici, p. 431.)
Rank of the Persons attacked by Leprosy.
In 1203, a piece of land in Sudton in Kent was in dispute in the King’s court between two kinswomen—Mabel, the daughter of William Fitz Fulke, and Avicia, the widow of Warine Fitz Fulke. Among other pleas, it was urged by Avicia, that Mabel had a brother, and that his right to the land must exclude her claim. Mabel answered that her brother was a leper—“E contra dicit Mabilla quod leprosus est.” The judgment is not recorded; but the notice shows two things—(1) The doctrine of the civil death which followed leprosy; (2) The comparatively good condition of the person who in this instance was smitten with leprosy.
The case is recorded in the Placitorum in Domo Capitulari Westmonesteriensi asservatorum Abbreviatio, p. 39. Lond. 1811. Record Commission.
In 1280 it was certified to King Edward I. that Adam of Gangy, brother and heir of Ralph of Gangy, deceased, of the county of Northumberland, holding land of the king in chief, was struck with leprosy (leperia percussus), so that he could not conveniently repair to the king’s presence to pay his homage to the king (quod ad presenciam Regis ad homagium suum Regi faciendum commode accedere non potest). It was therefore ordered that Thomas of Normanville, the elder, should in lieu and turn of the king take the leper’s fealty for his lands.—(Rotulorum Originalium in Curia Scaccarii Abbreviatio, vol. i. p. 33. Lond. 1805.)
Here, again, we see leprosy attacking a person of comparatively high position. But here the disease neither inferred civil death nor excluded the leper from all intercourse with his fellows.
In 1313, Nicholas the Leper (Nicholaus le Lepere) and William the Leper (Willielmus le Lepere) are manucaptors or pledges that John de la Poile, knight of the shire returned for Surrey, will do his duty in Parliament.—(Palgrave’s Parliamentary Writs, vol. ii. pp. 89, 113.)
Here we have a family of note bearing the name of Leper, derived no doubt from the leprosy of an ancestor.
Before 1083 a miraculous cure of leprosy is said to have been effected at the shrine of St. Cuthbert at Durham, on the person of a noble of the south of England—“vir quidam in longinqua Australium Anglorum regione qui multæ nobilitatis gratia inter comprovintiales preditus erat. Hic tam corporis sani virtute gaudebat, quam omni prosperitatis affluentia; et divitiarum gloria cæteros excedebat,” etc. etc.—(Reginaldi Dunelmensis Libellus de Beati Cuthberti Virtutibus, pp. 37-41. Lond. 1835. Surtees Soc.)
The same writer, in another work, relates the cure of three lepers at the tomb of St. Godric of Finchale. One, a male, was a shepherd; the other two were women, apparently of the middle or lower ranks.—(Reginaldi Dunelmensis Libellus de Vita et Miraculis S. Godrici, pp. 430, 431, 455-458. Lond. 1845. Surtees Soc.) The shepherd was a youth (juvenis); one of the women was a girl (puella).
Lepers among the Clergy.
Another illustration of the prevalence of leprosy among the English clergy, alluded to at p. [106], Part III., is supplied by the will of Richard Basy, of Bylburgh, in Yorkshire, in 1393:—“Item lego presbiteris cæcis vel leprosis seu aliter languentibus, qui non valent celebrare circa divinum officium celebrandum, et aliis pauperibus eodem modo languentibus et jacentibus, xl. solidos.”—(Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. i. p. 192. Lond. 1836. Surtees Soc.)
Pope Lucius III. decreed in 1181 that rectors of churches who were struck with leprosy should serve their cures by coadjutors; and Pope Clement III., in 1190, ordained that leprous priests should be removed from their priestly office, but should be supported from the fruits of their benefices.—(Corpus Juris Canonici, vol. ii. coll. 447-448. Edit. 1747.)
Case of King Robert Bruce.
The silence of Wyntoun, Fordun, and our other early Scotch chroniclers, as to the disease of which King Robert Bruce died, may not improbably be explained by their reluctance to associate the heroic monarch with an odious and degrading malady. But the King’s metrical biographer names his disease, or at least its origin; and it would be interesting to know if that disease can be identified with leprosy.
“For a malice him tuk sa sar,
That he on na wiss mycht be thar.
This malice off enfundeying
Begouth; for, through his cald lying,
Quhen in his gret myscheiff wes he,
Him fell that hard perplexite.”
—(Barbour’s Bruce, pp. 406-407. Dr. Jamieson’s edit. 1820.)
In Mr. Cosmo Innes’ later edition the passage stands thus—
“For ane male es tuk him sa sar
That he on na wis mycht be thar.
His male es of ane fundying
Begouth, for throu his cald lying,
Quhen in his gret mischef was he,
Him fell that hard perplexite.”
—(Barbour’s Bruce, p. 469. Aberd. 1856. Spalding Club.)
What is “enfundeying,” as Dr. Jamieson calls it, or “ane fundying,” as Mr. Innes makes it? Dr. Jamieson glosses it as “perhaps asthma,” but on what ground I do not see. At the same time I am unable to suggest any interpretation of the term. Can medical nomenclature supply none?
Contagiousness of Leprosy.
To the list of persons (Part III. pp. 133, 134) who tended or even kissed lepers without being smitten with the disease, may be added Walter de Luci, Abbot of Battle, in Sussex, from 1139 to 1171, who often washed and kissed the feet and hands of lepers—eorum manus pedesque abluendo fovebat, et intimo caritatis pietatisque affectu blanda oscula imprimebat.—(Chronicon Monasterii de Bello, p. 135. Lond. 1846. Anglia Christiana.)
