Sanctuary, a consecrated place which gives protection to a criminal taking refuge there; or the privilege of taking refuge in such a consecrated place. Among the Jews there were cities of refuge to which the slayer might flee who killed a man unawares (see CITY), and something analogous to a right of sanctuary may also be traced in pagan communities. In the ancient Greek states certain temples afforded protection to criminals, whom it was unlawful to drag from them, although the supply of food might be intercepted. As early as the 7th century the protection of sanctuary was afforded to persons fleeing to a church or certain boundaries surrounding it. The canon law recognises this protection to criminals as continuing for a limited period, sufficient to admit of a composition for the offence; or, at all events, to give time for the first heat of resentment to pass before the injured party could seek redress. In several English churches there was a stone seat beside the altar where those fleeing to the peace of the church were held to be guarded by its sanctity. One of these frith-stools ('peace-stools') still remains at Beverley and another at Hexham; while the sanctuary knocker is still visible at Durham. The privilege of sanctuary did not extend to persons accused either of the crime of sacrilege or of the crime of treason. Connected in England with the privilege of sanctuary was the practice of abjuration of the realm. By the ancient common law, if a person guilty of felony took the benefit of sanctuary, he might within forty days afterwards go clothed in sackcloth before the coroner, confess his guilt, and take an oath to quit the realm and not return without the king's license. On confessing and taking the oath he became attainted of the felony, but had forty days allowed him to prepare for his departure. All privileges of sanctuary and abjuration were entirely abolished by statute 21 Jac. I. chap. 28. Yet as regards the execution of civil process, sanctuaries continued in defiance of the law for another century. This is shown by the statutes 8 and 9 Will. III. chap. 27, which makes it penal in sheriffs not to execute process in certain 'pretended privileged places,' such as Whitefriars or Alsatia and the Savoy; and 9 Geo. I. chap. 28, which contains provisions against resistance to process in the Mint and Stepney.
By the ancient canons of the Scottish councils, excommunication was incurred by the offence of open taking of thieves out of the protection of the church. The most celebrated ecclesiastical sanctuaries in Scotland were the church of Wedale, now Stow, near Galashiels, where was an image of the Virgin, believed to have been brought by King Arthur from Jerusalem; and the church of Lesmahagow, near Lanark, fugitives to which had the benefit of the 'King's Peace,' granted by David I., in addition to the protection of the church. The institution of sanctuary, though probably useful in early times in enabling innocent persons to escape oppression or private enmity pursuing them under the name of law, tended after the rise of settled government to become highly mischievous by enabling criminals to bid defiance to the civil power. Consequently for a century before the Reformation we find a continuous struggle going on between the legislature and the church, caused by attempts on the part of the former to check the evils arising out of the privileges of sanctuary and to maintain the authority of the law. The Reformation finally abolished all religious sanctuaries in Scotland.
Of the places which owe their privilege of giving sanctuary to the respect due to the person of the sovereign the most famous is the Abbey of Holyrood House and its precincts. The precincts of the palace, to which the privilege belongs, are extensive, including Arthur's Seat and the Queen's Park; and the whole are placed under the protection of a baillie appointed by the Duke of Hamilton, the heritable keeper of Holyrood House. This time-honoured sanctuary afforded protection against imprisonment for debt only; to a criminal it gave no protection. For twenty-four hours after passing the confines the debtor was protected against personal diligence; but in order to enjoy protection for a longer period he must enter his name in the books kept by the baillie of the abbey. Neither crown debtors nor fraudulent bankrupts nor persons under an obligation to perform an act within their power could claim protection; while within the precincts there was a prison for debtors against whom diligence had been brought for debts contracted within the sanctuary. To retire to the abbey is by 1696, chap. 5, made one of the circumstances which, combined with insolvency, constitute legal bankruptcy. The Castle of Edinburgh, the Mint or 'cunzie-house,' and several other places seem to have enjoyed the privilege of giving sanctuary; but Holyrood is now the only sanctuary which the law of Scotland recognises, and the abolition of imprisonment for debt in 1880 has rendered it practically obsolete.
By the privilege of Clan Macduff, alleged to have been granted by Malcolm Canmore, any person related within the ninth degree to the chief of Clan Macduff who should have committed homicide without premeditation was entitled, on fleeing to Macduff's Cross in Fife, to have his punishment remitted for a fine, or at least to be repledged from any other jurisdiction by the Earl of Fife. See Mazingli, Sanctuaries (Stafford, 1888).