Please knock for sanctuary

QUESTION Can a criminal seek sanctuary in a church?

MEDIEVAL canon law granted the right of asylum or sanctuary, a temporary immunity from prosecution based on the inviolable sanctity of church and monastic buildings.

All churches had the basic right to offer a safe haven to a criminal (or suspected criminal), but many i mportant Northern English churches had especially solid and carefully defined rights extending far beyond their walls.

Local tradition specified exactly how asylum could be claimed and for how long. At Durham, a fugitive had to grasp an ornamental door knocker and rap it to qualify. He was then dressed in a black robe bearing the cross of St Cuthbert and accommodated in a secluded area for a maximum of 37 days.

At other places the fugitive had to hold a corner of the altar cloth, pass a marker stone some distance from the church, sit on a special ‘frithstool’ or simply enter the building or churchyard.

The period of immunity was between a month and 40 days, which might be seen as a reasonable cooling-off period for accused and accusers.

Once within sanctuary, the offender need not choose to attend court but could opt to ‘abjure the realm’ — a form of voluntary, permanent exile, his land, property and chattels forfeited to the Crown.

The Dissolution by Henry VIII in the 1536-40 effectively put an end to the Roman Catholic Church and its rights throughout England, though a few churches continued to offer a form of sanctuary for a time.

James I abolished sanctuary for criminal offences in 1623 and William III did the same for civil offences in 1697, so the legal right no longer exists.

David Rayner, Canterbury.

QUESTION I have a reprint copy of a 1900 newspaper which carries a box ad for a cycle brand, Rudge Whitworth Ltd, of Coventry. A ‘special’ was 15 guineas and a ‘standard’ 10 guineas. How did the two bikes differ?

FURTHER to the earlier answer, 60 years ago I had a Rudge cycle with a back-pedal brake. One Saturday, I parked it outside Woolworths in Edmonton, North London.

When I came out, I found a policeman by my bike, informing me I had no brakes. I explained it was a Rudge back-pedalling, but he wouldn’t listen and issued a summons.

A few weeks went by and I came home from work to find my father had put the summons between two slices of bread, which he gave me as a sandwich. The fine was for 10 shillings — 50p in today’s money and this was half my weekly wage.

Those were days when you could leave your ‘boneshaker’ unattended outside a shop and it would still be there when you came out.

Brian Jaggs, Dunstable, Beds.