A total renunciation of personal goods was required of the inmates of leper-hospitals in early days. Alms received by the wayside went into the common chest, as did money found within the enclosure; if picked up outside, the finder might keep it. The lepers of St. Julian’s might not appropriate or bequeath anything without the consent of the community. A singular article in the oath of admission was this:—“I will make it my study wholly to avoid all kinds of usury, as a monstrous thing, and hateful to God.” In the Dover statutes trading and usury were strictly forbidden.

The leper’s clothing and furniture were all that he could call his own. In the disposal of such meagre personal effects, a precedent was found in the heriot—the best chattel of a deceased man due to the feudal lord. An ancient French deed relating to St. Margaret’s, Gloucester, ordains that “when a brother or sister is dead, the best cloth that he hath the parson shall have in right of heriot.” At Lynn, the bed in which he died, and his chest, if he had one, were appropriated by the hospital, as well as his best robe and hood. These rules indicate that the leper furnished his own apartment. The Office at seclusion enumerates the clothing, furniture and other articles necessary. (Appendix A.)

One of the questions asked by the official visitor of St. Mary Magdalene’s, Winchester, was whether the goods of deceased inmates went to the works of the church after the settlement of debts. In some hospitals, the rule of poverty was not held, or it was relaxed as time went on. By the will of William Manning, lazer, of the house of Monkbridge, York (1428), he requests that half a pound of wax be burnt over his coffin; he leaves 6d. to the p135 works going on at the Minster, 6d. to the Knaresburgh monks, and the residue to his wife. In the old Scottish version of Troylus and Cresseid, the latter makes her testament before dying in the spital-house. She had lived in poverty, but a purse of gold had lately been thrown to her in alms. Her cup and clapper and her ornament and all her gold the leper folk should have, when she was dead, if they would bury her. The ruby ring, given her long ago by her lover, was to be carried back to him by one of her companions.

Pensioners of the better class were expected to provide all necessary articles, and to contribute what they could to the funds. Money acquired during residence was divided, a portion being retained by the individual; at his death, either half his goods or the whole belonged to the community. The Heytesbury statutes directed:—

“that euery poreman in his first Admyssion all such moueable goodes as he hath, pottis, pannys, pewter vessel, beddyng, and other necessaries, if he haue eny such thynges, to bryng hit within into the hous. And if he haue eny quycke catell, that hit be made monay of. And halfe the saide monay to be conuerted to ye use of ye hous, and ye other halfe to ye poreman to haue to his own propre use.”

The goods of a deceased member were distributed to those who should “happe to overlyve,” whether “gownes, hodys, cotys, skertys, hosyn or shone.” It was ordained at Higham Ferrers that when an almsman died, his goods were taken into the storehouse, and either dealt out to the other poor men, or sold to a new inmate for the benefit of the rest.

(b) Rules of Conduct.—Social intercourse within the house and with the outside world was clearly defined. Among p136 habited brethren and sisters, the sexes were rigidly separated, excepting at worship or work. In the case of inmates who were not professed, men and women seem to have lived a common life, meeting in refectory, day room, etc.

As to the intercourse of lepers with the outside world, there was a curious admixture of strictness and laxity. The ordinances of early lazar-houses show that the theory of contagion had little place in their economy. They recognized that the untainted need not be harmed by slight communication with the infected. When visitors came from a distance to Sherburn they were permitted to stay overnight. The lepers of St. Julian’s were allowed to see friends—“if an honest man and true come there, for the purpose of visiting an infirm brother, let him have access to him, that they may mutually discourse on that which is meet”—but no woman was admitted except a mother, sister or other honest matron. The general public was protected, inmates not being permitted to frequent the high-road or speak to passers-by (1344). At the time of seclusion, the leper was forbidden henceforth to enter church, market or tavern. At St. Julian’s, the mill and bakehouse were likewise forbidden. The statutes of Lynn required that the infirm should not enter the quire, cellar, kitchen or precincts, but keep the places assigned in church, hall and court. So long as they did not eat or drink outside their own walls, lepers might roam within a defined area. The Reading lepers might never go out without a companion. At Harbledown they might not wander without permission, which was granted for useful business, moderate recreation, and in the event of the grievous sickness or death of parents and friends. p137

Such rules were more a matter of discipline than of public health. It was not merely lepers who were required to keep within bounds, for ordinary almsmen had similar restrictions. At Croydon they were forbidden to walk or gaze in the streets, nor might they go out of sight of home, excepting to church.

The rules of St. Katherine’s, Rochester, were drawn up by the innkeeper Symond Potyn. He stipulates that if the almsmen buy ale, it shall be consumed at home:—