Sanctuary

The term sanctuary generally refers to a historical practice whereby individuals accused of a criminal offense or other deviant act were able to alleviate, delay, avoid, or otherwise alter the penalty they were facing by entering into a specially designated location and requesting mercy. Once the individual had entered the designated location and had requested assistance, he or she could be provided with varying levels of consideration and protection.

The exact degree of protection or assistance that was provided to those requesting sanctuary depended on a number of factors. First, the protections afforded varied both geographically and across time. As a result, the individual benefits that accrued from requests for mercy were largely dependent upon when and where the individual sought sanctuary. Second, in order for sanctuary to be of any substantive value to an accused it must have been recognized to at least some degree by existing secular or religious authorities. In practice, this meant that the assistance afforded to individuals seeking sanctuary was dependent on the existing state of civil, criminal, and religious doctrines and laws. Third, only certain types of offenses or punishments made individuals eligible for sanctuary at any given point in time. This meant that only certain individuals could avail themselves to the protections linked to sanctuary, based upon either the type of offense they were alleged to have committed or the type of punishment that they were facing.

Over time, the practice of sanctuary also varied in regard to the type of location that was thought to justify a plea for mercy. In some of the earliest times, entire cities were set aside as areas where individuals could seek sanctuary. In later times, sanctuary was available to an individual only after that person had entered a specific type of building that was thought to be sacred or holy. Over time, sanctuary became more strongly associated with formal places of worship, such as churches, or facilities associated with those [Page 405]places of worship, such as monasteries, nunneries, and rectories. The idea that places of worship were especially sacred and therefore not subject to the direct control of governmental authorities may have had its roots in other concepts, such as the benefit of clergy, which held that religious officials themselves were not subject to the control of secular authorities.

The tradition of religious sanctuary dates back to ancient times, became a formalized practice in England by the 4th century, and was finally abolished in 1540. According to current U.S. law, religious institutions do not have permission to harbor criminals or protect them from the government.

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In most instances, sanctuary did not necessarily provide a means through which individuals could avoid punishment altogether. Instead, in most European countries sanctuary typically provided individuals with a temporary reprieve while an alternative sanction was being identified and implemented. Frequently, these alternative sanctions stood in sharp contrast to the harsh physical punishments that otherwise would have awaited the individual seeking sanctuary. This may account for why the practice of sanctuary has alternately been viewed as a means of providing mercy and a means of carrying out punishment. In some instances, sanctuary would provide the accused individual with an opportunity to go into exile in a distant land, far away from where the original offense was alleged to have occurred. In other instances, the accused would be provided with protection from punishment until religious officials could reach a consensus regarding an appropriate alternative sanction. In still other circumstances, the accused individual might be required to make an admission of guilt in exchange for an agreement among secular authorities to implement an alternative form of punishment from that originally proposed.

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