LAZAR HOUSES.

The period from its introduction into this country, as far as we know, to its final or nearly final extinction, may be embraced within the 10th and 16th centuries. It was at the zenith of its height during the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. As early as A.D. 948 laws were enacted with regard to Lepers in Wales by Howel Dda, the Good—the great Welsh King, who died 948.

The enormous extent to which it prevailed during that period may be gauged from the fact, that there were above 200 Lazar Houses in England alone, probably providing accommodation for 4,000 at least, and this, at a time when the whole population of England was only between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000 of persons; being something like two in every thousand.

I have been enabled to compile the following English Lazar Houses, which is however far from being a complete one. These Lazar Houses were founded by the charitably disposed, and were usually under ecclesiastical rule:—

1 Berkshire.1 Herefordshire4 Oxfordshire.
2 Buckinghamshire.6 Hertfordshire.2 Shropshire.
2 Cambridgeshire.1 Huntingdonshire.6 Somersetshire.
3 Cornwall.15 Kent.3 Staffordshire.
1 Cumberland.1 Lancashire.10 Suffolk.
4 Derbyshire.2 Lincolnshire.1 Surrey.
6 Devonshire.4 Leicestershire.6 Sussex.
3 Dorsetshire.7 Middlesex.3 Warwickshire.
2 Durham.22 Norfolk.4 Westmoreland.
4 Essex.5 Northamptonshire.7 Wiltshire.
6 Gloucestershire.3 Northumberland.1 Worcester.
2 Hampshire.3 Nottinghamshire.20 Yorkshire.
Total:173

They were presumably under the rule of S. Austin or Augustine.

Chalmers’ Caledonia states 9 hospitals existed in the County of Berwick alone.

It is said that, by a Bull of Alexander III., exemption from the payment of tithes was granted to all the possessions of the Lazar Houses; this, however, does not appear to have always been acted upon, at least in this country, as at Canterbury, etc.

A Prior—usually a Leper—and a number of Priests were attached to each house.

Where a chapel was not attached, the inmates appear to have attended the parish church for service.