The Customs of Old England

by F. J. Snell

It has been stated that all churches, parochial, collegiate, and cathedral, were sanctuaries; but there were in different parts of England about thirty supreme sanctuaries, of which Westminster, York, Durham, Glastonbury, Ely, Ripon, and Beverley may be taken as types. They owed this pre-eminence to the possession of relics and stories of miracles wrought by the tutelar saint for the protection of suppliants or the chastisement of those who violated the shrine. The origin of the civil sanction is most obscure. Individual churches attributed their franchise to the favour of ancient kings—Hexham to Ecfrith, King of Northumbria; Ripon and Beverley to Athelstan, and York to Edward the Confessor. Tradition affirms that in primitive times the term of protection at Durham was thirty-seven days and at Beverley thirty days on the first and second occasions, and if the fugitive resorted thither a third time, he had to become serviens ecclesiæ imperpetuum. These intimations, if true, point to a process of evolution from small beginnings represented by the three nights' protection to which the sanctuary rights of an ordinary church were limited by the laws of Alfred (887) to the extraordinary privileges which, if we accept Mr. R. H. Forster's conclusions, existed at Durham.

These concerned both the area and the duration of the immunity. At other places the right of sanctuary comprised the precinct as well as the church itself. For instance, at Beverley, the story goes that Athelstan, on his return from a victorious campaign against King Constantine, conferred the privilege on the church of St. John and a portion of the surrounding country. The bounds were indicated by crosses. The base and part of the shaft of one of them is, or was lately, to be seen in a hedge on the road to Skidby. Others were erected at Molescroft, on the road towards Cherry or North Burton, and near Killingwoldgrove, on the Bishop's Burton road. At Durham, however, if we follow Mr. Forster—and he makes out an excellent case—the precinct included the whole of the County Palatine, and the term of protection, instead of being confined to the ordinary period of forty days, was perpetual. At York, Beverley, and Hexham there was what may be termed an outermost precinct and various inner precincts, the relative sanctity of which is shown by the scale of punishments inflicted for violation. In Prior Richard's history of Hexham it is stated that there were at that place four crosses, each of them erected at a distance of one mile from the church, and in a different direction. Anyone who arrested a fugitive within these limits was fined two hundreth, or sixteen pounds. For an arrest "infra villam" the penalty was twofold. If the person were seized "infra muros atrii ecclesiæ," it was threefold; and if within the church itself, sixfold, to which was added penance "sicut de sacrilegiis." Supposing, however, that anyone, "vesano spiritu agitatus diabolico ausu quemquam capere præsumpserit in cathedra lapidea juxta altare quam Angli vocant fridstol, id est, cathedram quietudinis vel pacis, vel etiam ad feretrum sanctarum reliquiarum quod est post atlare"—then the crime was botolos (without remedy); no monetary payment could be received as compensation. When Leland was at Beverley, he was shown a frithstool, on which he made the following note: "Hæc sedes lapidea Freedstool dicitur, i.e., Pacis Cathedra, ad quam reus perveniens omnimodam habet securitatem." There was a frithstool endowed with similar privileges at York Minster, and another at Durham. Stone seats claimed to be frithstools are still shown at Hexham and Beverley.

Of all the localities which drew to themselves especial distinction as sanctuaries none rivals in antiquarian interest the monastery of Durham. This is because of the existence of an ancient work on the "Rites of Durham," which enters in considerable detail into the ceremonial observed on such occasions, and was received for a long time as authoritative. Recent criticism by Mr. R. H. Forster has rather impaired the credibility of the document. He points out that its professed date is 1593, or more than fifty years after the dissolution of the Priory; and maintains that it is not a first-hand chronicle of events of "the floryshinge tyme" before the suppression of the house, but a compilation based partly on old records and partly on the reminiscences of aged residents.

Nevertheless, the narrative must be considered to possess a high degree of historical value, and is undeniably picturesque. We catch a glimpse of the fugitive "knocking and rapping" at the grim twelfth-century knocker "to have yt opened." We see him "letten in" by "certen men that did lie alwaies in two chambers over the said north church door," and running straightway to the Galilee bell and tolling it. ("In the weste end in the north allie and over the Galleley dour there, in a belfray called the Galleley Steple, did hing iiii goodly great bells.") The work goes on to state that "when the Prior had intelligence thereof, then he dyd send word and command them that they should keape themselves within the sanctuary, that is to saie, within the Church and Churchyard." This was until the official of the convent and witnesses had assembled for the formal admission and registration of the fugitive, which took place in the nave, in the Sacrist's exchequer, which was in the north aisle of the choir or "in domo registrali." The official who presided over the ceremony was commonly the Sacrist, but the duty was sometimes performed by the Chancellor of the Cathedral, the Sub-prior, or a monk qualified as a notary public. As for the witnesses, they might be monks, servants of the convent, clerks, masons employed on the fabric, or they might be friends of the fugitive who had attended him to Durham as a bodyguard. Frequently, however, they were casual onlookers or persons who had flocked out of curiosity to the "show."

