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{{more footnotes needed|date=March 2013}}
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A '''priest hole''' is a hiding place for a [[priest]] built into many of the principal [[Catholic]] houses of [[England]], [[Wales]] and [[Ireland]] during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] came to the throne in 1558, there were several Catholic plots designed to remove her<ref>{{cite web|title=Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603)|url=https://www.royal.uk/elizabeth-i-r1558-1603|website=The home of the Royal Family|date=14 January 2016|access-date=5 May 2017}}</ref> and severe measures were taken against Catholic priests.
A '''priest hole''' is a hiding place for a [[priest]] built into many of the principal [[Catholic]] houses of [[England]], [[Wales]] and [[Ireland]] during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] came to the throne in 1558, there were several Catholic plots designed to remove her<ref>{{cite web|title=Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603)|url=https://www.royal.uk/elizabeth-i-r1558-1603|website=The home of the Royal Family|date=14 January 2016|access-date=5 May 2017}}</ref> and severe measures were taken against Catholic priests. Many great houses had a priest hole built so that the presence of a priest could be concealed when searches were made of the building. They were concealed in walls, under floors, behind [[wainscoting]] and other locations and were often successful in concealing their occupant.


⚫
Many priest holes were designed by Jesuit lay brother [[Nicholas Owen (Jesuit)|Nicholas Owen]], who spent much of his life building priest holes to protect the lives of persecuted [[priest]]s. After the [[Gunpowder Plot]], Owen himself was captured, taken to the [[Tower of London]] and tortured to death on the [[Rack (torture)|rack]]. He was [[Canonization|canonized]] as a martyr by [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1970.
Many great houses had a priest hole built so that the presence of a priest could be concealed when searches were made of the building. They were concealed in walls, under floors, behind [[wainscoting]] and other locations and were often successful in concealing their occupant.

⚫
The two hide builders of whom we know most are Jesuit lay brother [[Nicholas Owen (Jesuit)|Nicholas Owen]] who worked in the south and the midlands and Jesuit priest [[Richard_Holtby|Richard Holtby]] in the north. After the [[Gunpowder Plot]], Owen himself was captured, taken to the [[Tower of London]] and tortured to death on the [[Rack (torture)|rack]]. He was [[Canonization|canonized]] as a martyr by [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1970. Holtby was never arrested and died peacefully in 1640. <ref>{{cite web |title=Cambridge Alumni Database |url=https://venn.lib.cam.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search-2018.pl?sur=&suro=w&fir=&firo=c&cit=&cito=c&c=all&z=all&tex=HLTY571R&sye=&eye=&col=all&maxcount=50}}</ref>


==Background==
==Background==
The measures put in force shortly after the accession of [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth I]] became much harsher after the [[Rising of the North]] (1569) and the [[Babington Plot]] in particular, the utmost severity of the law being enforced against [[seminary priest]]s. "[[Priest hunter]]s" were tasked to collect information and locate any priests.<ref name=huk>[http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Priests-Holes/ "Priest Holes", Historic UK]</ref> An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] from celebrating the rites of his faith on pain of forfeiture for the first offence, a year's imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment for life for the third. All those who refused to take the [[Oath of Supremacy]] were called "[[Recusancy|recusant]]s" and were guilty of [[high treason]]. A law was also enacted which provided that if any "[[papist]]" should be found converting an [[Anglicanism|Anglican]], or other [[Protestant]], to [[Catholicism]], both would suffer death for high treason. In November 1591, a priest was hanged before the door of a house in [[Gray's Inn]] Fields for having said [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] there the month previously. Laws against seminary priests and "Recusants" were enforced with great severity after the [[Gunpowder Plot]] (1605) episode during [[James I of England|James I]]'s reign. Arrest for a priest meant imprisonment, and often torture and execution.
The measures put in force shortly after the accession of [[Elizabeth I|Queen Elizabeth I]] became much harsher after a series of events including the [[Rising of the North]] (1569), the Papal Bull [[Regnans In Excelsis]] (1570), which excommunicated Elizabeth and released Catholics from the allegiance to her, the return of the first [[seminary priest]]s in the 1570s, the arrival from 1580 of the Jesuits and the [[Throckmorton Plot]] (1583). A series of increasingly draconian measures culminated in the [[Jesuits, etc. Act 1584]], which made it high treason, punishable by hanging drawing and quartering to be, or to shelter, a Catholic priest in England or Wales.

