He now found himself in the adjoining Abbey of St. Mary, and his only hope of safety lay in his passing as one of the regular inmates of that establishment. He, too, therefore subjected himself to the Rule of Silence, and acquiring in a remarkably short space
the esteem of his new brothers, was appointed cellarer.
Alas! after a year, temptation was too much for him. He made an unworthy use of his office and underwent a second sentence for riotous misconduct. He was carried by the unsuspecting monks to the place where he had been before immured and was left to his fate. He was still under his drunken delusion singing merrily, to be heard by the reverend brothers of St. Leonard’s. The news of Jucundus’s continued existence was carried to his superior, who, recognizing his former subject’s voice, ordered the cell to be opened and knelt in awe before the revivified but still merry Jucundus.
Within and around St. Leonard’s gateway are collected a number of Roman stone coffins which have been found in York. One coffin in particular is of more than usual interest, for it is believed to be connected with a Christian burial. Evidences of Christianity during the Roman occupation of York are rare. A record exists that Eborius, Bishop of York, was present at the Council of Arles in 314. The discovery of this coffin tends to confirm this statement, by showing that there were Christians in York amongst its Roman inhabitants. In this Roman stone coffin were found a glass jug and a disk—which are considered to be the cruet and paten of the viaticum—and a bone tablet carved with a Latin inscription “SOROR AVE VIVAS IN DEO”, which is rendered in English, “Sister, hail, mayest thou live in God”.
After the departure of the Romans, the pagan Anglians drove the Christians out of the district to the westward, and when the Anglians in York had themselves embraced Christianity, they suffered the like from the Danish invaders. Subsequently the Danes embraced Christianity, and adjoining the abbey grounds is the church founded by the conqueror of Macbeth, Jarl Siward, to the Norwegian sainted King Olaf. Siward was Earl of Northumbria and a great warrior. On his deathbed he commanded his attendants to put on him his armour, and thus fully equipped, he died.