[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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