ccasion of the uncleanness in question.

The figurative reason for these uncleannesses was that they were
figures of various sins. For the uncleanness of any corpse signifies
the uncleanness of sin, which is the death of the soul. The
uncleanness of leprosy betokened the uncleanness of heretical
doctrine: both because heretical doctrine is contagious just as
leprosy is, and because no doctrine is so false as not to have some
truth mingled with error, just as on the surface of a leprous body
one may distinguish the healthy parts from those that are infected.
The uncleanness of a woman suffering from a flow of blood denotes the
uncleanness of idolatry, on account of the blood which is offered up.
The uncleanness of the man who has suffered seminal loss signifies
the uncleanness of empty words, for "the seed is the word of God."
The uncleanness of sexual intercourse and of the woman in child-birth
signifies the uncleanness of original sin. The uncleanness of the
woman in her periods signifies the uncleanness of a mind that is
sensualized by pleasure. Speaking generally, the uncleanness
contracted by touching an unclean thing denotes the uncleanness
arising from consent in another's sin, according to 2 Cor. 6:17: "Go
out from among them, and be ye separate . . . and touch not the
unclean thing."

Moreover, this uncleanness arising from the touch was contracted even
by inanimate objects; for whatever was touched in any way by an
unclean man, became itself unclean. Wherein the Law attenuated the
superstition of the Gentiles, who held that uncleanness was
contracted not only by touch, but also by speech or looks, as Rabbi
Moses states (Doct. Perplex. iii) of a woman in her periods. The
mystical sense of this was that "to God the wicked and his wickedness
are hateful alike" (Wis. 14:9).

There was also an uncleanness of inanimate things considered in
themselves, such as the uncleanness of leprosy in a house or in
clothes. For just as leprosy occurs in men through a corrupt humor
causing putrefaction and corruption in the flesh; so, too, through
some corruption and excess of humidity or dryness, there arises
sometimes a kind of corruption in the stones with which a house is
built, or in clothes. Hence the Law called this corruption by the
name of leprosy, whereby a house or a garment was deemed to be
unclean: both because all corruption savored of uncleanness, as
stated above, and because the Gentiles worshipped their househ