[Vwoolf] black priests
Jeremy Hawthorn
jeremy.hawthorn at ntnu.no
Mon Apr 30 05:28:04 EDT 2018
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?).
Partridge's /Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English/ (my edition
is the 8th) gives a couple of perhaps relevant entries.
*black-beetle. *(2) A priest: lower classes: C. 20. Also, Mrs C Raab
adds, used by English-speaking Roman Catholic seminarians. Ex. black
clothes.
*black fly.* 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.
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).
Jeremy H
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