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SANCTUARY (from the late Lat. sanctua...

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 129 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SANCTUARY (from the
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late
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Lat. sanctuarium, a sacred place)
  , a sacred or consecrated place, particularly one affording
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refuge,
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protection or right of asylum; also applied to the
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privilege itself, the right of safe refuge . In
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Egyptian, Greek or
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Roman temples it was applied to the
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cella in which stood the statue of the
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god, and the Latin word for altar, ara, was used for protection as well . In Roman Catholic usage sanctuary is sometimes applied to the whole church, as a consecrated
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building, but is generally limited to the choir . The idea that such places afforded refuge to criminals or refugees is founded upon the
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primitive and universal belief in the contagion of holiness . Hence it was
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sacrilege to remove the man who had gained the
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holy precincts; he was henceforth invested with a
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part of the sacredness of the place, and was inviolable so long as he remained there . Some temples had
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peculiar privileges in this regard . That of
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Diana at Ephesus extended its inviolability for a perimeter of two stadia, until its right of sanctuary was refused by the Romans . Not all Greek and Roman temples, however, had the right in an equal degree . But where it existed, the
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action of the Roman
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civil law was suspended, and in imperial times the statues and pictures of the emperors were a protection against pursuit . Tacitus says that the ancient Germans held woods, even lakes and fountains, sacred; and the Anglo-
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Saxons seem to have regarded several woods as holy and to have made sanctuaries of them, one of these being at
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Leek in
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Staffordshire . The use of Christian churches as sanctuaries was not based upon the
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Hebrew cities of refuge, as is sometimes stated . It is part of the general religious fact of the inviolability attaching to things sacred .

End of Article: SANCTUARY (from the late Lat. sanctuarium, a sacred place)
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FRANCESCO DE SANCTIS (1817-1883)
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