Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T17:11:40.381Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The North Portal of Durham Cathedral and the Problem of ‘Sanctuary’ in Medieval Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

J Philip McAleer
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A small room (which has since been destroyed) located over the north portal of Durham Cathedral has been explained as a watching-room for fugitives fleeing to seek sanctuary at the cathedral that housed the shrine of one of England's pre-eminent saints, Cuthbert. The source behind this identification is an account of the customs of Durham written only c 1593. There is no earlier documentary evidence indicating a function for this room. An examination of the customs and traditions of sanctuary, some aspects of which were unique to England in the Middle Ages, suggests that there was no need for such a supposed watching-room. A search for parallels, especially among cathedral and abbey churches from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries, produces no conclusive evidence for the function of similar but larger rooms located over strongly projecting porches sheltering lateral entrances to naves. Although a function as a watching-room may be doubted more than firmly disproved, it can nonetheless be suggested that the room was more likely constructed for a liturgical purpose such as some aspect of the ritual surrounding the arrival of the bishop and his entrance into his church.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 81 , September 2001 , pp. 195 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon 1712. Britannia Illustrata, IIIGoogle Scholar
Anon 1713. Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne: ou description exacte des villes, eglises, cathedrales, hôpitaux, ports de Mer &c de la Grande Bretagne, II, LondonGoogle Scholar
Anon 1724. Nouveau Theatre de la Grande Bretagne …, 4 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Anon 1924. ‘Proceedings at the Annual Summer Meeting at Cheltenham, July, 1924: Bishop's Cleeve’, Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc, 46, 18–69Google Scholar
Archaeol, J 1908. ‘Proceedings at meetings of the Institute: Annual meeting at Durham’, Archaeol J, 65, 309–34Google Scholar
Arnold, T (ed) 1882–1885. Symeonis monachi Opera omnia, 2 vols, Rolls Series, 75, LondonGoogle Scholar
Attenborough, F L (ed and trans) 1922. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Austin, R W I (ed and trans) 1985. A Pre-Reformation Guide: The Rites of Durham, DurhamGoogle Scholar
Barlow, F (ed) 1940. Durham Annals and Documents of the Thirteenth Century, Surtees Soc, 155, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bellamy, J 1973. Crime and Public Order in England in the Later Middle Ages, Studies in Social History, London and TorontoGoogle Scholar
Benedikz, P M 1968. Durham Topographical Prints up to 1800: An Annotated Bibliography, DurhamGoogle Scholar
Bethell, W W 1888–1889. ‘Hawkesbury Church’, Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol Soc, 13, 10–15Google Scholar
Billings, R W 1843. Architectural Illustrations and Description of the Cathedral Church at Durham, LondonGoogle Scholar
Blashill, T 1876. ‘Tewkesbury Abbey Church’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 32, 44–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blum, P Z 1986. ‘Liturgical influences on the design of the west front at Wells and Salisbury’, Gesta, 25, 145–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boswell, H nd [1786] Complete Historical Descriptions of a New and Elegant Collection of Picturesque Views and Representations of the Antiquities of England and Wales, LondonGoogle Scholar
Bowles, J 1723. Prospects of all the Cathedral and Collegiate Churches of England and Wales neatly Engraved, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brakspear, H 1913. ‘Malmesbury Abbey’, Archaeologia, 44, 399–436CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cambridge, E 1988. Lindisfarne Priory and Holy Island, English Heritage, LondonGoogle Scholar
Caple, C 1999. ‘The Durham Cathedral doors’, Durham Archaeol J, 14–15, 131–40Google Scholar
Carne, P 1993. Excavations at Durham Cathedral North Door, 1991–2, Univ Durham, Archaeol Services, Archive Rep, 98, DurhamGoogle Scholar
