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LEPROSY IN
MEDIEVAL EUROPE
SIGNIFICANCE
Medieval leprosy affords perhaps the Western world’s clearest and most dra-
matic example of the relationships between disease, social stigmatization, and
theological interpretations. Fear of lepers became very deeply rooted in Western
society; the word leper ultimately acquired (in English) a more general and sym-
bolic meaning: “a person who is shunned, especially on moral grounds,” says
the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which quotes the [London] Sunday
Express by way of illustration: “There are lepers in every prison—child mo-
lesters, rapists.”
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