ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the status of leprosy sufferers and individuals with mental disorders within late medieval Norman society. It considers where the bodies of affected individuals were placed, in terms of care and confinement within both institutions and the local community. The chapter examines the issue of public health and safety, arguing that marginalization was motivated by concern about the spread of disease and the threat of violence against people and property. It also explains the language and labels used to designate the leprous, the mentally ill and the mentally impaired, considering how the descriptive terms used may reflect stigma or compassion, and how individuals were described by themselves and their relatives. While lepers benefited from specialized institutional care in the central and later Middle Ages, there were no comparable institutions for those with mental disorders in Normandy. Mental disorders differed from leprosy in that there was no biblical injunction to remove sufferers.
