Inversely, the campaign demonstrates that the disease tended to maintain a "higher profile than in reality it deserved" (136). This long-term and successful campaign belies two enduring stereotypes, namely of an inherent association of leprosy with sin, and of the universal isolation of its patients. Lazarus of Jerusalem was sustained for three centuries in England by the "exploitation of the image of leprosy rather than a determined purpose to do anything about it" (152). All of these profess, with often contentious differences and various touches of anachronism, loyalty to the fifteenth-century "set of quasi-knightly values" (30), monastic observance of poverty, and particular solicitude for the world's leprosy patients.Įxtrapolating from the author's unsparing but low-key appraisal of the flagship establishment known as Burton Lazars, one could claim that the Order of St. The Lazarite order-not to be confused with the Lazarist or Vincentian Order founded by Vincent de Paul in the seventeenth century-was revived in the twentieth century, in several branches. Thus, decline had set in well before the dissolution by Henry VIII in 1544. The systematic collection of contributions (in kind as well as money) and the ensuing importance of patronage not only made the order an ideal target for the Reformation but also caused rivalries and entanglements. By the fifteenth century, the orientation of these houses shifted from the crusading spirit to the "jollifications of chivalry" (91), and from the administration of hospitals to the performance of religious services for fees. Subsequently, the French-English hostilities and other developments led to greater insularity of the houses in England. After the fall of Acre in 1291, the order left the Levant forever and set up headquarters in France. The twelfth-century origins of the order in the Holy Land remain "obscure and controversial" (6) the saint, to whom it is dedicated, appears to be a conflation of an actual and a fictitious personage from the Gospels and from the start, the foundation was ambiguous about its primary purpose, whether it was to harbor leprous nobles, fight the Saracens, minister to the sick, or hold lands. Even piecing together the story was a challenging task. The lure of myth yields to the complexities of reality in this multifaceted study which no serious medievalist can afford to ignore, and which balances rich narrative with keen analysis and judicious appraisal. There is little fuel for fantasy, indeed, in the story of an organization that failed to rank with the 'grand' orders, soon ceased participating in the crusades-first militarily and then financially-and treated leprosy neither as a fearsome weapon nor as a medical mission but as a promotional shibboleth. Lazarus of Jerusalem in England prove to have been, for the most part, neither lepers nor knights. They are likely to overlook the fact that, in this down-to-earth history, the members of the Order of St. The sensational appeal of the title is obvious on the Web, for example in a listing by "your Online Source for Occult, Magick & Alternative Books," at This appeal is boosted by the special fascination with which some gamers imagine leper knights, as "a powerful guild of warriors, among Gateway's player elite" according to Devotees of role playing and 'alternative' history may seize upon the image of "the 'living dead' mobilized in a desperate attempt to ward off the inroads of the Infidel" (13), while skipping the rest of Leper Knights. The lurid title of this book is drawing one kind of reader, and it will probably put off another in either case, one stands to miss the valuable insights which David Marcombe has drawn from painstaking research.
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