"[[Priest hunter]]s" had already been tasked to collect information and locate any priests, and starting with [[Cuthbert Mayne]] in 1577, executions were becoming routine. Hides had been built prior to this time - the first reference to one is in 1574 at a search of the Vavasours house in York <ref name="hodgetts2024"/>{{rp|120}} and [[Edmund Campion]] was captured in one at [[Lyford Grange]] in 1581, but they seem to have been something of a rarity until well into the 1580s<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hodgetts |first1=Michael |title=Loca Secretoria in 1581 |journal=Recusant History |date=1989 |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=386-395 |doi=10.1017/S0034193200020367 |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034193200020367. |access-date=6 April 2024}}</ref>. But the 1584 act made it too dangerous for a priest to stay in any one place for more than a day or two, as their arrest would make their hosts liable to execution.

Following a Jesuit conference held at Harleyford in 1586, a new strategy was adopted under which priests would be stationed long term in a single country house (previously they had been intinerant), and such houses would be systematically equipped with hides.<ref name="hodgetts2024">{{cite book |last1=Hodgetts |first1=Michael |title=Secret Hiding Places |date=2024 |publisher=Pear Branch |edition=2nd, Paul Hodgetts|location=Dudley|isbn=9781738427000}}</ref>{{rp|6-8}}. Simultaneously, an 'underground railroad' was set up to smuggle priests into the country and move them to holding centres (called 'Receptacles') until a long term posting became available<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hodgetts |first1=Michael |title=The Elizabethan Catholic Underground |journal=Midlands Catholic History |date=2022 |volume=29 |pages=1-17}}</ref>


==Location and use==
==Location and use==
[[Image:Staircase with a Priest Hole In Havrington Hall-Worcestershire-UK-1.jpg|thumb|right|One of the hides at [[Harvington Hall]], accessed by tilting a [[Stairs|step]] on the grand staircase.]]
[[Image:Staircase with a Priest Hole In Havrington Hall-Worcestershire-UK-1.jpg|thumb|right|One of the hides at [[Harvington Hall]], accessed by tilting a [[Stairs|step]] on the grand staircase.]]
England's [[castle]]s and [[English country house|country houses]] commonly had some precaution in the event of a surprise, such as a secret means of concealment or escape that could be used at a moment's notice. However, in the time of legal persecution the number of [[secret passage|secret chambers]] and hiding-places increased in the houses of the old Catholic families. These often took the form of apartments or chapels in secluded parts of the houses, or in the roof space, where [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] could be celebrated with the utmost privacy and safety. Nearby there was usually an artfully contrived hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency, but also to provide a place where the [[vestments]], sacred vessels, and altar furniture could be stored on short notice.<ref name="fea">[[Allan Fea]], [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13918/13918-h/13918-h.htm ''Secret Chambers and Hiding Places: Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc.''] Third and Revised Edition (London: Methuen & Co., 1908) Accessed July 27, 2013.</ref> Priest's holes were built in fireplaces, attics and staircases and were largely constructed between the 1550s and 1605.<ref name=huk/>
An English country house "was more than simply a family home. It combined some of the functions of a museum, a local government office, a farm and a hotel"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tyack |first1=Geoffrey |title=Warwickshire Country Houses in the Age of Classicism, 1650-1800 |date=1980 |publisher=Warwickshire Local History Society |page=31}}</ref>."If it was a recusant house, it was also a church, a presbytery and something of a thieves’ Alsatia."<ref name="hodgetts2020">{{cite journal |last1=Hodgetts |first1=Michael |title=The Layout of Elizabethan Recusant Houses |journal=Midlands Catholic History |date=2020 |volume=27}}</ref>{{rp|1}}. The conflict between the public nature of some of these functions and the need for security, meant that priest holes and recusant chapels are almost always found on the upper floors of houses, well away from majority of the easily-bribed estate workers and affording an extra few minutes to get into a hide when search parties arrived. Houses with thick stone walls offered many options for excavating hides, but in brick or timber-framed houses, hides are usually located in or around chimneystacks or staircases. Recusant chapels are invariably found on the top floor with hides nearby. Hides large enough to hold a person were known as 'conveyances', but there are also many examples of small hidden spaces to accommodate [[vestments]], sacred vessels, and altar furniture, which were known as 'secret corners'. <ref name="hodgetts2020"/>{{rp|1-8}}. The need for the hides to be close at hand was dramatically demonstrated on Maundy Thursday (17th April) 1606 when the Lord Mayor of London led a search of John Gerard's house in London. The searchers found the congregation and the smoke of the extinguished candles, but the priest, [[Thomas Everard (Jesuit)]] made it safely into one of the three hides in the house and was not found.<ref name="GerardAutob">{{cite book |last1=Gerard |first1=John |title=The Autobiography of an Elizabethan |date=2006 |publisher=Family Publications |isbn=1871217636}}</ref>{{rp|207}}

