The concealed entrance to a priest hole in Partingdale House, Middlesex (in the right column) A priest hole is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the principal Roman Catholic houses of England during the period when Roman Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I. Entrance to a priest hole at Partingdale House, Middlesex, from Project Gutenberg eText 13918 - Secret Chambers and Hiding Places, by Allan Fea http://www. ...
Entrance to a priest hole at Partingdale House, Middlesex, from Project Gutenberg eText 13918 - Secret Chambers and Hiding Places, by Allan Fea http://www. ...
The Middlesex Guildhall at Westminster Middlesex is one of the 39 historic counties of England and was the second smallest (after Rutland). ...
This article is about religious workers. ...
The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ...
For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ...
Elizabeth I (7 September 1533 – 24 March 1603 ) was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. ...
The measures put in force shortly after Elizabeth's accession became much harsher after the rising in the North and numerous other plots, and in particular the utmost severity of the law was enforced against seminary priests. An Act was passed prohibiting a member of the Church of Rome from celebrating the rites of his religion 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 convert a Protestant to the Roman Catholicism, both should suffer death, for high treason. In December, 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 the greatest severity after the Gunpowder Plot episode during James I's reign. This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
The Oath of Supremacy, imposed by the Act of Supremacy 1559, provided for any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. ...
Throughout English history, Recusancy was generally synonymous with nonconformism. ...
{{main|Treason}} High treason, broadly defined, is an action which is grossly disloyal to ones country or sovereign. ...
Year 1591 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Friday of the 10-day slower Julian calendar). ...
Entrance to Grays Inn Grays Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in around the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England to which barristers belong and where they are called to the bar. ...
For other uses, see Mass (disambiguation). ...
A contemporary sketch of the conspirators. ...
James VI and I (19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scots as James VI, and King of England and King of Ireland as James I. He ruled in Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567, when he was only one year old, succeeding his mother Mary...
It was not uncommon for the castles and mansions of England to have 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, under the persecutory laws the number of secret chambers and hiding-places increased in the houses of the old Roman Catholic families. These often took the form of apartments or chapels in secluded parts of the houses or in the roof where Mass could be celebrated with the utmost privacy, and nearby was usually an artfully contrived hiding-place, not only for the officiating priest to slip into in case of emergency, but also where the vestments, sacred vessels, and altar furniture could be put away at a moment's notice. Secret passages are sometimes concealed using large items of furniture, such as this reconstruction of the bookcase that covered the entrance to Anne Franks secret room. ...
Vestments are liturgical garments and articles associated primarily with the Christian religions, especially the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican Churches. ...
Many are attributed to a Jesuit laybrother, Nicholas Owen, who devoted the greater part of his life to constructing these places to protect the lives of persecuted priests. They were sometimes built, as in East Riddlesden Hall, as an offshoot from a chimney or behind panelling, for example in Ripley Castle, Ripley, North Yorkshire. The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ...
Saint Nicholas Owen, often known as Little John (died 2 March 1606), was an English martyr who built several priest holes in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. ...
Roman Catholic priest A priest or priestess is a holy man or woman who takes an officiating role in worship of any religion, with the distinguishing characteristic of offering sacrifices. ...
East Riddlesden Hall is a 17th-century British manor house in Yorkshire, now owned by the National Trust. ...
Look up Chimney in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...
Panelling is a wallcovering constructed from interlocking wooden components. ...
Ripley is a village in North Yorkshire, a few miles north of Harrogate on the A61. ...
- "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."
Sometimes a priest could die in the hole from starvation or not being able to breathe.
How effectually priests' holes baffled the exhaustive searches of the "pursuivants," or priest-hunters, is shown by contemporary accounts of the searches that took place frequently in suspected houses. Search parties would bring with them skilled carpenters and masons and try every possible expedient, from systematic measurements and soundings to bodily tearing down the panelling and pulling up the floors. It was not uncommon for a rigid search to last a fortnight and for the "pursuivants" to go away empty handed, while the object of the search was hidden the whole time within a wall's thickness of his pursuers, half starved, cramped and sore with prolonged confinement, and almost afraid to breathe, lest the least sound should throw suspicion upon the particular spot where he lay immured.
After the episode of the Gunpowder Plot, Nicholas Owen himself was seized at Hindlip Hall, Worcestershire, taken to the Tower of London and tortured to death on the rack. Worcestershire (pronounced ; abbreviated Worcs) is a county located in the West Midlands region of central England. ...
For other uses, see Tower of London (disambiguation) Her Majestys Royal Palace and Fortress The Tower of London, more commonly known as the Tower of London (and historically simply as The Tower), is an historic monument in central London, England on the north bank of the River Thames. ...
A torture rack in the Tower of London The rack is a term for certain physical punishment devices. ...
Current entertainment reference: TV series "Midsomer Murders" (BBC) -- Episode #46 (Epguides --http://www.epguides.com/MidsomerMurders/) In the episode entitled "Vixen's Run," a Priest-Hole is discovered behind a full-length mirror in the search for legendary missing emeralds.
See also
St Pauls Cathedral The United Kingdom is traditionally a Christian state, though of the four constituent countries, only England still has a state faith in the form of an established church. ...
In the most general sense, penal is the body of laws that are enforced by the State in its own name and impose penalties for their violation, as opposed to civil law that seeks to redress private wrongs. ...
After the Reformation the Roman Catholic Church in England went underground to avoid persecution. ...
The Passetto, or Passetto di Borgo, is a secret passage that links the Vatican City with the Castle of Sant Angelo. ...
External link - Secret Chambers and Hiding Places, by Allan Fea, an eText at Project Gutenberg, from the introduction to which this article is derived.
|
Feeds |
Contact