Seals usually depict the saint with his symbol of the Holy Lamb; sometimes he points to a scroll (Ecce Agnus Dei). In two instances (Banbury and Bristol) a patriarchal p251 cross, one of the symbols of the Knights Hospitallers, is shown; this double-armed cross is likewise found on the gable of St. John’s, Northampton, where it is considered a unique architectural feature.
St. Lazarus became the guardian of lepers partly through the influence of the Order whose aim was to relieve the sick, and especially the leprous, members of their brotherhood. They were introduced into England in Stephen’s reign, when the hospital of the Blessed Virgin and St. Lazarus was founded at Burton, afterwards known as Burton St. Lazarus. The seal of this house depicts a bishop carrying in one hand a fork or trident,[160] in the other a book; Dugdale ascribes the figure to St. Augustine, but Mr. de Gray Birch attributes the mitred effigy to St. Lazarus, traditional Bishop of Marseilles. Of the other dedications to St. Lazarus little is known, some being of doubtful authenticity.
[♦ ] 32. SEAL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE’S, BRISTOL
The question naturally arises—why were lepers called lazars in common parlance, and why was Lazarus chosen as their patron? A curious confusion of ideas is revealed. The original person intended was he who lay full of sores at the rich man’s gate. The banner of a Flemish lazaretto displays scenes from the life of this Lazarus, who appears clad as a mediæval leper, and carries a clapper.[161] The same idea was familiar in England. David of Huntingdon having founded a leper-house, Aelred the chronicler prays at his death:—“Receive his soul into the bosom of Abraham with Lazarus whom he did not despise but cherished.” A similar allusion occurs in Langland’s p252 Piers the Plowman: “And ich loked in hus lappe · a lazar lay ther-ynne.” The lazarus ulceribus plenus of the allegory, however, soon became associated with the historical Lazarus of Bethany. Thus a colony of north-country lepers dwelt in Sherburn hospital founded “in honour of the Saviour, the Blessed Virgin, St. Lazarus, and his sisters Mary and Martha.” This dedication was abbreviated into St. Mary Magdalene, and the principal altar was in her honour. St. Mary Magdalene, universally identified with St. Mary of Bethany, was thus commonly involved in the curious double personality of St. Lazarus. In England, she was the most popular of leper-patrons, no one save St. Leonard attaining to half her number of dedications. We are told that St. Lazarus held this place in France, St. James in central Europe, St. George in the North; but in England, the Magdalene was supreme. The “Maudlin-house” was almost synonymous with leper-hospital. Place-names testify to the devotion of our forefathers to St. Mary Magdalene, and in several places “Mawdlyn lands” mark the site of a leper-colony.
St. Bartholomew had sixteen hospitals in England, chiefly in the South. An old hymn, quoted by Dr. Norman Moore, describes the Apostle’s medical powers. “Lepers he cleanses”—and to him were dedicated ancient lazar-houses at Rochester, Oxford, Dover, etc. “The sick p253 he restores”—the Apostle having appeared to Rahere, sick with fever in Rome (perhaps, it is suggested, upon the island of St. Bartholomew in the Tiber), he builds upon his recovery a house of healing near London, which for nearly eight hundred years has been a place of restoration. “The lunatic are made whole”—and the Book of the Foundation tells of such a cure at St. Bartholomew’s:—
“ther yn a shorte space his witte was recoueryd, where a litill tyme he taried, blessyng God that to his apostles hath uouchsaf to commytte his excellent power, to hele syke, to clense lepers, and to caste owte feendys.”
At St. Bartholomew’s, Oxford, a relic was treasured, namely, a portion of the saint’s skin. The legend of his martyrdom is depicted upon the seal of the Gloucester foundation, and he is shown knife in hand on the Rochester seal. (Tail-piece of this chapter.)
St. James.—Of all the Apostles, St. James has the largest number of hospitals, namely, twenty-six partly or wholly dedicated to him. This is doubtless due to the fact that his shrine at Compostella was the goal of Christendom, and the miracles of “Santiago” world-famous. St. James’, Northallerton, was named as the direct result of a pilgrimage to Compostella in the year 1200 by Philip, Bishop of Durham. Several ports (Dunwich, Seaford, Shoreham) had houses in his honour. Hospital seals depict the saint as a pilgrim, with water-bottle and scrip, whilst one shows the token of escallop shells.
St. James & St. John.—Whereas there was apparently no parish in England commemorating the brother-apostles, three hospitals (Aynho, Royston, and Brackley) bore this double name. About Brackley, indeed, there is some p254 uncertainty. It occurs as “St. John and St. James” (1226), “St. James and St. John Apostle” (1227); but also as “St. John Baptist” (1301, 1471). The seal shows two figures, of which one scantily clad and bearing a palm suggests the Baptist.