l64 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. (3) 



become current that they were guilty of poisoning all 

 the wells in Christendom. The decree stated that " fire 

 should at one and the same time purify infection of the 

 body and of the soul." 



I have come across the record of a most curious Edict 

 of Henry II. of England. It was passed at the height of 

 his quarrel with Becket, when he was most anxious to 

 prevent the imposition of an Ecclesiastical interdict over 

 his kingdom. So he took all possible precautions to avoid 

 the conveyance of official letters to this effect into England. 

 To secure this more fully it was declared that if any in- 

 dividual did carry thither letters of interdict from the 

 Pope or Archbishop he should be punished " by the ampu- 

 tation of his feet if a regular ; by the loss of eyes and by 

 castration if a secular clergyman ; he should be hanged if 

 he were a layman ; and burned if he were a leper " (Si 

 lepros7is co7nbiiratiif). 



This passage is very remarkable for several reasons. It 

 indicates that lepers were treated as being outside the 

 pale of ordinary law ; it shows that notwithstanding all 

 restrictions they were yet able to circulate pretty freely 

 about the world ; and it shows that it was considered 

 possible that a person of such high rank as a Nuncio of 

 the Pope might still be a leper. 



Apparently, when a person became leprous, indirect 

 pressure was brought to bear upon him to seclude himself 

 in a leper-house, but when he refused, the friends or 

 neighbours could bring the matter under the cognizance of 

 the Crown, and a Chancery warrant could then be issued.* 

 The earliest of these warrants now extant is one by Edward 

 IV. in 1468, and it directs the Sheriff of Essex to take certain 

 " discreet and loyal men of his county " and to cause 

 Johanna Nightingale, a reputed leper, to be "diligently 



* Sinipsoii, Edi)ibu}gh Medical ami Surgical Journal, 1842, p. 153, 



