Already, on more than one occasion, the difference between mediæval laws and mediæval practice has been remarked. What, for instance, could be better than these ordinances? Everything seems to be provided for, merciful refuge for the criminal, prison for those who commit new crimes, the practice of dishonest trades forbidden, the morality of the sanctuary protected, the place to be a House of Religion and Repentance, and not a refuge and lurking place for thieves and rogues. What happened? That the sanctuary went on just as before. There was, no doubt, some little stir at the outset: the Canons ordered their servants to exercise diligence in the maintenance of these laws: we have seen the Dean going round with the Goldsmiths’ officer; perhaps he went round with his own officers, and questioned the refugees, admonished them all, both men and women, and then departed. The decay of all the Monastic and Ecclesiastical foundations was everywhere partly due to the fact that, while the Rule remained, that part of it which demanded personal service was handed over to servants and inferior officers. The criminal who ran into the sanctuary was received by a servant, not by the Canons: he was lodged by a servant, not by the Canons; then, the food provided being humble in quality and insufficient in quantity, the refugee carried on his trade in order to get more food; probably the custom grew up, as it had grown up in the prisons of Newgate and Ludgate, of paying fees to the sanctuary officers; in return for those fees everything was permitted. Men, who lived by robbery and who were well known to be robbers; women who lived by procuring and by prostitution; sharpers, forgers, fabricators of false goods, fraudulent bankrupts, receivers of stolen goods; thieves actually took sanctuary with their stolen goods in their hands; all these people lived in security and peace: they escaped the pillory, the stocks, the agony of the whipping-post, the noisome prison, and the gallows. The City did well to protest without ceasing against the abuse of the Sanctuary. During the civil wars St. Martin’s proved a veritable Haven of Refuge to many, including the Countess of Oxford, Morton, Bishop of Ely, and other prelates, as well as both Lords and Ladies. In St. Martin’s lived and died—“rotted away piecemeal”—Miles Forrest, one of the murderers of the young Princes. A great change was made in St. Martin’s when the College was transferred by Henry the Seventh to the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster. The Abbot became Dean of St. Martin’s; another seal was made; the duties of the Canons were performed by Vicars. In the year 1548 all chantries, free chapels, and brotherhoods were suppressed, St. Martin’s among them. The splendid church was pulled down; the site was speedily built over by tenements and shops and taverns. But superstition and custom reserved until a much later time some of the privileges of sanctuary both at St. Martin’s and at Westminster.