To the Western mind, no disease is so fearsome and horrible as leprosy. Leprosy still conveys the suggestion of physical repulsiveness, moral perversion, and promiscuous infection; the leper is the archetypal outcast, society's pariah and sometimes its scapegoat. We have inherited such ideas about the disease and its victim largely from the Middle Ages; since that time the leper has become a familiar figure in Western literature and art. The formation of these beliefs regarding lepers tells us a…
Read moreTo the Western mind, no disease is so fearsome and horrible as leprosy. Leprosy still conveys the suggestion of physical repulsiveness, moral perversion, and promiscuous infection; the leper is the archetypal outcast, society's pariah and sometimes its scapegoat. We have inherited such ideas about the disease and its victim largely from the Middle Ages; since that time the leper has become a familiar figure in Western literature and art. The formation of these beliefs regarding lepers tells us a good deal about the nature of European Christian society in the medieval period — what was despised and cast out is as revealing about social attitudes as what was cherished and preserved