Posted by Sara M. Butler, 26 November 2021.
A felon’s right to claim sanctuary upon sacred ground for a period of forty days is hardly a new subject for this blog (see previous blogs by McSheffrey, Butler, Kesselring, and McSheffrey). Nor is the tension that sometimes existed between sheriffs keen to catch a criminal and the church’s dogged persistence that sanctuary must be respected. When violations of sanctuary by royal officials did occur, we usually hear about the consequences from the secular side of things. The close rolls offer up numerous instances of felons restored to sanctuary at the request of the king, presumably after complaints issued from the church in question. For example, royal correspondence to the sheriffs of London in September of 1337 ordered them to restore Andrew of Sutton immediately to the church of All Hallows, Haywharf in London…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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