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House of Lords on April 21, 1812, four months earlier. Contemporary religiouspolitics affect the reviewer’s reading of the text, which is to say that the review is onlyrepresentative of one contemporary position, not of all.A milder example of sectarianism appears in another review, this of Canto IV, whichprefers polite irony (asteism) to outright polemic in objecting to the poem’sdescription of Italy as “Parent of our Religion” (4.47.419), riposting, “It may be theparent of his own religion, for aught we know to the contrary; but it certainly is not ofours”. 48 The critic’s usage of the third person plural pronoun constructs a communityof critic and reader which excludes the poet and Catholicism, reinforcing Protestantexclusivism by opposition and by argumentum ad populum. However, the poet didthe same: by apostrophizing Italy as “Parent of our Religion”, the poet identifieshimself and his audience as a community of shared belief. 49 This inclusion ofProtestantism and Catholicism together within Christianity is evident throughoutByron’s work, but this ecumenicalism and its accompanying view of the necessity forCatholic Emancipation were not shared by all, and the validation of ‘the other side’was regarded by some as a form of treachery.Thus, in reviewing Canto III, the Dublin Examiner 50 and the Christian Observer 51represent the poem’s positive depiction of Islam as proof of a preference for Islamover Christianity, such that Harold might be on the way to converting. The reactionagainst the poem’s religious tolerance also engaged other values, as demonstrated inPortfolio’s description of Canto III as “Anti-christian, anti-patriot, anti-social”,conflating religion, nationalism, and morality. 52 These reviews demonstrate thecontemporary strict partisanship which made any deviation immediately suspect as avehicle of a competing affiliation.48 British Critic, 2nd Series, IX (May 1818), 540-554, RR, I, 284-9: p.545 (287).49 The description of Rome, which might qualify for such a place on account of being the first-placed ofthe five patriarchates (q.v. the canons of the First and Second Ecumenical Councils), may well havebeen motivated by Byron’s growing inclination towards Catholicism, but it is nonetheless political andprovocative.50 Dublin Examiner, II (November 1816), 41-50, RR, II, 688-693: p.43 (689).51 Christian Observer, XVI (April 1817), 246-259, RR, II, 595-602: p.258 (601).52 Portfolio, November 23, 1816, pp.73-77; November 30, 1816, pp.97-102, RR, V, 1966-1976: p.102(1976).25