Elizabethan Priest-Holes: II—Ufton, Mapledurham, Compton Wynyates

Extract

At the end of the Harleyford conference Southwell rode back to London, to Lord Vaux's house at Hackney, and Garnet moved on to either Harrowden or Shoby. Weston himself says simply that he gave them ‘the names of Catholic houses where they might go and make their residence, and arranged for reliable guides to take them there': phrases which imply two important feats of organisation. There had been a number of young Catholics who acted as guides and escorts to the priests since at least the middle of 1580, led first by George Gilbert and then in 1585-6 by Lord Vaux's son Henry. But it is clear from an Italian memorandum written by Gilbert not long before his death in 1583 that the early seminary priests were itinerant and did not ‘make their residence’ in any one house. This is confirmed by a letter to Agazzari written by a priest (probably Persons himself) in August 1581, in which it is said that priests rarely stayed more than a night in one house, ‘ne longiori morapericulum creetur’. That explains why, although Gilbert advises priests to avoid discovery by changes of name, address, clothes and horses, he nowhere mentions priest-holes. It is significant that he says it will be necessary (sarà necessario) for priests to be distributed in various places, and for each one of them to stay in a gentleman's house (ogni uno stia nella casa di qualche gentilhomo), with responsibility for the household and for ‘a certain circuit around’ (un certo circuito intorno); as if this was not yet normal practice. He also suggests that the priest should pass as a relative, friend or steward of the owner, or that he should hold some honourable sinecure which will not interfere with his priestly work. As is well known, St John Payne had been doing this at Ingatestone as early as 1577, but most priests in the early 1580's seem to have been constantly on the move, at a heavy cost to their physical and psychological stamina. For them to ‘make their residence’ in a particular manor-house was a consequence of the Harleyford conference, and meant planning, direction—and priest-holes.