The story (Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part III. p. 134) quoted from Matthew Paris, about the good Queen Maud, is to be found in an earlier writer, St. Aelred of Rievaux, from whose Genealogia Regum Anglorum Matthew Paris, or rather Roger of Wendover, borrowed it. It may be remarked, generally, that late editors have shown that all that part of Matthew Paris’ history which is previous to the year 1235 is really the work of Roger of Wendover. As such it has been reprinted by the English Historical Society.
List of Leper Hospitals.
Oxford, St. Bartholomew.—The date of foundation of this hospital is left blank in the list of British Leper Hospitals, p. [160]. It certainly existed before the 24th November 1200, when the lepers of St. Bartholomew of Oxford had letters of protection from King John.—(Rot. Chart. in Turr. Lund. vol. i. p. 99.)
Berington.—On the 20th July 1199 King John confirms to the canons regular of Lantony, among their other possessions, the half of Berington, which had been given to them by the Earl Roger for the procuration of thirteen lepers—“Ex dono Rogeri Comitis aliam dimidietatem de Berington ad procurationem tredecim leprosorum.”—(Rot. Chart. in Turr. Lund. vol. i. p. 7.) “Procuratio” seems to be used here in the sense of necessaria ad victum et vestitum.—(See Ducange, t. v. col. 885.)
Carlisle.—The lepers of Carlisle had letters of protection from King John on 25th February 1201.—(Rot. Chart. in Turr. Lund. vol. i. p. 101.)
Badele, near Darlington, in the county of Durham.—The reception of a leprous girl into the hospital of Badele, about three miles from Darlington, is related by Reginald of Durham in his Libellus de Vita et Miraculis S. Godrici, p. 456. Lond. 1845. (Surtees Soc.) The work was written before 1195.
Canterbury.—The date of foundation of this hospital is left blank in the list of British Leper Hospitals, p. [158]. It certainly existed before the death of Archbishop Lanfranc in 1089, for the contemporary historian of Canterbury expressly says it was built by him:—“Ligneas domos in devexo montis latere fabricans, eas ad opus Leprosorum delegavit, viris in istis a fœminarum societate sejunctis.”—(Eadmeri Hist. Novorum, p. 9. Lond. 1623.)
York.—One leper hospital at York is noted in the list of British Leper Hospitals, at p. [161]. There were four. The will of Henry of Blythe, painter of York, in 1365, has this bequest:—“Item lego quatuor domibus Leprosorum civitatis Eboracencis equaliter ij solidos dividendos.”—(Testamenta Eboracensia, vol. i. p. 75. Lond. 1836. Surtees Soc.) The will of Master Adam Wigan, rector of St. Saviour’s, York, in 1433, has—“Item lego cuilibet domui quatuor domorum leprosorum iij s. iiij d.”—(Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 26. Lond. 1855. Surtees Soc.) The will of Richard Russell, citizen and merchant of York, in 1435, shows that at York, as elsewhere, the leper hospitals were beyond the city walls:—“Et cuilibet leproso in quatuor domibus Leprosorum in suburbiis Ebor., v solidos.”—(Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 55.) Again, in the will of William Gyrlyngton, draper of York, in 1444:—“Item lego quatuor domibus Leprosorum in suburbiis Ebor., xx solidos per equales portiones.”—(Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 93.) The lepers of York have similar bequests in 1446, in 1454, and 1441.—(Test. Ebor. vol. ii. pp. 115, 182, 187.) I do not observe any legacies to them after 1454.
Beverley.—The leper hospital here, as at York, Canterbury, Glasgow, Stirling, Aberdeen, etc., stood in the suburbs. The will of John Brompton, merchant of Beverley, in 1444, has this legacy—“Item leprosis extra barras boriales Beverlaci ij s. et dimidiam celdram carbonum.”—(Test. Ebor. vol. ii. p. 97.)
Newcastle-upon-Tyne.—The will of Roger Thornton, merchant of Newcastle, in 1429, has this legacy—“Item to the Lepre men of Newcastell, xl s.”—(Northern Wills and Inventories, part i. p. 78. Lond. 1835. Surtees Soc.)
Winchester.—The existence of a leper hospital at Winchester is shown by the will of Martin of Holy Rood, master of the hospital of Sherborn, in 1259 [referred to in Sir James Simpson’s Paper, Part I., p. 36]—“Fratribus Leprosis Wyntonie, ij solidos.”—(Northern Wills and Inventories, part i. p. 10.)
Lynne, Norfolk.—Five leper hospitals at Lynne, in Norfolk, are enumerated in the list of British Leper Hospitals, p. [160]. There seem to have been six. Mr. Albert Way, in a note to the Promptorium Parvulorum, vol. i. p. 297, Lond. 1843 (Camden Soc.), cites, from Parkins’ Account of Lynne, in Blomf. Norf. iv. 608, the bequest of Stephen Guybor, in 1432, to every house of lepers about Lynn, “namely, at West Lynn, Cowgate, Herdwyk, Setchehithe, Mawdelyn, and Geywode.” Four of these may be identified with those in the list, p. [160]. “West Lynn” and “Cowgate” are the same in both lists; “Mawdelyn” is “St. Mary Magdalene’s;” and “Setchehithe” is “Setch Hithe.”
SIZE OF ORIGINALS.
ANCIENT GREEK MEDICINE VASES.