138 



SANCTCAKY 



SAND 



place. Among the Jews there were cities of refuge 

 to which one might flee who killed a man unawares 

 (see CITY OF KKKUCK), and something analogous 

 to a right of sanctuary may he traced in pagan 

 communities. In the ancient Greek states certain 

 temples afforded protection to criminals, whom it 

 wax unlawful to drag from them, although the 

 supply of food might tie intercepted. As early as 

 the 7th century the protection of sanctuary was 

 afforded to persons fleeing to a church or certain 

 boundaries surrounding it. The canon law recog- 

 nises this protection to criminals as continuing 

 for a limited period, sufficient to admit of a 

 composition for the offence ; or, at all events, to 

 give time for the first heat of resentment to pass 

 before the injured party could seek redress. In 

 several English churches there was a stone seat 

 beside the altar where those fleeing to the peace 

 of the church were held to be guarded by its sanctity. 

 One of ihvxe frith-stools ( ' peace-stools ' ) still remains 

 at lieverley and another at Hexham ; while the 

 sanctuary knocker is still visible at Durham. The 

 privilege of sanctuary did not extend to persons 

 accused either of the crime of sacrilege or of 

 the crime of treason. Connected in England 

 with the privilege of sanctuary was the practice 

 of abjuration of the realm. By the ancient 

 common law, if a person guilty of felony took 

 the benefit of sanctuary, he might within forty 

 days afterwards go clothed in sackcloth before 

 the coroner, confess his guilt, and take nn oath 

 to quit the realm and not return without the 

 king's license. On confessing and taking the 

 oath he became attainted of the felony, but 

 had forty days allowed him to prepare for his 

 departure. All privileges of sanctuary and abjura- 

 tion were entirely abolished by statute 21 Jac. I. 

 chap. 28. Yet as regards the execution of civil pro- 

 cess, sanctuaries continued in defiance of the law 

 for another century. This is shown by the statutes 

 8 and 9 Will. III. chap. 27, which makes it penal 

 in sheriffs not to execute process in certain 

 'pretended privileged places,' such as Whitefriars 

 or Alsatia and the Savoy ; and 9 Geo. I. chap. 28, 

 which contains provisions against resistance to 

 process in the Mint and Stepney. 



By the ancient canons of the Scottish councils, 

 excommunication was incurred by the offence 

 of open taking of thieves out of the protection 

 of i IK- church. The most celebrated ecclesi- 

 astical sanctuaries in Scotland were the church of 

 Wedale, now Stow, near Galashiels, where was an 

 image of the Virgin, believed to have been brought 

 by King Arthur from Jerusalem ; and the church 

 of Lesmahagow, near Lanark, fugitives to which had 

 the lii-nclit of the ' King's Peace,' granted by David 

 I., in addition to the protection of the church. The 

 institution of sanctuary, though probably useful 

 in early times iti enabling innocent persons to 

 escape oppression or private enmity pursuing 

 them under the name of law, tended after the 

 rise of settled government to become highly mis- 

 chievous by enabling criminals to bid defiance to 

 tin- civil power. Consequently for a century 

 before the Reformation we find a continuous 

 struggle going on between the legislature and the 

 churcii, caused by attempts on the part of the 

 former to check the evils arising out of the privi- 

 leges of sanctuary and to maintain the authority 

 of the law. The 'Reformation finally abolished nil 

 religious sanctuaries in Scotland. 



Of the places which owe their privilege of giving 

 sanctuary to the resi>ect due to the person of the 

 sovereign the most famous is the Abi>ey of Holy 

 rood House and it* precinct*. The precincts of the 

 palace, to which the privilege belongs, are extensive, 

 including Arthur's Seat and the Queen's Park ; 

 and the whole are placed under the protection of a 



bailie ap|Miinted by the Duke of Hamilton, the 

 heritable keeper of Holyrood Houw. This lime- 

 hiiiniiii'rd sanctuary afforded protection again-! 

 imprisonment for delit imly ; to a criminal it : 

 no protection. For twenty-four hours after paw- 

 ing the routines the debtor was protected against 

 personal diligence; but in order to enjoy protection 

 tor a longer period he must enter his name in the 

 books kept I iv the bailie of the abbev. Neither 

 crown debtors nor fraudulent bankrupts nor 

 persons under an obligation to perform an act 

 within their |K>wer could claim protection ; while 

 within the precinct* there was a prison for debtors 

 .-i^'aiiist u hum diligence had been brought for debta 

 contracted within the sanctuary. To retire t<> the 

 abliey is by 1696, chap. 5, made one of the circum 

 stances which, combined with insolvency . constitute 

 M'X.-il bankruptcy. The Castle of Edinburgh, the 

 Mint or 'cunzie-honse,' and several other places 

 seem to have enjoyed the privilege of giving sanc- 

 tuary ; but Holyrood is now the only sanctuary 

 which the law of Scotland recognises, ami the 

 alioliticm of imprisonment for debt in 1880 has 

 rendered it practically obsolete. 



By the privilege of Clan Macditff, alleged to have 

 lieen granted by Malcolm Canmore, any person 

 related within the ninth degree to the chief of 

 Clan Macduff who should have committed homi- 

 cide without premeditation was entitled, on fleeing 

 to Macduffs Cross in Fife, to have his punishment 

 remitted for a fine, or at least to be repledged 

 from any other jurisdiction by the Earl of Fife. 

 See Mazzinghi, Sanctuaries (Stafford, 1888). 



Saiirlns. See LITURGY, BELL. 



Sand, one of the products of the disintegration 

 of rocks, is composed mainly of grains of quartz 

 some sands being more purely quartzose than 

 others. Speaking broadly, we may say that all 

 rocks undergoing disintegration are eventually 

 res<dved into two kinds of sediment viz. sand 

 and clay or silt the former representing the 

 practically insoluble quartz of the original rock, 

 the latter the insoluble constituents of the other 

 minerals. Sand is formed in various ways. It is, 

 as every one knows, one of the most common sedi- 

 ments of rivers, lakes, and seas. Sea-sand exactly 

 resembles river-sand one cannot lie distinguished 

 from the other except by means of included organic 

 remains. As a rule tlie grains of aqueous sands 

 are angular and sulwngiilar in form, especially in 

 the case of fine-grained deposits. When the grains 

 are large they may be more or less well rounded. 

 These last have been rolled over each other and 

 pushed forward in the bed of stream or sea, while 

 the smaller particles, carried in suspension, have in 

 some measure escaped trituration. Aqueous sands 

 are very widely distributed. They are commonly 

 met with forming terraces along the courses of 

 streams and rivers not infrequently they occupy 

 the sites of ancient lakes and estuaries and now 

 ami again they form what are known as raised 

 Iteachen in maritime districts. Most of these sands 

 are of recent geological age ; others, however, such 

 as the sands of the Tertiary basins of England, 

 France, Belgium, Austria, &c., represent the sea- 

 floors of inncn more remote times. Sands of wind- 

 blown origin occur frequently in maritime regions 

 and in dry desiccated desert countries. In coast- 

 lands the material of the dunes is obviously washed 

 up by the sen ; while in certain inland tracts, as in 

 Poland, the sand which is there blown alx>ut by 

 the wind is derived from wide-spread fluvio-glacial 

 deposit* relics of the ice age. But in other 

 countries, as in the Libyan Desert, the sand has 

 resulted from the subaerial degradation of granites, 

 schists, sandstones, and other rocks. As the rock- 

 iiigredient* are swept forward over the ground they 



