Sanctuary, St Martin’s Le Grand and the City
- London On The Ground
- Jun 13
- 5 min read
A small part of the City of London once gave immunity to criminals, entirely outside the control of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen.
In medieval times churches could provide 40 days of sanctuary, while monastic precincts came to offer wrong-doers unlimited shelter from the law. St Martin’s Le Grand, just inside the walls of the City of London near Aldersgate, was a notorious sanctuary.
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The principle of allowing criminals to claim sanctuary in churches originated in Saxon times, or possibly earlier. The concept protected the poor and the weak against arbitrary punishment, but also allowed enclaves of outright lawlessness, havens for felons of all kinds.
Those accused of crimes (or who knew they had committed one) could receive sanctuary in a church, provided that they confessed their sins, surrendered their weapons and agreed to behave themselves (even helping out with chores in the church).
Sanctuary lasted for a period of 40 days, during which time guards would stand watch outside the church to prevent escape. The watch was required to provide food and water and to allow the sanctuary seeker outside to respond to the call of nature.
At the end of the 40 days suspects could, if they chose, attempt to escape. However, this was risky as they could be beheaded on sight if recognised and captured.
Another option would be to surrender to the authorities and face trial, but this would very likely lead to a death sentence if found guilty. Moreover, if the accused did not confess to their crimes, they would forfeit their property and possessions if found guilty.
The only other alternative at the end of the period of sanctuary was to “abjure the realm”. This meant confessing their guilt and swearing to leave the kingdom, never to return without the king’s permission.
After taking an oath and confessing at the door of the church, the accused would then be required to change into a simple white robe with a red cross and to walk bareheaded and barefooted, while carrying a cross, to an assigned port.
In theory, members of the public were required to allow the abjurer to pass unmolested. Yet there were huge risks.
The walker would be escorted by a series of guards on the way. However, if the constables decided to leave the fugitive unguarded, attack by criminal gangs was a real danger.
If caught straying from the king’s highway or lingering at the port, the suspect could be executed. Mobs of vigilantes, especially friends and family of the victim of the crime, might follow the suspect in anticipation of their leaving the main road and use this as a pretext to execute them.
On reaching the port, the abjurer had to walk daily into the sea up to their knees or neck and cry out three times “Passage! For the love of God and King!” until they found a ship prepared to take them.
If they did manage to reach a foreign land safely, we can only imagine how daunting it would have been to try to start a new life with no money, friends, family, job or knowledge of the language. The only hope, a very remote one, would be that a royal pardon might at some point allow a return to England.
With the odds of survival slim, many fugitives tried to slip away from the main road, even with all the consequent risks, to seek a fresh start elsewhere in England.
By the late 14th century, at the instigation of Westminster Abbey, religious houses (abbeys, monasteries, etc) started to offer sanctuary without the time limit of 40 days, or indeed any time limit.
In the City of London, the most extensive and effective sanctuary was St Martin's le Grand, a short walk north of St Paul’s Cathedral. In addition to being a sanctuary, it was also a liberty outside the City's jurisdiction.
As a church licensed by royal charter, rights of sanctuary applied to the entire precinct around the church, which stood at the centre of a college for secular canons founded in the 1050s during the reign of Edward the Confessor. St Martin’s was providing sanctuary with no time limit by around 1400.
St Martin’s was closed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1540s, but some rights of sanctuary continued there until as late as 1697. Moreover, St Martin’s was taken over by Westminster Abbey in 1503, after which this enclave within the City of London was regarded as part of Westminster. The City of London Corporation, the local authority headed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, was then even more powerless in St Martin’s Le Grand.
Prisoners being taken through the City from Newgate gaol to Guildhall for trial or to Tower Hill for execution would pass very close to the precinct and some managed to escaped into it. Thieves commonly brought stolen goods to the area, where they could live on the proceeds.
Makers and traders of sub-standard or counterfeit goods of all kinds, in particular precious metals, cloth and beer, could conduct business in the enclave without being controlled by the City of London’s livery companies (trade guilds).
There were even instances of men stalking an enemy to near one of the entrances to St Martin’s Le Grand, murdering him and then slipping safely into the precinct to avoid prosecution.
The City of London authorities at Guildhall, minutes away by foot, were irritated by this untouchable area. It lay within their City, but it was beyond their jurisdiction.
In 1430 a prisoner of Newgate escaped to St Martin’s, with the help of a group of friends. The City of London’s sheriffs, aldermen, Chamberlain and a willing crowd entered the precinct and dragged the prisoner and his friends back to Newgate, violating their rights to sanctuary.
Directed by the king, the courts freed them all and returned the prisoner to St Martin’s. This, and other cases, helped to reinforce its rights of sanctuary, which were well established by the late 15th/early 16th century.
Royal intervention was an important factor. This recast the principle of sanctuary, originally based on the rights of religious houses to their own jurisdiction, as an expression of the king’s mercy and of his superior authority to that of the City.
The church of St Martin’s Le Grand was demolished in, or soon after, 1548. The General Post Office had its national headquarters on the site of the monastic precinct from 1829 until 1984. Residents of the area continued to vote as residents of Westminster until 1832.
Today the only trace of the collegiate church of St Martin’s Le Grand is the name of the street that runs through the area that once formed its precinct.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks and tours, please click here.
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