Elizabeth Allen, Uncertain Refuge: Sanctuary in the Literature of Medieval England. The Middle Ages Series. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021, ix, 311 pp., 10 b/w ill.

The topic of the sanctuary pursued by Elizabeth Allen invites critical examinations of the relationship between the secular and the spiritual authorities in the Middle Ages and beyond. The desperate desire of a condemned fellow about to be executed or of a group of people facing nearly certain death to find sanctuary in a church, at a cross, a saint’s grave, or simply at the feet of a bishop was a source of much debate. If sanctuary was granted, then divine laws overruled worldly laws, and it pitted the representatives of the Church against the king, the royal court, or the legal courts. But a king could also demonstrate his strong character and virtues by granting sanctuary, which then would have been an act of surprising mercy. The sanctuary constituted a sacred space, either within an architectural frame or next to a religious person.