Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Priest Holes in English Houses

Christine of Laudem Gloriae has some wonderful pictures, the like of which I have never seen before.
Under the reign of "Good Queen Bess", a law was passed prohibiting the celebration of Mass, on pain of extradition. On a second offense, the guilty priest would be sentenced to a year in prison, and on the third offense, jailed for life. In some cases, the offending priest would be put to death, usually by hanging, drawing, and quartering. Another law was passed that punished with death any Catholic who should convert a Protestant.

It was during this time that the Jesuit priest and martyr Nicholas Owen was called on to design and build priest holes in all the great Catholic manses in England. He spent the greater part of his life doing so. (Read entire post.)
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5 comments:

HODGEPODGESPV said...

thank you for sharing your post with christine...i loved it all! even if i could get over there, my wheel chair and i could never get so far down to see what you both gave me with video!

elena maria vidal said...

Glad you enjoyed the pictures, as did I!

Christine said...

Thank you for the link, my dear. Each time you link to me, I seem to get dozens and dozens of hits! You're a popular lady!

elena maria vidal said...

That's good to know! ;-)

julygirl said...

Similar hiding places were built into houses in certain European countries where people were sympathic to Jews who were being sought out by the Nazis during WWII.