Carne, P 1996. ‘Excavations at Durham Cathedral north door 1991–2’, Durham Archaeol J, 12, 89–98Google Scholar
Carter, J 1801a. Plans, Elevations, Sections and Specimens of the Architecture and Ornaments of the Cathedral Church at Durham, LondonGoogle Scholar
Carter, J 1801b. Some Account of the Cathedral Church at Durham Illustrative of the Plans, Elevations, and Sections of that Building, LondonGoogle Scholar
Christy, M 1907–1909. ‘An early medieval latten door knocker from Lindsell, Co Essex’, Proc Soc Antiq, 2nd ser, 22, 380–9Google Scholar
Coke, E 1628–44. Institutes of the Laws of England, 4 pts, LondonGoogle Scholar
Coldstream, N and Draper, P (eds) 1980. Medieval Art and Architecture at Durham Cathedral, Brit Archaeol Ass Conf Trans, 3 (for 1977), [London]Google Scholar
Colgrave, B (ed and trans) 1940. Two Lives of St Cuthbert (A Life by an Anonymous Monk of Lindisfarne and Bede's Prose Life, repr 1985, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Cox, J C 1911a. The Sanctuaries and Sanctuary Seekers of Medieval England, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cox, J C 1911b. ‘The Sanctuaries and Sanctuary Seekers of Yorkshire’, Archaeol J, 68, 273–99Google Scholar
Craster, H H E (ed) 1925. ‘The Red Book of Durham’, Engl Hist Rev, 40, 504–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cruden, S 1986. Scottish Medieval Churches, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Curry, I 1980. ‘Restorations and Repairs to the Fabric of Durham Cathedral 1777 to 1803’, in Coldstream and Draper (eds) 1980, 130–9Google Scholar
Dimock, A 1898. The Cathedral Church of Southwell: A Description of its Fabric and a Brief History of the Episcopal See, Bell's Cathedral Series, LondonGoogle Scholar
Dimock, J F 1875. A Descriptive and Historical Account of Southwell Collegiate Church, SouthwellGoogle Scholar
Dixon, P 1989. ‘Southwell Minster’, in The Nottingham Area: Summer Meeting, 1989 (ed Cooper, N H), Archaeol J, 146, suppl, 21–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodsworth, R and Dugdale, W 1655. Monasticon Anglicanum, I, 3 vols (1655–73), LondonGoogle Scholar
Douglas, D C and Greenway, G W (eds) 1981. English Historical Documents, II, 1042–1189, (gen ed Douglas, D C), 2nd edn, London and New YorkGoogle Scholar
Ferrey, B 1834. The Antiquities of the Priory of Christ-church, Hants, LondonGoogle Scholar
Forster, R H 1905. ‘Notes on Durham and other North-Country sanctuaries’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, new ser, 11, 118–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, J T (ed) 1898a. Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham from the Original MSS, Surtees Soc, 99, Durham, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Fowler, J T (ed) 1898b. Extracts from the Account Rolls of the Abbey of Durham from the Original MSS, Surtees Soc, 100, Durham, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Fowler, J T (ed) 1902. Rites of Durham being a Description or Brief Declaration of all the Ancient Monuments, Rites, ‘The Transitional Sculpture of Jedburgh Abbey’, in Romanesque and Gothic: Essays for George Zarnecki (ed N, Stratford), 2 vols, Woodbridge (Suffolk) and Wolfeboro (N H), 69–81Google Scholar
Geddes, J 1982. ‘The sanctuary ring of Durham Cathedral’, Archaeologia, 107, 125–9Google Scholar
Gee, H 1928. ‘General History of the City’, in VCH 1928, 1–52Google Scholar
Godfrey, W H and Bloe, J W 1935. ‘[The City of Chichester] Cathedral: Historical Survey’, in VCH 1935, 105–46Google Scholar
Gough, R 1780. British Topography or, An Historical Account of what has been done for Illustrating the Topographical Antiquities of Great Britain and Ireland, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Greenwell, W 1881. Durham Cathedral: An Address Delivered September 24, 1879, [Durham]Google Scholar
Greenwell, W 1896–1905. ‘Drawings of parts of the Cathedral, Durham, made at the end of the eighteenth century’, Trans Architectural Archaeol Soc Durham Northumberland, 5, 29–36Google Scholar
Greenwell, W 1913. Durham Cathedral, 7th edn, DurhamGoogle Scholar
Hall, D 1989. ‘The sanctuary of St Cuthbert’, in St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to AD 1200 (eds G, Bonner, D, Rollason and C, Stancliffe), Woodbridge, 425–36Google Scholar
Hall, G D G (ed) 1965. The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England commonly called Glanvill (Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus regni Anglie qui Glanvilla vocatur), LondonGoogle Scholar
