444 León
Ancient Biographies of Nine Popes from AD715 to AD 817
(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992); Robert
Folz, The Coronation of Charlemagne, 25 December 800,
trans. J. E. Anderson (London: Routledge & K. Paul,
1974); Judith Herrin, The Formation of Christendom
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987); Thomas F.
X. Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: The Birth of the Papal
State, 680–825(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1984); B. W. Scholy, trans., Carolingian Chronicles:
Royal Frankish Annals and Nilhard History (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1972); Richard Sullivan,
The Coronation of Charlemagne: What Did It Signify?
(Boston: Heath, 1959).
León León was once the capital of a Roman governing
region. It was briefly occupied by Muslims in the early
eighth century. The king of Oviedo established his capital
there in the early 10th century and took the title of
king of León. Using old Roman monuments, the new
dynasty pieced together a palace, a CATHEDRAL, and new
sanctuaries. They also regulated a market there from 997
and proclaimed in 1020 a fuero,or legal code, similar to
the one once used by the VISIGOTHS. These kings also
favored repopulation and welcomed Christians fleeing
north from Muslim rule. This area suffered the raids of
AL-MANSURin the 10th century.
A union of the kingdoms of León and CASTILEin
1037 left the city as no more than one of the main towns
of a kingdom ceaselessly moving south in the RECON-
QUEST. A separation of the two kingdoms between 1157
and 1230 enabled León to recover some political role. Sit-
uated on the pilgrim route to SANTIAGO DECOMPOSTELA,
León enjoyed a period of cultural and artistic splendor at
about the same time. The reunion of the Crowns of
Castile and León in 1230 did not immediately stifle this
prosperity. King ALFONSOX THELEARNEDbuilt a lavish
Gothic cathedral confirming the pompous ambitious of
Alfonso. In the 14th and 15th centuries, León grew more
marginalized in much larger Castile. It remained the capi-
tal of an administrative and military district and kept a
symbolic role, still displaying the royal arms of its old
monarchy.
Further reading:Simon Barton, The Aristocracy in
Twelfth-Century León and Castile(Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1997); Clara Estow, Pedro the Cruel of
Castile, 1350–1369 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995); R. A.
Fletcher, The Episcopate in the Kingdom of León in the
Twelfth Century(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978);
Joseph F. O’Callaghan, The Cortes of Castile–León,
1188–1350 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1989); Evelyn Stefanos Procter, Curia and Cortes in
León and Castile, 1072–1295 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1980).
Leonard of Pisa SeeFIBONACCI,LEONARDO.
leprosy (Hansen’s disease, king’s evil) Known to
physicians from at least the first and second centuries
CE, leprosy, a bacterial infection, was apparently present
in Europe from the fourth century. As a disfiguring
disease, it engendered imagery as well as a series of
attitudes toward its victims. It became a metaphorical
punishment for SIN, a sanction for a transgression,
often sexual. Eventually it became also the figurative
representation of HERESY, SIMONY, or a grave sin, a sign
of separation from GOD, of an impurity that only bap-
tism could wash away.
From the 11th century and in the first half of the
12th century, it became a wider symbol of fallen human-
ity, giving occasion for redemptive suffering. Even with
its rituals of exclusion, it eventually became more posi-
tively and opportunistically charged. The leper became a
figure of Christ and opened up an opportunity for
REDEMPTIONthrough CHARITY. Leper houses or hospitals
became fairly common all over Europe. They multiplied
from the late 11th century, not, as has been claimed,
because of an epidemic caused by the CRUSADES, but
because of the recognition of the redemptive potential
of CHARITYthrough the offices of the clergy. With the
onset of the PLAGUESof the 14th century, leprosy began
to fade from attention as an object of charity.LEPROSY IN BYZANTIUM
In BYZANTIUMlearned MEDICINEattributed it to an excess
of black bile, whereas popular medicine traced it to the
sexual transgression of the parents. Lepers were objects
of concern by church fathers in the East; unlike in the
West, they were not so rigorously excluded from public
places and never became so much an object of charity.
See alsoHOSPITALS.
Further reading:Saul Nathaniel Brody, The Disease of
the Soul: Leprosy in Medieval Literature(Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor-
nell University Press, 1974); John R. Burt, Selected
Themes and Icons from Medieval Spanish Literature: Of
Beards, Shoes, Cucumbers, and Leprosy (Potomac, Md.:
Studia Humanitatis, 1982); Gerard A. Lee, Leper Hospitals
in Medieval Ireland: With a Short Account of the Military
and Hospitaller Order of St. Lazarus of Jerusalem(Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 1996).Levi ben Gershom SeeGERSONIDES,LEVI BEN.Lewes, Battle of, and Song of Lewes A town in
Sussex, ENGLAND, with a Norman castle, Lewes became
famous as the site of a battle on May 14, 1264, during the
Barons’ War (1263–66). Earl SIMON DEMONTFORT THE
YOUNGERand the baronial party defeated the royal army
of King HENRYIII and took the king prisoner. Henry’s
son, the future EDWARD I, escaped and raised another
army, which eventually defeated the barons; Simon
himself was later killed at Evesham on August 4, 1265.