The novelists' favourite entrance - a secret door in the [[panelling]] - is rather rare, but there is one example at [[Ripley Castle]] in [[North Yorkshire]]<ref name="hodgetts2024"/>{{rp|130}}. Most were accessed from a trapdoor <ref name="hodgetts2024"/>{{rp|1}}. Others were incorporated into [[water closet]]s, for example at [[Harvington Hall]] in [[Worcestershire]], which has seven priest holes throughout the house, including access through the main staircase, panelling, and a false fireplace.<ref name="HarvingtonHall">{{cite web |title=The Priest Hides |url=https://www.harvingtonhall.co.uk/gallery/Galleries/Priest-Hides/529 |access-date=3 June 2021 |publisher=Harvington Hall}}</ref>
They were sometimes built as an offshoot from a [[chimney]]. Another favourite entrance was behind [[panelling]]; an example is [[Ripley Castle]] in [[North Yorkshire]]. Others were incorporated into [[water closet]]s, for example at [[Harvington Hall]] in [[Worcestershire]], which has seven priest holes throughout the house, including access through the main staircase, panelling, and a false fireplace.<ref name="HarvingtonHall">{{cite web |title=The Priest Hides |url=https://www.harvingtonhall.co.uk/gallery/Galleries/Priest-Hides/529 |access-date=3 June 2021 |publisher=Harvington Hall}}</ref>


[https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1FLS5IsveCrGdA4UTfuEooItM5HC3hJE&usp=sharing Map of all buildings and sites known or believed to have Priest Holes]
[https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1FLS5IsveCrGdA4UTfuEooItM5HC3hJE&usp=sharing Map of all buildings and sites known or believed to have Priest Holes]
Line 28: Line 22:
Many such hiding places are attributed to a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] lay brother, [[Nicholas Owen (Jesuit)|Nicholas Owen]] (died 1606), who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing these places to protect the lives of persecuted [[priest]]s.
Many such hiding places are attributed to a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] lay brother, [[Nicholas Owen (Jesuit)|Nicholas Owen]] (died 1606), who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing these places to protect the lives of persecuted [[priest]]s.


{{blockquote|With incomparable skill Owen knew how to conduct priests to a place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and bury them in impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand windings. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really were. Moreover, he kept these places so close a secret that he would never disclose to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their architect and their builder. No one knows how many he made. Some may still be undiscovered.<ref name="fea">[[Allan Fea]], [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13918/13918-h/13918-h.htm ''Secret Chambers and Hiding Places: Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc.''] Third and Revised Edition (London: Methuen & Co., 1908) Accessed July 27, 2013.</ref> }}
{{blockquote|With incomparable skill Owen knew how to conduct priests to a place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and bury them in impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand windings. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really were. Moreover, he kept these places so close a secret that he would never disclose to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their architect and their builder. No one knows how many he made. Some may still be undiscovered.<ref name="fea"/>}}
[[File:Boscobel priest-hole 02.JPG|thumb|Priest hole on second floor of [[Boscobel House]], Shropshire]]
[[File:Boscobel priest-hole 02.JPG|thumb|Priest hole on second floor of [[Boscobel House]], Shropshire]]