Halsey, R 1980. ‘The Galilee Chapel’, in Coldstream and Draper (eds) 1980, 59–73Google Scholar
Hardy, T D (ed) 1873–1878. Registrum palatinum Dunelmense, the register of Richard de Kellawe lord palatine and bishop of Durham 1311–1316, 4 vols, Rolls Series, 62, LondonGoogle Scholar
Harris, J (and Coles, B) nd. View's of all the Cathedrall Church's of England and Wales &c neatly Engrav'd/Vue's de toutes les Englises Cathedralles d'Angleterre et de Galle &c proprement gravée, LondonGoogle Scholar
Harrison, S A 1994. ‘Observations on the architecture of the Galilee Chapel’, in Rollason et al (eds) 1994, 213–34Google Scholar
Hiatt, C 1898. Beverley Minster: An Illustrated Account of Its History and Fabric, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hinde, H ed 1867. Symeonis Dunelmensis Opera et Collectanea, Surtees Soc, 51, Durham, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Hodges, C C 1893. ‘The architectural history of Selby Abbey’, Yorkshire Archaeol J, 12, 344–94Google Scholar
Hunnisett, R F 1961. The Medieval Coroner, Cambridge Studies in English Legal History, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Hutchinson, W 1787. The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham, II, 3 vols (1785–94), NewcastleGoogle Scholar
J[ohn] D[avies] of Kidwelly 1672. The Ancient Rites, and Monuments of the Monastical, & Cathedral Church of Durham, Collected out of Ancient Manuscripts, about the Time of the Suppression, LondonGoogle Scholar
Johnson, M 1973–1976. ‘The Great North Gate of Durham Castle’, Trans Archaeol Architect Soc Durham Newcastle, new ser, 4, 105–18Google Scholar
Johnson, M 1980. The walls and towers of Durham, Durham City Council brochure, DurhamGoogle Scholar
Jones, W T 1918–1922. ‘The walls and towers of Durham’, Durham Univ J, 22/7–11, 241–6, 273–8, 314–17, 357–61; 389–92Google Scholar
Jones, W T 1928. ‘Fortifications’, in VCH 1928, 91–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, W T and Fowler, J T 1915–1916. ‘Bishop Flambard's Great Wall at Durham, c. A.D. 1120’, Proc Soc Antiq, new ser, 28, 221–6Google Scholar
King, D 1656. The Cathedrall and Conventuall Churches of England and Wales Orthographically Deliniated, [London]Google Scholar
Lapsley, G T 1900. The County Palatine of Durham. A Study in Constitutional History, Harvard Hist Stud, 8, London and New YorkGoogle Scholar
Leach, A F 1891. Visitations and Memorials of Southwell Minster, Camden Soc, new ser, 48, [London]Google Scholar
Le Neve, J 1971. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300, II, Monastic Cathedrals Northern and Southern Provinces (comp D E Greenway), LondonGoogle Scholar
Livett, G M 1881. Southwell Minster. An Account of the Collegiate and Cathedral Church of Southwell, SouthwellGoogle Scholar
Lysons, D and S 1810. Magna Britania: being a concise Topographical Account of the Several Counties of Great Britain, II, pt 2, The Country Palatine of Chester, LondonGoogle Scholar
Mack, D R J 1929–1933. ‘The Church of St Mary the Virgin’, Somerset Archaeol Natur Hist Soc: Proc Bath District Branch, 6, 426–7Google Scholar
Massé, H J L J 1900. The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury, with Some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, LondonGoogle Scholar
de'Mazzinghi, T J 1887. Sanctuaries, StaffordGoogle Scholar
McAleer, J P 1986. ‘The upper nave elevation and high vaults of Lindisfarne Priory’, Durham Archaeol J, 2, 43–53Google Scholar
McAleer, J P 1987. ‘A note about the reconstruction of the west portal-porch of Lindisfarne Priory’, Durham Archaeol J, 3, 9–13Google Scholar
McAleer, J P 1988. ‘Particularly English? Screenfaçades of the type of Salisbury and Wells’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 141, 124–58Google Scholar
McAleer, J P 1989. ‘The west front of Lichfield Cathedral: A hidden liturgical function?’, Friends of Lichfield Cathedral: Fifty-second Annual Report 1989, 26–9Google Scholar
McAleer, J P 1994a. ‘The west front of Arbroath Abbey: its place in the evolution of the twintower façade’, in Medieval Art and Architecture in the Diocese of St Andrews (ed J, Higgitt), Brit Archaeol Ass Conf Trans, 14 (for 1986), 70–85, [London]Google Scholar
McAleer, J P 1994b, ‘The west front of Durham Cathedral: the beginning of a British tradition’, in Rollason, et al 1994, 185–212Google Scholar
