Excerpt from The Right of Sanctuary in England: A Study in Institutional History Owing to the early Christianizing of Britain it is not at all improbable that the right of church asylum existed in England long before the coming of the Saxons and their sub sequent conversion. By some of the mediaeval chroniclers the practice of allowing churches to shelter and protect fugitives is ascribed to a mythical British king, Lucius, who is sup posed to have ruled Britain in the second 'c-entury. But this early period of British history is so obscure, so mythical, and so legendary, that no sure footing for the historian can be found in it, and though the practice of taking sanctuary in churches may have existed amongst the early British Chris tians, and in all probability did exist, we have no definite or trustworthy record of the fact. Indeed, it is not until the be ginning of the seventh century that we find any mention of the right of churches in England to afford protection to fugi tives within their walls. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.