In Scotland the most famous sanctuaries were those attaching to the Church of Wedale, now Stow, near Galashiels, and that of Lesmahagow, Lanark. All religious sanctuaries were abolished in the northern kingdom at the Reformation. But the debtor found sanctuary from "diligence" in Holyrood House and its precincts until late in the 17th century. This sanctuary did not protect criminals, or even all debtors, e.g., not crown debtors or fraudu lent bankrupts ; and it was possible to execute a meditatio fugae warrant within the sanctuary. The abolition of imprisonment for debt in 1881 practically abolished this privilege of sanctuary.
A presumptive right of sanctuary attached to the royal palaces, and arrests could not be made there. In Anglo-Saxon times the king's peace extended to the palace and 3,00o paces around it : it extended to the king himself beyond the precincts. At the present day members of parliament cannot be served with writs or arrested within the precincts of the houses of parliament, which extend to the railings of Palace yard. During the Irish agitation of the 'eighties Parnell and others of the Irish members avoided arrest for some little while by living in the house and never passing out side the gates of the yard. The houses of ambassadors were in the
past quasi-sanctuaries. This was a natural corollary of their diplo matic immunities (see DIPLOMACY).
In Europe, generally, the right of sanctuary survived under restrictions down to the end of the 18th century. In Germany the more serious crimes of violence were always excepted. High waymen, robbers, traitors and habitual criminals could not claim church protection. In 1418 sanctuary was further regulated by a bull of Martin V. and in 1504 by another of Julius II. In a modi fied form the German Asylrecht lasted to modern times, not being finally abolished till about 1780. In France le droit d'asile existed throughout the middle ages, but was much limited by an edict of Francis I. in 1539. It was entirely abolished at the Revolution.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Samuel Pegge, "Sketch of History of Asylum or Sanctuary," Soc. of Antiq. of London, Archaeologia viii. 1-44 (1787) ; Henri Wallon, Droit d'asile (1837) ; Aug. von Bulmerincq, Das Asylrecht (Dorpat, 1853) ; A. P. Stanley, Memorials of Westminster Abbey (1882) ; Bissel, The Law of Asylum in Israel (1884) ; J. C. Cox, The Sanctuaries and Sanctuary Seekers of Medieval England (191I) ; J. Groll, Die Elemente des Kirchlichen Freiungsrechtes (1910.