The Emperor Constantine, as early as the year 324 caused laws to be enacted, extending and recognizing the privilege of sanctuary; Theodosus, in the year 392, made a law regulating the exemption to criminals of his day and Theodosus II. extended the freedom of sanctuary, from the altar and body of the church itself, to which it was previously confined, to all the buildings and places contained within the outer walls of the consecrated places, set apart for purposes of sanctuary.[11] Although the fact is not established by competent authority, it has been stated that the privilege of sanctuary obtained in England, as early as the close of the second century after Christ.[12] The right may have been recognized as early as this date, but the history of the period does not give us any very authentic record to sustain that it did. Soon after the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity, however, all places of public worship were looked upon as so consecrated that criminals taking refuge in any of them were temporarily protected from the process of the civil authorities.[13] Unlike the ancient Jews, the early Saxons received even the felons guilty of wilful murder, for a period of thirty days, if they paid the _Wehrgeld_, fixed by the officers of the church, according to the standing of the person killed; he was protected from the civil authorities for a period of thirty days, on payment of the _Wehrgeld_, if he provided his own sustenance, after which he was delivered to his friends.[14] As sanctuary was only extended to those, under the Mosaic law, who “declared their cause in the ears of the elders of the city,” so, under the Anglo-Saxon law, the criminal claiming sanctuary was required to confess his crime and declare that he sought the safety of the church to preserve his life.[15] Under the old Saxon law, however, the privilege was not extended for a longer period than forty days and at the end of that time, if the prisoner did not _abjure the realm_, he was delivered to his friends, or to the civil authorities. Under the practice known as _abjuration of the realm_ if the sanctuary felon, within forty days after taking sanctuary, went, in sackcloth, before the coroner and confessed his guilt and took an oath to quit the realm and not to return, without the king’s license, he was then attainted of the felony, but was given an additional period of forty days to prepare for his journey and to keep the privilege alive, he was compelled, within this period, to repair, with a cross in his hand, as an indicia of his crime, but an emblem of the protection afforded him by the church, to the port assigned him, and to there take his journey for some foreign shore.[16]