On admission, the "grithman" received a gown of black cloth "maid with a cross of yeallowe cloth called St. Cuthbert's Cross, sett on the lefte shoulder of the arme" and was permitted to lie "within the church or saunctuary in a grate ... standing and adjoining unto the Galilei dore on the south side," and "had meite, cost and charge for 37 days." The writer of the book alleges that maintenance was found for fugitives "unto such tyme as the prior and convent could gett them conveyed out of the dioces," but Mr. Forster traverses this statement and adduces documentary evidence to show that, in various instances, "grithmen" were permanently domiciled in the diocese. We have, however, an account of one such "conveyance." A certain Coleon de Wolsyngham, in the year 1487, on retiring from the church, was delivered by the sheriff to the nearest constables, and after that by constables to constables, that he might be conducted to the nearest seaport, there to take shipping and never return. He is stated to have received a white cross made of wood.

Bracton and Britton both state that the criminal could elect his own port, but we generally hear of a port being assigned him by the coroner, and he was required to proceed thither without deviating. A case is on record where "one A. had abjured the King's realm and went a little out of the highway; the menee was raised upon him, and he was taken in the highway, and this was found by the jury." Nobody was suffered to molest the felon on his journey seawards on pain of forfeiting goods and chattels. This part of our subject receives excellent illustration from the customary of the Cinque Ports:

"And when any shall flee into the church or churchyard for felony, claiming thereof the privilege for any action of his life, the head officer of the same liberty, where the said church or churchyard is, with his fellow jurats or coroners of the said liberty, shall come to him and shall ask him the cause of his being there, and if he will not confess felony, he shall be had out of the said sanctuary; and if he will confess felony immediately it shall be entered in record, and his goods and chattels shall be forfeited, and he shall tarry there forty days—or before, if he will, he shall make his abjuration in form following before the head officer, who shall assign to him the port of his passage, and after his abjuration there shall be delivered unto him by the head officer, or his assignees, a cross, and proclamation shall be made that while he be going by the highway towards the port to him assigned, he shall go in the King's peace, and that no man shall grieve him in so doing on pain to forfeit his goods and chattels; and the said felon shall lay his right hand on the book and swear thus:

"'You hear, Mr. Coroner, that I, A. B., a thief, have stolen such a thing, or have killed such a woman, or man, or a child, and am the King's felon; and for that I have done many evil deeds and felonies in this same his land, I do abjure and forswear the lands of the Kings of England, and that I shall haste myself to the port of Dover, which you have given or assigned me; and that I shall not go out of the highway; and if I do, I will that I shall be taken as a thief and the King's felon; and that at the same place I shall tarry but one ebb and flood if I may have passage; and if I cannot have passage in the same place, I shall go every day into the sea to my knees, and above, crying, "Passage for the love of God and King N. his sake;" and if I may not within forty days together, I shall get me again into the church as the King's felon. So God me help, and by this book, according to your judgment.'

"And if a clerk, flying to the church for felony, affirming himself to be a clerk, he shall not abjure the realm, but yielding himself to the laws of the realm, shall enjoy the liberties of the church, and shall be delivered to the ordinary, to be safe kept in the convict prison, according to the laudable custom of the realm of England."

When it became known that a malefactor had taken refuge in a church it was the duty of the authorities to beset the place, and send for the coroner, who parleyed with the person in the manner described in the above recital. From the same account it will be gleaned that the maximum limit allotted to the refugee was ordinarily forty days, after which he would cease to receive sustenance. According to Britton he had forty days after being summoned by the coroner. It will be further observed that the criminal undertook to "hasten" to the port of departure. It is generally stated that forty days were granted him for this purpose, but it is certain that this was not always the case. By the Assize of Clarendon persons of evil repute, who had purged themselves by the ordeal without satisfying their neighbours as to their innocence, were required to quit the realm within eight days: