Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England, C. 1714-80: A Political and Social Study

This work studies English anti-Catholicism in the 18th century. While previous historiography has concentrated on the Elizabethan, Stuart and Victorian expressions of religious conflict, this study demonstrates that the "no Popery" sentiment was a comparably potent force under the first three Georges and was, on occasions, manifested in the hostility of significant sections of the middle and upper ranks of society as well as the populace at large. Colin Haydon begins his study by highlighting the important continuities in anti-Catholic feeling from the Stuart period until at least 1746. The authorities' anti-Jacobite propaganda and the plots and risings in support of the Catholic Pretender led to a widespread dissemination of anti-Catholic ideas. In the second half of the century, with the ending of the Jacobite threat, an increasingly tolerant elite sought to relax the penal code's operation and in 1778 its provisions were modified. Yet, as the author explains, the old hatred of Popery persisted, revealing itself in bitter hostility to such concessions. The most dramatic expression of this hatred was the popular reaction to the First Catholic Relief Act - the Gordon Riots of 1780. Through this reinterpretation of anti-Catholicism in the 18th century, Colin Haydon aims to offer valuable new insights into the political, social and religious history of the Georgian age.