Hidden in plain sight: Jesuits and seminary priests in late Tudor and early Stuart England and Wales

To date, little research has been undertaken on how more than 2,000 English and Welsh Jesuits and seminary priests managed to enter the kingdom, hidden in plain sight, between about 1580 and about 1630.

Evading English government surveillance networks stretching across England and Wales and deep into continental Europe, priests returned home from one or more of the English colleges founded during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I to educate English and Welsh Catholic clergy: these were located at Douai (1568), Rome (1579), Valladolid (1589), Seville (1592), Madrid (1611), Liège (1614), and Lisbon (1622).

Though many priests were captured some time after their return home, surprisingly few were intercepted at their point of entry back into the kingdom. It is the actual process of how priests got back into the country, mostly undetected, initially at least, which is the subject of this talk.

Until recently, historians have envisioned the return home of priests as a largely haphazard affair – and this despite the very large numbers involved. Though, for obvious reasons, virtually no documentary evidence exists (or probably ever existed) outlining the successful strategies deployed, some of these are arguably detectable using circumstantial evidence. On-going research suggests that arrival strategies were as ingenious as the designs of the 400 priest-holes in English and Welsh country houses which sheltered these men.

Maurice Whitehead retired in 2025 as Director of Heritage Collections and Research Fellow at the Venerable English College, Rome, an appointment he had held since 2015. A historian of education by training, he has a particular interest in the post-Reformation history of the English and Welsh Catholic community at home and in continental Europe. His publications include English Jesuit Education: Expulsion, Suppression, Survival and Restoration, 1762–1803 (Ashgate, 2013). He is currently a Research Fellow at the British School at Rome; a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Catholic Studies, in the Department of Theology and Religion, at Durham University; and Emeritus Professor of History at Swansea University where he taught from 2004 to 2014. He was awarded an MBE in February 2026 “for services to the development of British heritage in Rome”.

Please note that this event takes place in a room which does not have step-free access. To request a change of location, please email cbrockbank01@qub.ac.uk. To request online access, please email phanley03@qub.ac.uk.

Refreshments, drinks and snacks will be provided . We look forward to seeing you there!

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