After the [[Gunpowder Plot]], Owen himself was captured at [[Hindlip Hall]], [[Worcestershire]], taken to the [[Tower of London]] and tortured to death on the [[rack (torture)|rack]]. He was [[canonization|canonised]] as a martyr by [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1970<ref name="hodgetts2024"/>{{rp|185-186}}.
After the [[Gunpowder Plot]], Owen himself was captured at [[Hindlip Hall]], [[Worcestershire]], taken to the [[Tower of London]] and tortured to death on the [[rack (torture)|rack]]. He was [[canonization|canonised]] as a martyr by [[Pope Paul VI]] in 1970.


==Effectiveness==
==Effectiveness==
The effectiveness of priest holes was demonstrated by their success in baffling the exhaustive searches of the "pursuivants" (priest-hunters), described in contemporary accounts of the searches. Search-parties would bring with them skilled [[Carpentry|carpenters]] and [[Stone mason|mason]]s and try every possible expedient, from systematic measurements and soundings to the physical tearing down of panelling and pulling up of floors. Another ploy would be for the searchers to pretend to leave and see if the priest would then emerge from hiding.<ref name="GerardNarra">{{cite book |last1=Gerard |first1=John |title=A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot |date=1871 |publisher=Longmans |isbn=9781729755396 }}</ref>{{rp|36-38}} He might be half-starved, cramped, sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to breathe lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot where he was concealed.
The effectiveness of priest holes was demonstrated by their success in baffling the exhaustive searches of the "pursuivants" (priest-hunters), described in contemporary accounts of the searches. Search-parties would bring with them skilled [[Carpentry|carpenters]] and [[Stone mason|mason]]s and try every possible expedient, from systematic measurements and soundings to the physical tearing down of panelling and pulling up of floors. Another ploy would be for the searchers to pretend to leave and see if the priest would then emerge from hiding.<ref name=huk/> He might be half-starved, cramped, sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to breathe lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot where he was concealed.


==See also==
==See also==
Line 48: Line 42:
==External links==
==External links==
{{Commons category|Priest holes}}
{{Commons category|Priest holes}}
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13918/13918-h/13918-h.htm Secret Chambers and Hiding Places], by Allan Fea, an eText at [[Project Gutenberg]].
*[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13918/13918-h/13918-h.htm Secret Chambers and Hiding Places], by Allan Fea, an eText at [[Project Gutenberg]], from which this article is derived.
*Article in ''The [[Blackpool Gazette]]'' (16 October 2006): [http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Priest-hole-found-in-Tudor.1824535.jp 'Priest hole found in Tudor Hall'], featuring a priest hole discovered by the owner of Mains Hall, [[Singleton, Lancashire]]
*Article in ''The [[Blackpool Gazette]]'' (16 October 2006): [http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Priest-hole-found-in-Tudor.1824535.jp 'Priest hole found in Tudor Hall'], featuring a priest hole discovered by the owner of Mains Hall, [[Singleton, Lancashire]]
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry/content/articles/2005/06/27/moseley_old_hall_feature.shtml BBC Black Country feature] (10 December 2005) about a priest hole in [[Moseley Old Hall]], Wolverhampton, that harbored [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1651 as he fled from Cromwell's army
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/blackcountry/content/articles/2005/06/27/moseley_old_hall_feature.shtml BBC Black Country feature] (10 December 2005) about a priest hole in [[Moseley Old Hall]], Wolverhampton, that harbored [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1651 as he fled from Cromwell's army

Revision as of 12:55, 6 April 2024

A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England, Wales and Ireland during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, there were several Catholic plots designed to remove her[1] and severe measures were taken against Catholic priests. Many great houses had a priest hole built so that the presence of a priest could be concealed when searches were made of the building. They were concealed in walls, under floors, behind wainscoting and other locations and were often successful in concealing their occupant.

