Mediæval London, Volume 2: EcclesiasticalBesant, Walter
History
Mediæval London, Volume 2: Ecclesiastical
Besant, Walter
London (England) -- History -- To 1500; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- To 1500
(5) Fugitives to be deprived of stolen goods they may bring into the
sanctuary, and the same to be restored if possible to the owners.
No one to buy such goods in the sanctuary, but if such purchase be
proved, the buyer to make satisfaction to the owner.
(6) Any sanctuary man leaving the sanctuary to commit crime, is to be
put to ward in the sanctuary, and if he wish to depart the sanctuary
he shall do so at a given hour in daytime.
(7) Persons guilty of certain offences, as lock-picking, forgers of
seals, evidences, workers of counterfeit gold and silver work not
to be suffered in the sanctuary. Persons suspected of such to be
committed to ward till they find sufficient security.
(8) Vicious persons not to be “suspected” in the sanctuary. If any be
there, they to be put to open ward in the daytime till shame cause
them to depart, or they amend their evil ways.
(9) That deceitful games be not played in the sanctuary.
(10) Barbers and artificers to keep Sundays as the citizens of London
do, if they break this ordinance they to be put in ward. They to use
their crafts according to the ordinances of the same City.
(11) Every person taking sanctuary to be sworn on a book, to obey
these ordinances.
Among others who took sanctuary in St. Martin’s during the Civil Wars
were the Countess of Oxford; Anne Neville, afterwards Richard’s Queen;
and Miles Forrest, one of the murderers of the young Princes in the
Tower. The tradition was that he “rotted away piecemeal”—probably
he was one of the late victims to leprosy, which was then rapidly
vanishing.
In 1498 Henry the Seventh endowed the Abbey of Westminster and his
Lady Chapel there with St. Martin’s-le-Grand, so that the Abbot became
the Dean of the College. A new seal was made. Also a new and a more
powerful defender of sanctuary was created. It was not until 1548, when
all chantries, free chapels, and brotherhoods were granted to the King,
that the College was dissolved and the church was demolished. Even then
the privileges of sanctuary survived, though under greatly modified
conditions.
The church, as appeared from the excavations in 1818, was more than 200
feet long. After it was pulled down, tenements called the New Rents
were erected on its site. On the place of the high altar was a wine
tavern.
During the reign of Elizabeth, most of the inhabitants were
foreigners—French, German, Dutch, and Scotch. By the freedom of the
Precinct they could trade without being free of the City: among them
were shoemakers, tailors, buttermakers, goldsmiths, purse-makers,
stationers, silk weavers, and silk throwsters. The number of the
foreigners of St. Martin’s in 1593 was 196.
In 1697 whatever privileges of sanctuary remained were abolished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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