McAleer, J P forthcoming. ‘The rooms over the porches of Bishop's Cleeve and Bredon parish churches: a question of dating’, Trans Bristol Gloucestershire Archaeol SocGoogle Scholar
Moody, C H 1908. Selby Abbey: A Resumé, AD 1069-AD 1908, LondonGoogle Scholar
Nichols, F M ed 1865. Britton: The French text carefully revised with an English Translation, Introduction and Notes, 2 vols, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Oman, C 1979. ‘Security in English churches, A.D. 1000–1548’, Archaeol J, 136, 90–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paul, R W 1895. [Plan of Malmesbury Abbey] The Builder, 68, no 2717 (2 March), after 174Google Scholar
Pegge, S 1787. ‘A sketch of the history of the asylum, or sanctuary, from its origin to the final abolition of it in the reign of James I’, Archaeologia, 8, 1–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1951. The Buildings of England: Cornwall, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1953. The Buildings of England: County Durham, LondonGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1961. The Buildings of England: Suffolk, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1963. The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1972. The Buildings of England: Dorset, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1974. The Buildings of England: Suffolk, 2nd edn [rev E, Radcliffe], HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1975. The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 2nd edn (rev B, Cherry), HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1979. The Buildings of England: Nottinghamshire, 2nd edn (rev E, Williamson), HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N 1983. The Buildings of England: County Durham, 2nd edn (rev E, Williamson), HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N and Lloyd, D 1967. The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N and Metcalf, P 1985. The Cathedrals of England: Southern England, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Pevsner, N and Richmond, I A 1957. The Buildings of England: Northumberland, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Raine, J 1833. A Brief Account of Durham Cathedral with Notices of the Castle, University, City Churches, etc., NewcastleGoogle Scholar
Raine, J (ed) 1835. Reginaldi monachi Dunelmensis libellus de admirandis beati Cuthberti virtutibus quae novellis patratae sunt temporibus, Surtees Soc, 1, LondonGoogle Scholar
Raine, J (ed) 1837. Sanctuarium Dunelmense et Sanctuarium Beverlacense, Surtees Soc, 5, LondonGoogle Scholar
Raine, J (ed) 1839. Historia Dunelmensis scriptores tres: Gaufridus de Coldingham, Robertus de Graystanes, et Willielmus de Chambre, Surtees Soc, 9, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Raine, J (ed) 1842. Rites of Durham being a Description or Brief Declaration of all the Ancient Monuments, Rites, & Customs, belonging or being within the Monastical Church of Durham before the suppression written 1593, Surtees Soc, 15, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Raine, J (ed) 1864. The Priory of Hexham, I, Surtees Soc, 44, Durham, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Raine, J (ed) 1880. Dialogi Laurentii Dunelmensis monachi ac Prioris, Surtees Soc, 70, Durham, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
RCAHMS 1956. An Inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Roxburghshire, I, Roy Comm Ancient Hist Monuments Scotland, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
RCHME 1931. Herefordshire, I. South-West, Roy Comm Hist Monuments Engl Inventories, LondonGoogle Scholar
Reville, A 1892. ‘“L'Abjuratio Regni”, histoire d'une institution anglaise’, Revue historique, 50, 1–42Google Scholar
Richardson, H G and Sayles, G O (eds) 1955. Fleta[m dissertatio historica], II, Publ Selden Soc, 72, LondonGoogle Scholar
Robertson, A J (ed and trans), 1925. The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Rollason, D, Harvey, M and Prestwich, M (eds) 1994, Anglo-Norman Durham, 1093–1193, Woodbridge (Suffolk) and Rochester (N Y)Google Scholar
Rotuli 1783. Rotuli Parliamentorum ut et petitiones et placita in Parliamento: [Edw I-Hen VII], 6 vols, [London?]Google Scholar
Selden, J (ed) 1685. Fleta, seu commentarius juris Anglicani sic nuncupatus sub Edwardo rege primo … subjungitur etiam, LondonGoogle Scholar
