The glove in the church

In the border dales where deadly feuds were common, a man would hang a glove high up in the parish church as a challenge to his enemy, meaning he would fight hand to hand with anyone who dared take it down. When Bernard Gilpin, rector of Houghton, came to preach there and asked about the glove, the sexton would not touch it. Gilpin took it down himself with a long staff and, in his sermon, held it up and preached against the custom of challenges. Hone told the story as a sequel to his account of Gilpin under 4 March.