"Although one who is appealed of the death of a man, or for other felony, make default at three County Courts, yet at the fourth County Court he may appear, and give mainprize to appear at the fifth County Court; and then, if he do not come, he will be outlawed. And if the appellor abandon the prosecution, the exigend shall tarry until the Eyre; and then he shall be tried (for he may return to the peace if he will) at the suit of the King. And if he will not come, he shall be called at the three County Courts; and if he do not come at the third, he shall be outlawed at the fourth County Court, if he do not come and give mainprize to come at the fifth County Court." It may be taken for granted that, in the vast majority of instances, this degree of consideration sufficed in the case of any person honestly desiring to take his trial; but circumstances might exist which rendered it impossible for a man to prevent his being outlawed, and then the right of sanctuary might be of the utmost value in staying injustice. That the supposition is not purely imaginary is proved by a remarkable petition of the early part of the reign of Edward I., in which John Brown, scholar of Oxford, states that during his absence at Rome he has been falsely appealed by a Jewess for a Christian child, pursued from county to county, and outlawed; wherefore on his return he was put in prison and he now prays the King's mercy, without which he cannot go to the common law. John Brown, it is clear, did not take sanctuary--probably because he was not apprised of the facts in time; otherwise it would have afforded him all needful security and allowed him a period for reflection as to the wisdom of surrendering or quitting the realm. The right of sanctuary must have been founded on the principle that the guilt of the fugitive had not been established. Even the ordinary law was laudably sensitive on this point, and care was taken not to prejudice the accused by an apparent assumption of guilt. If a person was charged with murder, the bailiffs were obliged to approach him with white wands as a sign that they had no intention of committing or provoking a breach of the peace. They then summoned him to yield himself to the peace of "our lord the King." If they came in the first instance armed in a warlike manner with swords, etc., it was lawful for him to defend himself, and there is one instance on record in which a man did this, fighting a pitched battle with the bailiffs in the garden of his inn, and being afterwards upheld by the court. If, however, the person would not surrender, when summoned in a peaceable way, force might be employed against him. But the officers had first to find or overtake him; and in this they might be anticipated by those who had suffered injury. Obviously, therefore, the homicide, who had no confidence in the justice of his case, would be well advised in flying without delay to "the bosom of Mother Church."