Editing Leprosy (section)

=== Middle Ages ===
[[File:Leprosy bell.JPG|thumb|Medieval leper bell]]

The social perception of leprosy in the general population was mixed. On one hand, people feared getting infected with the disease and thought of people suspected of leprosy to be unclean, untrustworthy, and occasionally morally corrupt.<ref name="Covey-2001" /> On the other hand, Jesus' interaction with lepers, the writing of church leaders, and the Christian focus on charitable works led to viewing the lepers as "chosen by God"<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Brenner E |title=Recent Perspectives on Leprosy in Medieval Western Europe |journal=History Compass |date=2010 |volume=8 |issue=5 |pages=388–406 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00674.x |url=https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00674.x |access-date=10 November 2022 |archive-date=1 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501050024/https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2009.00674.x |url-status=live }}</ref> or seeing the disease as a means of obtaining access to heaven.<ref name="Barber_1994">{{cite journal | vauthors = Barber M |title=The Order of Saint Lazarus and the Crusades |journal=The Catholic Historical Review |date=July 1994 |volume=80 |issue=3 |pages=439–456}}</ref>

Early medieval understanding of leprosy was influenced by early Christian writers such as [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] and [[John Chrysostom]], whose writings were later embraced by Byzantine and Latin writers.<ref name="MillerSmithSavage">{{cite journal |vauthors=Miller TS, Smith-Savage R |title=Medieval Leprosy Reconsidered |journal=International Social Science Review |date=2006 |volume=81 |issue=1/2 |pages=16–28 |jstor=41887256 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41887256 |access-date=10 November 2022 |archive-date=10 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110153048/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41887256 |url-status=live }}</ref> Gregory, for example, composed sermons urging Christians to assist victims of the disease, and he condemned pagans or Christians who justified rejecting lepers on the allegation that God had sent them the disease to punish them. As cases of leprosy increased in the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], becoming a major health issue, the ecclesiastic leaders discussed how to assist those affected as well as how to change the attitude of society towards them. They also tried this by using the name "holy disease" instead of the commonly used "elephant's disease" (elephantiasis), implying that God did not create this disease to punish people but to purify them for heaven.<ref name="MillerNesbit">{{cite book | vauthors = Miller TS, Nesbitt JW |title=Walking Corpses: Leprosy in Byzantium and the Medieval West |date=19 April 2014 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801470769}}</ref> Although not always successful in persuading the public and a cure was never found by Greek medicians, they created an environment where victims could get [[palliative care]] and were never expressly banned from society, as sometimes happened in western Europe. Theodore Balsamon, a 12th-century jurist in [[Constantinople]], noted that lepers were allowed to enter the same churches, cities, and assemblies that healthy people attended.<ref name="MillerSmithSavage" />

As the disease became more prevalent in western Europe in the 5th century, efforts began to set up permanent institutions to house and feed lepers. These efforts were, inclusively, the work of bishops in France at the end of the sixth century, such as in [[Chalon-sur-Saône]].<ref name="MillerSmithSavage" /> The increase in hospitals or [[leprosaria]] (sing. leprosarium) that treated people with leprosy in the 12th and 13th century seems to indicate a rise in cases,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Medieval world| vauthors = Le Goff J |author-link=Jacques Le Goff|publisher=Collins & Brown|year=1990|isbn=978-1-85585-081-1|location=London|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/medievalworld0000unse}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Medieval Hospitals of EnglishLand| vauthors = Clay R |publisher=Cornell University Library|year=1909|isbn=978-1-112-20443-2}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Medieval English medicine| vauthors = Rubin S |publisher=Newton Abbot: [[David & Charles]] |year=1974 |isbn=978-0-06-496016-8 |location=New York: Barnes & Noble Books |url= https://archive.org/details/medievalenglishm0000rubi }}</ref> possibly in connection with the increase in urbanisation<ref name="IntHistory">{{cite web |title=Medieval Leprosy |url=https://intriguing-history.com/medieval-leprosy/ |website=Intriguing history |date=24 April 2017 |access-date=10 November 2022 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206050123/https://intriguing-history.com/medieval-leprosy/ |url-status=live }}</ref> as well as returning crusaders from the Middle East.<ref name="MillerSmithSavage" /> France alone had nearly 2,000 leprosaria during this period.<ref name="Covey-2011">{{cite journal | vauthors = Covey HC |title=People with leprosy (Hansen's disease) during the Middle Ages |journal=The Social Science Journal |date=1 June 2001 |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=315–21 |doi=10.1016/S0362-3319(01)00116-1 |s2cid=145166840 }}</ref> Additionally to the new leprosia, further steps were taken by secular and religious leaders to prevent further spread of the disease. The [[third Lateran Council]] of 1179 required lepers to have their own priests and churches<ref name="IntHistory" />{{failed verification|date=February 2024}} and a 1346 edict by [[Edward III of England|King Edward]] expelled lepers from city limits. Segregation from mainstream society became common, and people with leprosy were often required to wear clothing that identified them as such or carry a bell announcing their presence.<ref name="Covey-2011" /> As in the East, it was the [[Catholic Church|Church]] who took care of the lepers due to the persisting moral stigma and who ran the leprosaria.<ref name="Covey-2001" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Formation of a Persecuting Society| vauthors = Moore RI |publisher=Blackwell|year=2007|isbn=978-1-4051-2964-0|location=Oxford}}</ref> Although the leprosaria in Western Europe removed the sick from society, they were never a place to quarantine them or from which they could not leave: lepers would go beg for alms for the upkeep of the leprosaria or meet with their families.<ref name="IntHistory" /><ref name="MillerSmithSavage" />

Multiple groups in Western Europe from the Middle Ages faced social ostracization and discrimination that was justified, in part, due to claims that they were the descendants of lepers. These groups included the [[Cagot]]s and the [[Caquins of Brittany|Caquins]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=von Zach |first=Franz Xaver |author-link=Franz Xaver von Zach |title=Einige Nachrichten von den Cagots in Frankreich |language=de |trans-title=Some news of the Cagots in France |journal=Allgemeine geographische Ephemeriden |volume=1 |number=5 |pages=509–524 |date=March 1798 |url=https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00200951/AGE_1798_Bd01_0509.tif |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008082132/https://zs.thulb.uni-jena.de/rsc/viewer/jportal_derivate_00200951/AGE_1798_Bd01_0509.tif |archive-date=8 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Tuke |first=D. Hack |author-link=Daniel Hack Tuke |title=The Cagots |journal=The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland |volume=9 |date=1880 |pages=376–385 |jstor=2841703 |doi=10.2307/2841703 |publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]] |url=https://zenodo.org/record/2119746 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220627154521/https://zenodo.org/record/2119746#.YrnQlnPP1qY |archive-date=27 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=[[British Medical Journal]] |title=Cagots |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |volume=1 |number=2680 |date=11 May 1912 |pages=1091–1092 |jstor=25297157}}</ref>