to forfeit one hundred shillings and restore the person; if from a parish church, twenty shillings; and if from a chapel, ten shillings. It was also ordained that sanctuary men might go thirty paces from the church, and forty if a cathedral. The sanctuary bounds around some churches were quite extensive. The privilege at Beverley covered a radius of a mile, taking St. John's cathedral as a center. At Hex ham there were four stone crosses inscribed "Sanctuarium," set up at a certain distance from the church in the four roads leading thither, and if a malefactor flying for refuge to that church was captured by his pursuer within the crosses, the latter was liable to a fine of sixteen pounds; if within the town, thirty-two pounds; if within the walls of the churchyard, forty-eight pounds; if within the church, ninety-six pounds; if within the doors of the quire, one hundred and fortyfour pounds, besides penance in case of sacrilege; but if he presumed to take the fugitive out of the stone chair near the altar, called the Fridstol, that is, the Chair of Peace, or from among the holy relics behind the altar, the offense was not redeemable with any sum, but was then become fine emendatione boteles, and was followed by a dreadful excommunication, besides the penalty of the civil law for presumptuous misdemeanor. By the laws of Edward the Confessor, if a person, in flying to refuge, should enter the house or courtyard of a priest, he was to be as secure as if he had reached the church, provided said house stood upon church property. Still broader in scope was the sanctuary allowed by King Ethelred, A. D. 1008. In his constitutions it was directed that any one who fled to the King, arch bishop, or a nobleman, should be safe for nine days. Or if he had recourse to his bishop, to an alderman, or to a school master, cither of these might give him seven days' refuge. Those who took sanctuary in the churches
were to be supplied not only with food and habitation, but also with clothes. The Welsh were even more liberal. They allowed murderers, traitors, and other criminals refuge not only for themselves but also for their servants and cattle, assigning for the last considerable tracts of pasture land. In some of the principal churches, the cattle sanctuary extended " as far as the creatures could range in a day and return at night." Looking now into the method observed by those who sought sanctuary, we find that at Durham and Beverley it was as follows. The fugitive came to the north door and knocked for admission. There were two chambers above this door where slept two men ready to admit such fugitives at any hour of the night. As soon as he was admitted the galilee bell was immediately tolled, to give notice that some one had taken sanctuary. The notice of this custom occurs constantly in the register of the sanctuary at Durham until the year 1503. We gain from the Harleian Manuscripts the following account of the oath by the bailiff of the town, whose place it was to enquire of the refugee "what man he killed and wher with and both ther names; and then gar him lay his hand upon the book, saying on this wyse : ' Sir, take hede on your oth. Ye shal be trew and feythful to my Lord Archbishop of York, lord of this towne; to the Provost of the same; to the Chanons of this Chirch and all other minis ters thereof. Also ye shal bere gude hert to the Baillie and XII Governors of this towne, to al burges and comyners of the same. Also ye shall bere no poynted wapen, dagger, knyfe, ne none other wapen agenst the Kyng's pece. And ye shal be redy at all your power if ther be any debate or stryfe or oder sothan case of fyre within the towne, to help to surcess it — so help you God and thies holy Evangelistes.' And then gar hym kysse the book." The bailiff's fee on this occasion was two shillings and four pence, and for inscribing the fugitive's
