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SANCTUARY (from the late Lat. sanctua...

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 129 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SANCTUARY (from the See also:late See also:Lat. sanctuarium, a sacred See also:place)  , a sacred or consecrated See also:place, particularly one affording See also:refuge, See also:protection or right of See also:asylum; also applied to the See also:privilege itself, the right of safe refuge . In See also:Egyptian, See also:Greek or See also:Roman temples it was applied to the See also:cella in which stood the statue of the See also:god, and the Latin word for See also:altar, ara, was used for protection as well . In Roman See also:Catholic usage See also:sanctuary is sometimes applied to the whole See also:church, as a consecrated See also:building, but is generally limited to the See also:choir . The See also:idea that such places afforded refuge to criminals or refugees is founded upon the See also:primitive and universal belief in the contagion of holiness . Hence it was See also:sacrilege to remove the See also:man who had gained the See also:holy precincts; he was henceforth invested with a See also:part of the sacredness of the place, and was inviolable so See also:long as he remained there . Some temples had See also:peculiar privileges in this regard . That of See also:Diana at See also:Ephesus extended its inviolability for a perimeter of two stadia, until its right of sanctuary was refused by the See also:Romans . Not all Greek and Roman temples, however, had the right in an equal degree . But where it existed, the See also:action of the Roman See also:civil See also:law was suspended, and in imperial times the statues and pictures of the emperors were a protection against pursuit . See also:Tacitus says that the See also:ancient Germans held See also:woods, even lakes and fountains, sacred; and the Anglo-See also:Saxons seem to have regarded several woods as holy and to have made sanctuaries of them, one of these being at See also:Leek in See also:Staffordshire . The use of See also:Christian churches as sanctuaries was not based upon the See also:Hebrew cities of refuge, as is sometimes stated . It is part of the See also: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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SEIGNEUR DE NICOLAS DE HARLAY SANCY (1546-1629)

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