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A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built in England or Wales during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. Following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I to the throne in 1558, there were several Catholic plots designed to remove her;[1] and severe measures, including torture and execution, were taken against Catholic priests. From the mid-1570s, hides were built into houses to conceal priests from priest hunters. Most of the hides that survive today are in country manor houses, but there is much documentary evidence, for example in the Autobiography and Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot of John Gerard, of hides in towns and cities, especially in London.[2][3]
The two most best-known hide builders are Jesuit lay brother Nicholas Owen who worked in the South and the Midlands,[3]: 182 and Jesuit priest Richard Holtby,[4] who worked in the North. After the Gunpowder Plot, Owen was captured, 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. Holtby was never arrested and died peacefully in 1640.[5]
^"Elizabeth I (r.1558-1603)". The home of the Royal Family. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
^Cite error: The named reference GerardAutob was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abCite error: The named reference GerardNarra was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Morris, John (1877). The Troubles of Our Catholic Forefathers, Third Series. London: Burns and Oates. p. 103. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
^Gillow, Joseph. "Holtby, Richard, Father S.J.", A Literary and Biographical History, Or Bibliographical Dictionary, of the English Catholics: Grah-Kemb, Burns & Oates, 1885, p. 368
A priesthole is a hiding place for a priest built in England or Wales during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. Following the accession...
suggested[according to whom?] that this rhyme refers to priestholes—hiding places for itinerant Catholic priests during the persecutions under King Henry VIII...
itself served as a secret place for the shelter of Catholic priests, with at least one priest-hole. This secret purpose of the house was to play a key part...
both the Babington and the Gunpowder plots, where it hid four people in priestholes. It was Humphrey Littleton who told the authorities that Edward Oldcorne...
wing in the west. It was Grade I listed in January 1952. There is a priesthole. Several outbuildings, walls, and garden features at Pitchford are also...
rooms were created in British castles to hide Catholic priests; these were referred to as priestholes. During the prohibition era, there were several examples...
it during the Sack of Rome, in 1527. Catholic priests, in Britain, used hidden rooms called priestholes to escape Protestant persecution, starting from...
Crypto-papism Dissenter English Dissenters Dowry of Mary Nonconformism Papist Priesthole Roman Catholic (term) Catholic Church in Ireland Recusancy in Ireland...
Catholic priests, who were under threat of a death sentence if discovered, and made special arrangements to hide and protect them. Several priestholes were...
undertaken by the architect Anthony Salvin. The castle has a well-preserved priesthole. Francis Galton is said to have invented the concept of correlation at...
Lennox. Nevertheless, Henry (1568–1610) concealed priests at Drayton, with the house retaining one priesthole, and was heavily suspected of involvement in...
opposite side of the street to the shrine, at number 35, which has a priesthole fireplace. These are also listed. 37–38 Shambles are late-15th century;...
hiding for so long, Garnet, accompanied by Oldcorne, emerged from his priesthole the next day. By coincidence, on the same day that Garnet was found,...
with more men and heavy weapons, so Bond sends M and Kincade through a priesthole to hide in a nearby chapel, and rigs propane tanks to explode. As the...
Flemish bond; the two upper levels are rendered. The building contains a priest-hole fireplace. On the ground floor is a shrine to St Margaret Clitherow,...
Southam (6 miles to the southeast). It has a 16th-century pub with a priesthole. The local school is the Radford Semele Church of England School. This...
in his clothes to confuse his enemies. He then hid himself in the old priesthole at Birlstone. The main narrative pauses to explain Douglas' past in America...
locked room would be just another bullet hole in the wall like those created by past duels, and there is a priesthole to hide the person just seen entering...
Norrises were Roman Catholics so the house incorporated a priesthole and a special observation hole built into a chimney in a bedroom to allow the occupant...
with an armed company and searched the house until they discovered the priesthole where Campion and two associates were hiding. They used a number of informants...
allegedly concealed inside a priesthole, but from whence O'Hurley covertly travelled to and from Cavan to visit with some fellow priests whom he had known while...
the location of the priesthole. Margaret was arrested and called before the York assizes for the crime of harbouring Catholic priests. She refused to plead...
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