“Mourir au monde”. Les ordines de séparation des lépreux en France aux XVe et XVIe siècles

Since the recent publication of a catalogue of the printed rituals in French dioceses, we can list seven ordines of seclusion of lepers existing in France around 1490–1550. In fact, for two of them, the most common, two distinct versions having the same incipit are found. Most of these ceremonies are parodies, some closer than others, of funerals and tell the sick: Sis mortuus mundo. As far as France is concerned, these rites were only followed in one diocese out of ten, but they represent a common liturgical habit in the northeast part of the country. They may have originated in 1400–1450 from the same inclination towards a grim mood as the Dances of Death. They probably exorcised other fears than that of the leper — then dying out-, and were only to disappear slowly and gradually at the time of the Counter-Reformation, after about 1560.