[174] “Vix seu raro inveniuntur tot leprosi volentes vitam ducere observantiis obligatam ad dictum hospitale concurrentes.” Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, Rolls ed. II. 484.
[175] Matthew Paris, Chron. Maj. V. 452.
[176] Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum, II. 401.
[177] “The sisters of St James’s were bound by no vows, and at this period [1344] were not all, or even any of them, lepers; and in consequence a place in the hospital was much sought after by needy dependents of the Court.” Report on MSS. of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, in Hist. MSS. Commission Reports, IX. p. 87.
[178] Dugdale’s History of Warwickshire, p. 197.
[179] On Nov. 24, 1200, king John signed at Lincoln letters of simple protection to the leprosi of St Bartholomew’s, Oxford (Rot. Chart. 1199-1216, p. 99).
[180] Rotuli Hundredorum, II. 359-60. The famous Stourbridge Fair originally grew out of a right of market-toll granted in aid of the leper-hospital.
[181] The decrees of the Third Lateran Council are given by several historians of the time, among others by William of Newburgh, pp. 206-223.
[182] Roger of Howden, Rolls edition, II. 265.
[183] William of Newburgh, Rolls edition, p. 437.