St. Lazarus became the guardian of lepers partly through the influence of the Order whose aim was to relieve the sick, and especially the leprous, members of their brotherhood. They were introduced into England in Stephen’s reign, when the hospital of the Blessed Virgin and St. Lazarus was founded at Burton, afterwards known as Burton St. Lazarus. The seal of this house depicts a bishop carrying in one hand a fork or trident,[160] in the other a book; Dugdale ascribes the figure to St. Augustine, but Mr. de Gray Birch attributes the mitred effigy to St. Lazarus, traditional Bishop of Marseilles. Of the other dedications to St. Lazarus little is known, some being of doubtful authenticity. [Illustration: 32. SEAL OF ST. MARY MAGDALENE’S, BRISTOL] The question naturally arises—why were lepers called _lazars_ in common parlance, and why was _Lazarus_ chosen as their patron? A curious confusion of ideas is revealed. The original person intended was he who lay full of sores at the rich man’s gate. The banner of a Flemish lazaretto displays scenes from the life of this Lazarus, who appears clad as a mediæval leper, and carries a clapper.[161] The same idea was familiar in England. David of Huntingdon having founded a leper-house, Aelred the chronicler prays at his death:—“Receive his soul into the bosom of Abraham with Lazarus whom he did not despise but cherished.” A similar allusion occurs in Langland’s [p252] _Piers the Plowman_: “And ich loked in hus lappe · a lazar lay ther-ynne.” The _lazarus ulceribus plenus_ of the allegory, however, soon became associated with the historical Lazarus of Bethany. Thus a colony of north-country lepers dwelt in Sherburn hospital founded “in honour of the Saviour, the Blessed Virgin, St. Lazarus, and his sisters Mary and Martha.” This dedication was abbreviated into St. Mary Magdalene, and the principal altar was in her honour. St. Mary Magdalene, universally identified with St. Mary of Bethany, was thus commonly involved in the curious double personality of St. Lazarus. In England, she was the most popular of leper-patrons, no one save St. Leonard attaining to half her number of dedications. We are told that St. Lazarus held this place in France, St. James in central Europe, St. George in the North; but in England, the Magdalene was supreme. The “Maudlin-house” was almost synonymous with leper-hospital. Place-names testify to the devotion of our forefathers to St. Mary Magdalene, and in several places “Mawdlyn lands” mark the site of a leper-colony.