“Our Enemy, Who for Our Religion… Abhorred Us”: The Establishment and Maintenance of 18th-Century Anti-Catholicism in North America

Abstract

In the centuries following the Protestant Reformation, religion was a point of contention between Catholic and Protestant nations. These contentions are reflected in literature that was produced during colonial disputes between opposing Catholic and Protestant imperial regimes. Academics including Johnathan Clark have described the significance of religion in times of warfare, in spurring the support of the masses and providing a rallying cry for troops. Scholars that study 18th-century conflicts in North America, including the Seven Years’ War, often do not consider the significance of religious affiliations in this age of empire. Despite this lack of attention, in the years leading up to and including the Seven Years’ War, British North American settlers employed anti-Catholic rhetoric to demonize their French Catholic neighbours to the north. This article considers published letters, sermons, and legislation from the mid- to late-18th century in order to describe how terms including “papist” and “catholic” became synonymous with “French” in the North American context. These texts suggest that the Seven Years’ War was conceived as divinely ordained and justified by British settlers as the defense of Protestantism in North America. Protestant denominations overlooked the differences that had historically divided them in the face of this common French Catholic “enemy.”