Historic%20Yorkshire

BEVERLEY SANCTUARY.
woolman,I;purser,i;capper,i;mason,i;haberdasher,
i; salter,I; carrier,i; singing-man,i; woodmonger,
i;cook,i; wooldriver,i; hatmaker,i; bedmaker,i;
barber,i.
The Beverley Sanctuary chair is hewn out of a solid
block of stone, and it has been broken, but repaired with
iron clamps. According to Camden and Leland,it once
bore the followinginscription: — "Hæc sedlapidea Freed
Stool dicitnr, i.e., Pads Cathedra, ad quern reusfugiendo
perveniens omnimodamhabet securitatem." (" This stone
chair is called Freed Stool, i.e., the Chair of Peace, to
which what criminal soever flies hath full protection."
At the present time no trace of an inscription can be
found. The ancient chair forms one of the chief attractions
ofthe interestingMinster of Beverley. It is worthy
of note that only one otherexampleof the sanctuarychair
is to be found in England,and that is at Hexham.
The privilegeof sanctuary was a usage most suited to
the age in which it existed, and its tendency has been
happily expressed by a writer well qualified to form an
opinionupon thesubject. Hesays, " Under a dueadministration
of justice, this privilege would have beensimply
and constantly mischievous, as weproperly considerit to
be in those countries where it still exists. But in the
rapine and tumult of the Middle Ages, the right of sanctuary
might as often be a shield to innocence as an
impunity to crime. We can hardly regret,in reflecting
on the desolating violence which prevailed, that there
should have been some green spots in the wilderness
where the feeble and the persecuted could find refuge.
How must this right have enhanced the veneration for
religious institutions ! How gladly must the victims of
internal warfare have turned their eyes from the baronial
castle, the dread and scourge of the neighbourhood, to
those venerable walls, within whichnot even the clamour
of arms could be heard to disturb the chant of holy men
and the sacred service ofthe altar."
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