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.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.
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Priest hole:Secret place for hiding fugitives: a small hidden room or space in an English house, created as a hiding place for Roman Catholic priests and others trying to escape persecution after the English Reformation
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