Many priest holes were designed by Jesuit lay brother Nicholas Owen, who spent much of his life building priest holes to protect the lives of persecuted priests. After the Gunpowder Plot, Owen himself was captured, taken to the Tower of London and tortured to death on the rack. He was canonized as a martyr by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Background

The measures put in force shortly after the accession of Queen Elizabeth I became much harsher after the Rising of the North (1569) and the Babington Plot in particular, the utmost severity of the law being enforced against seminary priests. "Priest hunters" were tasked to collect information and locate any priests.[2] An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the Roman Catholic Church from celebrating the rites of his faith on pain of forfeiture for the first offence, a year's imprisonment for the second, and imprisonment for life for the third. All those who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy were called "recusants" and were guilty of high treason. A law was also enacted which provided that if any "papist" should be found converting an Anglican, or other Protestant, to Catholicism, both would suffer death for high treason. In November 1591, a priest was hanged before the door of a house in Gray's Inn Fields for having said Mass there the month previously. Laws against seminary priests and "Recusants" were enforced with great severity after the Gunpowder Plot (1605) episode during James I's reign. Arrest for a priest meant imprisonment, and often torture and execution.

Location and use

One of the hides at Harvington Hall, accessed by tilting a step on the grand staircase.

England's castles and country houses commonly had some precaution in the event of a surprise, such as a secret means of concealment or escape that could be used at a moment's notice. However, in the time of legal persecution the number of secret chambers and hiding-places increased in the houses of the old Catholic families. These often took the form of apartments or chapels in secluded parts of the houses, or in the roof space, where Mass could be celebrated with the utmost privacy and safety. Nearby there was usually an artfully contrived hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency, but also to provide a place where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture could be stored on short notice.[3] Priest's holes were built in fireplaces, attics and staircases and were largely constructed between the 1550s and 1605.[2]

They were sometimes built as an offshoot from a chimney. Another favourite entrance was behind panelling; an example is Ripley Castle in North Yorkshire. Others were incorporated into water closets, for example at Harvington Hall in Worcestershire, which has seven priest holes throughout the house, including access through the main staircase, panelling, and a false fireplace.[4]

Map of all buildings and sites known or believed to have Priest Holes

Nicholas Owen

Main article: Nicholas Owen (Jesuit)

Many such hiding places are attributed to a Jesuit lay brother, Nicholas Owen (died 1606), who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing these places to protect the lives of persecuted priests.

With incomparable skill Owen knew how to conduct priests to a place of safety along subterranean passages, to hide them between walls and bury them in impenetrable recesses, and to entangle them in labyrinths and a thousand windings. But what was much more difficult of accomplishment, he so disguised the entrances to these as to make them most unlike what they really were. Moreover, he kept these places so close a secret that he would never disclose to another the place of concealment of any Catholic. He alone was both their architect and their builder. No one knows how many he made. Some may still be undiscovered.[3]

Priest hole on second floor of Boscobel House, Shropshire


After the Gunpowder Plot, Owen himself was captured at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, taken to the Tower of London and tortured to death on the rack. He was canonised as a martyr by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

Effectiveness

The effectiveness of priest holes was demonstrated by their success in baffling the exhaustive searches of the "pursuivants" (priest-hunters), described in contemporary accounts of the searches. Search-parties would bring with them skilled carpenters and masons and try every possible expedient, from systematic measurements and soundings to the physical tearing down of panelling and pulling up of floors. Another ploy would be for the searchers to pretend to leave and see if the priest would then emerge from hiding.[2] He might be half-starved, cramped, sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to breathe lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot where he was concealed.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603)". The home of the Royal Family. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Priest Holes", Historic UK
  3. ^ a b Allan Fea, Secret Chambers and Hiding Places: Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc. Third and Revised Edition (London: Methuen & Co., 1908) Accessed July 27, 2013.
  4. ^ "The Priest Hides". Harvington Hall. Retrieved 3 June 2021.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Priest holes.
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