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<p>I had always assumed that "black priests" referred to Catholic
priests, although on reflection the vestments they wore / wear are
no blacker than those protestant priests wear (are they?).</p>
<p>Partridge's <i>Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English</i>
(my edition is the 8th) gives a couple of perhaps relevant
entries.</p>
<p><b>black-beetle. </b>(2) A priest: lower classes: C. 20. Also,
Mrs C Raab adds, used by English-speaking Roman Catholic
seminarians. Ex. black clothes.</p>
<p><b>black fly.</b> Pej. for a clergyman: ca. 1780-1850. (Grose,
2nded.) Esp. in relation to farmers, who, on account of the
tithes, dislike clergymen more than they do insect pests.</p>
<p>Perhaps my assumption that the black priests were specifically
Catholic ones was based on the fact that at the time Woolf was
writing, in continental Europe, Catholic priests seemed never to
appear in public in non-clerical clothes, as Anglican priests
often did in Britain (with only the dog collar as a marker). But
the entry for black fly clearly relates to Protestant priests
(although in an earlier period).<br>
</p>
<p>Jeremy H<br>
</p>
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