The regulations governing the isola

The regulations governing the isolation of lepers were very detailed and precise. The awful finality of exclusion from the human community was symbolized by an enactment of the funeral service involving the participation of the leper. He was clad in a shroud, the solemn mass for the dead was read,earth was thrown upon him,and he was then conducted by the priests, accompanied by relatives, friends, and neighbors to a hut or leprosarium outside the confines of the community.(A very graphic account of this ceremony iscontained in The Golden Hand by Edith Simon, a distinguished novel of fourteenth century England.) Lepers were compelled to wear a characteristic constume, and to give warning of their approach by means of a horn, rattle,or clapper, and they were forbidden to appear in the market place or to enter inns or taverns. No barber was allowed to shave them or to cut their hair. Nevertheless, it is astonishing to find such protective measures abrogated on special occasions.Prohibitions to enter a city were frequently revokedat Christmas and Pentecost, so that the lepers might beg for alms and receive the benefits of public charity. However,these exceptions were few in number and hardly mitigated the isolation to which the leper was condemned.