land. The saint was given by the king or chief
a certain territory, and at once he set to work
thereon to constitute an ecclesiastical tribe subject
to his rule, precisely similar to the secular tribe
subject to the rule of the chieftain. A rill of water
usually divided the two settlements. The idea of
the church and the priest in the midst of the tribe
of the land, acting as chapel and chaplain did to the
Saxon thane or the Norman baron, did not occur
to the Celt. The two tribes coexisted as separate
units, but tied together by reciprocal rights.
The saint having been given a bit of land, at once
constituted his sanctuary. He put up stones or
crosses marking his bounds, a thousand paces from
his cell, in a circle.
Every noble, arglwyd, or flath exercised rights of sanctuary, and the extent of his sanctuary constituted his llan, or lawn. The lowest grade of noble had the limits of his lawn marked at the distance of three throws of a spear or a ploughshare from his door; the rig or king had his as far as sixty-four pitches.
Now all those who took refuge within the lawn had sanctuary for a limited period, and the noble or the saint employed this time of respite to come to terms with the prosecutor, and furnish the fine (eric) appointed by law for the offence committed by the refugee. If he could not pay the fine he surrendered the man who had come for sanctuary, but if he paid it, thenceforth that man became his client, and he provided him with a bod or both, a habitation, and land to cultivate; he became one
