Medieval women and leprosy

[sister_raphael]

Illness in the Middle Ages really wasn't great for anyone, but it was less so for the poor. Should a poor single woman contract leprosy, she was ousted from the municipality and forcefully pushed to live beyond the walls of the town, along with those accused of prostitution. 

The borough ordinances of Bristol in 1344 encouraged this by making her home unlivable, giving the woman no alternative but to leave or live in a home which was not secure or weatherproof. 
 

“And is such a woman should be found so living that then the doors and windows of their houses be taken down and carried off by the mayor’s servants as far as the constable of the peace of that ward’s house and kept there, and such women be entirely removed.”