Seeking Sanctuary: Crime, Mercy, and Politics in English Courts, 1400–1550, by Shannon McSheffrey

Abstract

The sanctuary offered to suspected criminals by churches in the Middle Ages has often been cited as evidence for the otherness of the medieval past. It has been seen as antithetical to the universalism of the law, a hindrance to state growth, a sign of ecclesiastical privilege and the enemy of justice. In this study Shannon McSheffrey takes issue with that picture, looking more thoroughly and critically at sanctuary in the later medieval period than any historian has done to date. She draws upon a huge volume of archival records from ecclesiastical, royal and civic courts, and describes the use of sanctuary by a great range of individuals in enormous and fascinating detail. But the driving force of her insightful analysis is her ability to read the sources anew, stripping away the prejudices and assumptions of earlier studies and putting sanctuary into its proper contemporary context. It will be essential reading for historians of crime, law, politics and religion in England between 1350 and 1550.