Jesuit priest, John Gerard, made a famous escape from which facility in 1597?

John Gerard (4 October 1564 – 27 July 1637) was an English Jesuit priest, operating covertly in England during the Elizabethan era in which the Catholic Church was subject to persecution. He was the second son of Sir Thomas Gerard of Bryn, in Ashton-in-Makerfield, Lancashire.

Gerard is noted not only for successfully hiding from the English authorities for eight years before his capture, but for enduring extensive torture, escaping from the Tower of London and, after recovering, continuing with his covert mission. He was implicated in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot because several of the plotters were those to whom he had ministered. He managed to escape to the continent and continued his ministry. At the request of his superiors, he wrote his autobiography. After a decade as spiritual father, he died in the Roman College on 27th July 1637.

The Tower of London is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The peak period of the castle's use as a prison was the 16th and 17th centuries, when many figures who had fallen into disgrace, such as Elizabeth I before she became queen, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Elizabeth Throckmorton, were held within its walls. This use led to the phrase "sent to the Tower". Despite its enduring reputation as a place of torture and death, only seven people were executed within the Tower before the World Wars of the 20th century.