DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0123
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 91
the canonization of its founder, the veneration in which his memory was held by all
ranks of people, and its being the scene of his sepulchre. Such circumstances
were peculiarly calculated to give an especial sanctity to it in the public opinion:
nor will it be presumed, that the monks were deficient in zeal to maintain the
advantages which might be derived to their monastery from a concurrence of such
imposing incidents. It appears, therefore, that a better ground may be suggested
for giving it the dignity of a sacred asylum than the possession of relics, which some
of the charters mention as having been added by the Confessor to the treasures
of his church*. Lastly, with respect to the exemption of the monastery from
episcopal jurisdiction; that privilege, as appears from sufficient authority, was
* Sanctuaries, which arose from the superstitious veneration paid to consecrated ground in the
times of Popery, appear to have been established in England as far back as in the third year of the
reign of Ina, King of the West Saxons. The privilege was granted to Croyland Abbey by
Withlaff, King of Mercia, in the year 833, in return for special services rendered him by the abbot.
By the laws of King Edmund, in the year 946, sanctuary seems to have been generally established by
the following regulation : — That if a man fly to a church, and any one set upon him and do him
harm, the relations of the fugitive may entertain a deadly feud against such person for the assault or
injury. In the time of Canute, the privilege of sanctuary was carried to such a height, as to afford
an asylum to all crimes, to defy all power, and to have been as notoriously abused as in the subsequent
and most profligate periods of Popery. „
The king's town, by which is understood the place wherein the king had a palace or an occa-
sional residence, is also mentioned by the laws of Edmund, as affording safeguard and protection; but
not to that extent which was allowed to sacred edifices: a privilege which, in a more limited and
partial degree, has been possessed by the royal palaces of modern times.
The immunity of privileged places was very much abridged by the statutes of the 27th
Henry VIII. and the 32d of the same king. And in the 21st James I. all privilege of sanctuary,
and abjuration consequent thereupon, is utterly taken away and abolished.
N 2
the canonization of its founder, the veneration in which his memory was held by all
ranks of people, and its being the scene of his sepulchre. Such circumstances
were peculiarly calculated to give an especial sanctity to it in the public opinion:
nor will it be presumed, that the monks were deficient in zeal to maintain the
advantages which might be derived to their monastery from a concurrence of such
imposing incidents. It appears, therefore, that a better ground may be suggested
for giving it the dignity of a sacred asylum than the possession of relics, which some
of the charters mention as having been added by the Confessor to the treasures
of his church*. Lastly, with respect to the exemption of the monastery from
episcopal jurisdiction; that privilege, as appears from sufficient authority, was
* Sanctuaries, which arose from the superstitious veneration paid to consecrated ground in the
times of Popery, appear to have been established in England as far back as in the third year of the
reign of Ina, King of the West Saxons. The privilege was granted to Croyland Abbey by
Withlaff, King of Mercia, in the year 833, in return for special services rendered him by the abbot.
By the laws of King Edmund, in the year 946, sanctuary seems to have been generally established by
the following regulation : — That if a man fly to a church, and any one set upon him and do him
harm, the relations of the fugitive may entertain a deadly feud against such person for the assault or
injury. In the time of Canute, the privilege of sanctuary was carried to such a height, as to afford
an asylum to all crimes, to defy all power, and to have been as notoriously abused as in the subsequent
and most profligate periods of Popery. „
The king's town, by which is understood the place wherein the king had a palace or an occa-
sional residence, is also mentioned by the laws of Edmund, as affording safeguard and protection; but
not to that extent which was allowed to sacred edifices: a privilege which, in a more limited and
partial degree, has been possessed by the royal palaces of modern times.
The immunity of privileged places was very much abridged by the statutes of the 27th
Henry VIII. and the 32d of the same king. And in the 21st James I. all privilege of sanctuary,
and abjuration consequent thereupon, is utterly taken away and abolished.
N 2