TRANSPLANTED IRISH INSTITUTIONS - University of Canterbury

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activities taking place in convents and confessionals contributed to the boom industry of
books and pamphlets and lecturers who gave detailed descriptions of what the Catholic nuns
and priests were said to be doing behind the stone walled convents.
Anti-Catholicism was to those Protestants who adhered to it, an anti-religion in the
sense that it was a negative image of true Christianity. This view led to the proposition that
"every negative characteristic imputed to Rome implied a positive cultural, political or
religious value which Protestants claimed as their own exclusive property. "17 By using this
inversion technique much can be gleaned as to how the Protestants viewed themselves.
Paramount to this view was the question of authority where Protestants saw the Pope
usurping Christ's role as the Head of the Church. Once this 'human' authority was in place
then 'human' forms of worship and belief took over, such as invocation of saints, worship of
statues and images and veneration of the Virgin Mary. These examples also coincide with
the charge of idolatry which was sinful according to Scripture. 18 The issue of celibacy was
also a problem as it was seen to be usurping the God ordained institution of marriage. 19
Protestants saw the Pope as usurping God's authority which led to the belief of the
'tyranny of popery.' This was the focal point of much anti-Catholic rhetoric because "the
spiritual rights and liberties of ordinary believers were subverted and destroyed. "20 The
lecturers believed that they were furthering the cause of liberty by being against the
'tyranny' of the Papacy. Protestants believed in the maxim that "ignorance was the mother
of devotion." and so it was through ignorance that Catholics believed those 'popish lies'.21
The anti-Catholic lecturer was attempting to educate the 'ignorant' Catholics through
lectures and literature.
It was against this background of popular Protestantism that the anti-Catholic
lecturer emerged, whose purpose was to inform the public of the lurid aspects of convent
17Peter Lake, 'Anti-popery: the Structure of a Prejudice,' R. Cust & A. Hughes (eds), Conflict in Early
Stuart England, London, Longman, \989, pp. 73-74.
18Ibid., p. 74.
19rbid., p. 76.
2Orbid., p. 76.
2 I Ibid., p. 76.