One of the most serious offences you could be tried for was heresy and religious crimes.
In Tudor England these were so serious that many heretics were burned at the stake, and
Mary I gained her nickname Bloody Mary for her burning of Protestants.
To question religion or call for reform was dangerous, but during the reign of Elizabeth
I there were many Catholic plots aimed to kill the Queen and replace her with Mary Queen
of Scots.
Because of this, Catholics were persecuted by laws and were targeted to deter them from
offending, and to worship overtly in Catholic ways was seen as heresy and law breaking.
Because of this, much of the worship went underground and in particular one way of escaping
execution for religious crimes was Priest Holes.
These were hiding places which were built into many Catholic owned houses across the
land, and many of these saved people from execution.
Join us today as we look at Priest Holes, and remember to support our channel please
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Following Elizabeth I becoming Queen, there were many more harsh measures put in place
in fear of rebellion and plotting by Catholics.
Throughout Elizabeth’s reign she had to deal with a number of high profile plots which
planned to assassinate her as she was a protestant and then place Mary Queen of Scots, a Catholic
monarch on the throne.
Eventually the plots were discovered by her spy master Francis Walsingham, but the problem
with catholic rebellion remained within England, and during her reign thousands of Catholics
would be arrested, and some were executed and tortured for their beliefs.
There were a number of men employed by the state to hunt Catholics and also catholic
priests, and these priest hunters would work inside of towns and cities collecting information
on underground catholic worship, and would then be tasked with rounding these Catholics
up on suspicion of heresy and plotting and would then be handed over to the authorities.
There were many across the country who refused to accept Elizabeth’s oath of supremacy,
that she was the head of the Church of England.
These people who regularly also skipped church services were known as recusants and were
actually technically guilty of high treason.
It was also said that any Catholic who could be found trying to convert other people such
as Protestants to the Catholic way of worship would result in execution for high treason.
There were strict actions taken against Catholics, for example a priest in November 1591 was
hanged in front of a door in Gray’s Inn Fields for having previously said mass there
in underground worship.
If someone found themselves arrested for religious crimes, especially priests could find themselves
tortured and eventually executed.
The aim of this was to ensure that England had solely Protestant worship, and Elizabeth
took many steps to do this and many of these were brutal.
But one way to hide Catholic worship and to conceal Catholic priests was by using small
cells and priest holes which were aimed to hide a priest away in.
Many of England’s castles and country houses still have priest holes inside of them, and
these were often made by high profile Catholic families.
Some priest holes were inside of apartments and secluded parts of the house, or were in
roof spaces and the purpose of these small hiding places was that if the authorities
came to investigate the house, and the priest was there, he could then be hidden away and
would escape arrest and capture.
Also priests would live in wealthy households, and would at times be part of the family.
Many of these priest holes were also built into staircases, attics and fireplaces and
were effective.
Some even had tunnels that would lead a priest to escaping from the house all together, should
the authorities be at the house.
Priest Holes were also sometimes bigger and were sometimes places where mass would be
held and it was considered a safe and private place.
Inside of these, many Catholic vessels and sacred artefacts would also be held and would
be stored to ensure that the family would not be implicated in Catholic worship.
One man who devoted his time to creating priest holes was Nicholas Owen.
He gave a large amount of his time making these hiding places to ensure that Catholic
priests could he hidden away from he persecution.
He was considered a very skilled man, and it was said that ‘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.’
Owen sometimes built these also as a hidden compartment from a chimney, and he also placed
priest holes behind wooden panelling and inside of water closets.
There is one house, Harvington Hall in Worcestershire that has 7 priest holes throughout the house,
showing that there were many Catholic priests living here at some point.
But Nicholas Owen for his work making the priest holes was considered a very treasonous
individual, and he was brought to the Tower of London following the gunpowder plot.
He was accused of being involved in the plan to blow up King James I and the Houses of
Parliament, and because of this was tortured on the rack.
But he was so brutalised by the infamous torture device, that he actually died whilst he was
being racked.
He was later made a martyr in 1970 for his work in protecting Catholic priests.
However, how effective were priest holes?
Well the parties that were made responsible for catching Catholic priests were often very
skilled themselves.
They would make huge searches of houses, and even at times brought skilled carpenters and
stone masons with them to try and figure out where the priest holes were.
They also would tear down wooden panelling and would pull up floor boards searching for
illegal signs of worship.
Also they would pretend to leave at times, to see if then the priest would come out of
hiding.
But overall priest holes were considered a very effective method of escaping persecution,
and many times priests would manage to evade the authorities.
There are accounts where priests remained inside priest holes for a significantly long
period of time, when they would be starving and hungry but also some priest holes were
made with not the best safety considerations.
Sometimes a priest could die from a lack of oxygen inside the priest hole if it was too
secluded and was not provided with an adequate supply of air.
But overall they are an interesting part of English history.
Priest holes show us what a real threat there was to the lives of Catholics with regards
to the Elizabethan rules on religion.
The threat of capture, arrest and even execution was real and was something that people would
go to great lengths to escape.
Today you can see many priest holes around different stately homes and houses, in which
someone would be sat inside of one, praying that they would not be discovered.
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