Serjeantson, R M 1913. ‘Sanctuary Seekers in Northamptonshire’, Ass Architectural Soc Rep Pap, 32, 179–228 and 423–84Google Scholar
Smith, L T (ed) 1907–1910. The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the Years 1535–1543, 5 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Snape, M G 1980. ‘Documentary evidence for the building of Durham Cathedral and its monastic buildings’, in Coldstream, and Draper, (eds) 1980, 20–36Google Scholar
Solloway, J 1925. Selby Abbey Past and Present, LeedsGoogle Scholar
Statutes 1817. The Statutes of the Realm, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
Statutes 1819. The Statutes of the Realm, IV, pt ii, LondonGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, J (ed) 1848. Libellus de vita et miraculis S. Godrici, heremitae de Finchale, autore Reginaldo monacho Dunelmensi, Surtees Soc, 20, London and EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Stubbs, W 1913. Select Charters and other Illustrations of English Constitutional History from the Earliest Times to the Reign of Edward the First, 9th edn (rev Davis, H W C), OxfordGoogle Scholar
Summers, N 1988. A Prospect of Southwell, rev edn, SouthwellGoogle Scholar
Tatton-Brown, T1994. ‘The Medieval Fabric’, in Chichester Cathedral: An Historical Survey (ed M, Hobbs), Chichester, 25–46Google Scholar
Thompson, A H 1911. ‘[Autumn excursion. Visit to Southwell:] The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Southwell’, Trans Thoroton Soc, 15, 15–62Google Scholar
Thornley, I D 1919. ‘The sanctuary register of Beverley’, Engl Hist Rev, 34, 393–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornley, I D 1924. ‘The Destruction of Sanctuary’, in Tudor Studies Presented by the Board of Studies in History in the University of London to Albert Frederick Pollard (ed Seton-Watson, R W), 182–207, LondonGoogle Scholar
Thorpe, B 1840. Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, Rec Comm, 28, LondonGoogle Scholar
Tracey, C 1992. ‘The St Albans Abbey watching chamber: a re-assessment’, J Brit Archaeol Ass, 145, 104–11CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trenholme, N M 1901/1903. ‘The right of sanctuary in England’, in The University of Missouri Studies, 1 (ed F, Thilly), Columbia, (No 5) 298–397 (also published separately with additional continuous pagination as I, No 5, Columbia [1903], 102 pages)Google Scholar
Tudor, V 1994. ‘The cult of St Cuthbert in the twelfth century: The evidence of Reginald of Durham’, in Rollason, et al (eds) 1994, 447–67Google Scholar
VCH 1912. The Victoria History of the County of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, V, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1913. The Victoria History of the County of Worcester, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1928. The Victoria History of the County of Durham, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1935. The Victoria History of the County of Sussex, III, LondonGoogle Scholar
VCH 1989. The Victoria History of the County of York: East Riding, VI, The Borough and Liberties of Beverley, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Verey, D 1970a. The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire. The Cotswolds, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Verey, D 1970b. The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean, HarmondsworthGoogle Scholar
Whitley, H M 1920. ‘Sanctuary in Sussex’, Sussex Archaeol Collect, 61, 80–91Google Scholar
Whittaker, W J (ed) 1893. The Mirror of Justices, Publ Seldon Soc, 7, LondonGoogle Scholar
Willis, B 1727. A Survey of the Cathedrals of York, Durham, Carlisle, Chester, Man, etc., LondonGoogle Scholar
Willis, R 1861. The Architectural History of Chichester Cathedral, ChichesterGoogle Scholar
Woodbine, G E (ed) 1932. De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Regni Angliae, Yale Hist Publ, Manuscripts and Edited Texts, 13, New HavenGoogle Scholar
Woodbine, G E (ed) 1968. Bracton: On the Laws and Customs of England/De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae (trans and rev S E Thorne), 11, 2 vols, Cambridge (Mass)Google Scholar
Zarnecki, G 1953. Later English Romanesque Sculpture, 1140–1210, LondonGoogle Scholar
Zarnecki, G, Holt, J and Holland, T (eds) 1984. English Romanesque Art 1066–1200, LondonGoogle Scholar