ABSTRACT
There is perhaps no disease in history which has given rise to such fear and loathing as leprosy. The very term ‘leper’ has become a synonym for outcast. In the Middle Ages this reaction arose in part from the physical deformities, suppurating sores and noxious odour caused by the disease. But even more it derived from the certain knowledge that leprosy was the outward and visible sign of a soul corroded by sin and in particular by sexual sin.
