The origin and development of the moral ideas

In other Muhammedan countries besides Morocco the tombs of saints, as also the mosques, are or have been places of refuge.162 In Persia the great number of such asylums proved so injurious to public safety, that about the middle of the nineteenth century only three mosques were left which were recognised by the government as affording protection to criminals of every description.163 Among the Hebrews the right of asylum originally belonged to all altars,164 but on the abolition of the local altars it was limited to certain cities of refuge.165 According to the Old Testament manslayers could find shelter there only in the case of involuntary homicide; but this was undoubtedly a narrowing of the ancient custom. Many heathen sanctuaries of the Phœnicians and Syrians retained even in Roman times what seems to have been an unlimited right of asylum;166 and at certain Arabian shrines the god likewise gave shelter to all fugitives without distinction, and even stray or stolen cattle that reached the holy ground could not be reclaimed by their owners.167

On the Coast of Malabar a certain temple situated to the south-east of Calicut affords protection to thieves and adulterous women belonging to the Brahmin caste, but this privilege is reckoned among the sixty-four anatcharams, or “abuses,” which were introduced by Brahmanism.168 Among the Káfirs of the Hindu-Kush there are several “cities of refuge,” the largest being the village of Mergrom, which is almost entirely peopled by chiles, or descendants of persons who have slain some fellow tribesman.169 In the Caucasus holy groves offer refuge to criminals, as also to animals, which cannot be shot there.170

In Greece many sanctuaries possessed the right of asylum down to the end of paganism, and any violation of this right was supposed to be severely punished by the deity.171 According to an old tradition, Romulus established a sanctuary, dedicated to some unknown god or spirit, on the slope of the Capitoline Hill, proclaiming that all who resorted to it, whether bond or free, should be safe.172 This tradition, and also some other statements made by Latin writers,173 seem to indicate that from ancient times certain sacred places in Rome gave shelter to refugees; but it was only in a comparatively late period of Roman history that the right of sanctuary, under Greek influence, became a recognised institution of some importance.174 This right was expressly conferred upon the temple which in the year 42 B.C. was built in honour of Cæsar;175 and other imperial temples, as also the statues of emperors, laid claim to the same privilege.176 When Christianity became the religion of the State a similar claim was made by the churches; but a legal right of asylum was only granted to them by Honorius in the West and Theodosius in the East.177 Subsequently it was restricted by Justinian, who decreed that all manslayers, adulterers, and kidnappers of women who fled to a church should be taken out of it.178

The right of sanctuary existed among the pagan Slavs, or some of them,179 and probably also among the ancient Teutons.180 After their conversion to Christianity the privilege of asylum within the church was recognised in most of their codes. In the Middle Ages and later, persons who fled to a church or to certain boundaries surrounding it were, for a time at least, safe from all persecution, it being considered treason against God, an offence beyond compensation, to force even the most flagrant criminal from His altar. The ordinary of the sacred place, or his official, was the only one who could try to induce him to leave it, but if he failed, the utmost that could be done was to deny the refugee victuals so that he might go forth voluntarily.181 In the ‘Lex Baiuwariorum’ it is asserted in the strongest terms that there is no crime which may not be pardoned from the fear of God and reverence for the saints.182 But the right of sanctuary was gradually subjected to various restrictions both by secular legislation and by the Church.183 Innocentius III. enjoined that refuge should not be given to a highway robber or to anybody who devastated cultivated fields at night;184 and according to Beaumanoir’s ‘Coutumes du Beauvoisis,’ dating from the thirteenth century, it was also denied to persons guilty of sacrilege or arson.185 The Parliament of Scotland enacted that whoever took the protection of the Church for homicide should be required to come out and undergo an assize, that it might be found whether it was committed of “forethought felony” or in “chaudemelle”; and only in the

latter case was he to be restored to the sanctuary, the sheriff being directed to give him security to that effect before requiring him to leave it.186 In England, in the reign of Henry VIII., there were certain places which were allowed to be “places of tuition and privilege,” in addition to churches and their precincts. They were in fact cities of permanent refuge for persons who should, according to ancient usage, have abjured the realm, after they had fled in the ordinary way to a church. There was a governor in each of these privileged places, charged with the duty of mustering every day his men, who were not to exceed twenty in each town and who had to wear a badge whenever they appeared out of doors. But when these regulations were made, the protection of sanctuary was taken away from persons guilty of murder, rape, burglary, highway robbery, or arson. The law of sanctuary was then left unchanged till the reign of James I., when, in theory, the privilege in question was altogether denied to criminals.187 Yet as a matter of fact, asylums continued to exist in England so late as the reign of George I., when that of St.

Peter’s at Westminster was demolished.188 In the legislation of Sweden the last reference to the privilege of sanctuary is found in an enactment of 1528.189 In France it was abolished by an ordonnance of 1539.190 In Spain it existed even in the nineteenth century.191 Not long ago the most important churches in Abyssinia,192 the monastery of Affaf Woira in the same country,193 and the quarter in Gondar where the head of the Abyssinian clergy has his residence,194 were reported to be asylums for criminals. And the same is the case with the old Christian churches among the Suanetians of the Caucasus.195