For instance, at Beverley, the story goes that Athelstan,
on his return from a victorious campaign against King Constantine,
conferred the privilege on the church of St. John and a portion of the
surrounding country. The bounds were indicated by crosses. The base and
part of the shaft of one of them is, or was lately, to be seen in a
hedge on the road to Skidby. Others were erected at Molescroft, on the
road towards Cherry or North Burton, and near Killingwoldgrove, on the
Bishop's Burton road. At Durham, however, if we follow Mr. Forster--and
he makes out an excellent case--the precinct included the whole of the
County Palatine, and the term of protection, instead of being confined
to the ordinary period of forty days, was perpetual. At York, Beverley,
and Hexham there was what may be termed an outermost precinct and
various inner precincts, the relative sanctity of which is shown by the
scale of punishments inflicted for violation. In Prior Richard's history
of Hexham it is stated that there were at that place four crosses, each
of them erected at a distance of one mile from the church, and in a
different direction. Anyone who arrested a fugitive within these limits
was fined two _hundreth_, or sixteen pounds. For an arrest "infra
villam" the penalty was twofold. If the person were seized "infra muros
atrii ecclesiae," it was threefold; and if within the church itself,
sixfold, to which was added penance "sicut de sacrilegiis.
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