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{{Short description|Archaic derogatory term for Roman Catholicism}}
{{For|scented plant matter|Potpourri}}
[[File:A-Kick-at-the-Broad-Bottoms-Gillray.jpeg|thumb|1807 cartoon by [[James Gillray]] depicting [[George III]] saying "bring in the papists!"]]
The words '''Popery''' (adjective '''Popish''') and '''Papism''' (adjective '''Papist''', also used to refer to an individual) are mainly historical pejorative words in the [[English language]] for [[Roman Catholicism]], once frequently used by [[Protestant]]s and [[Eastern Orthodox Christian]]s to label their Catholic opponents, who differed from them in accepting the [[Papal primacy|authority of the Pope]] over the [[Christian Church]].<ref name="Heers2004"/> The words were popularised during the [[English Reformation]] (1532–1559), when the [[Church of England]] broke away from the [[Catholic Church]] and divisions emerged between those who rejected papal authority and those who continued to follow Rome. The words are recognised as pejorative;<ref>{{Cite web|last=Larousse|first=Éditions|title=Définitions : papisme - Dictionnaire de français Larousse|url=https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/papisme/57789|access-date=2020-11-15|website=www.larousse.fr|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Sennet|first1=Adam|last2=Copp|first2=David|date=2017|title=Pejoratives and Ways of Thinking|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/phib.12100|journal=Analytic Philosophy|language=en|volume=58|issue=3|pages=248–271|doi=10.1111/phib.12100|issn=2153-960X|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Delaney|first=Sarah |agency=Catholic News SErvice|title=Vatican newspaper says Shakespeare was secret Catholic|url=https://www.catholicregister.org/features/arts/item/13381-vatican-newspaper-says-shakespeare-was-secret-catholic|access-date=2020-11-15|website=www.catholicregister.org|language=en-gb|quote=Anglican Archdeacon Richard Davies wrote, "He died a papist," a pejorative term Protestants used to refer to Catholics.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Dictionary of the Scots Language:: DOST :: papist|url=https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/papist|access-date=2020-11-16}}</ref> they have been in widespread use in Protestant writings until the mid-nineteenth century, including use in some laws that remain in force in the [[United Kingdom]].{{R|Act-1700}}

''Popery'' and ''Papism'' are sometimes used in modern writing as [[dog whistle (politics)|dog whistle]]s for [[anti-Catholicism]] or they are used as pejorative ways of distinguishing Catholicism from other forms of Christianity that refer to themselves as ''catholic'', such as [[Eastern Orthodoxy]], Lutherans of [[Evangelical Catholic]] churchmanship or Anglicans of [[Anglo-Catholicism|Anglo-Catholic]] churchmanship. Papist was used in the latter way in 2008 by the [[Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki]] at a conference opposing [[ecumenism]], and the word sees some wider use in the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://summa.rhga.ru/edin/schools/detail.php?rraz=&ELEMENT_ID=5948 | title=Паписты }}</ref><ref name="Heers2004">{{cite web|url=http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/thess_conclusions.aspx|title=Conclusions of the Inter-Orthodox Theological Conference "Ecumenism: Origins Expectations Disenchantment"|publisher=orthodox.info|access-date=2008-11-03}}</ref>

== History ==
[[File:3 Geuzenpenning, halve maan.jpg|thumb|A [[Low Countries|Dutch]] crescent-shaped [[Geuzen medal]] at the time of the anti-Spanish [[Dutch Revolt]], with the slogan {{lang|nl|"[[Liever Turks dan Paaps]]"}} ("Rather Turkish than Papist"), 1570<ref name="Bulut2001">{{cite book|last=Bulut|first=Mehmet|title=Ottoman-Dutch economic relations in the early modern period 1571-1699|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gM7d3JMCMh4C&pg=PA112|year=2001|publisher=Uitgeverij Verloren|isbn=978-90-6550-655-9|page=112}}</ref>]]
[[File:Hagley, St John the Baptist - interior, Meriel Lyttelton née Bromley 2.JPG|thumb|[[St John the Baptist Church, Hagley]], memorial to [[Meriel Lyttelton]] (a daughter of [[Thomas Bromley]]) from 1769, remembered "for Breeding up her Children in the Protestant Religion, Their Ancestors having been Papists"]]

According to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'', the word ''Papist'' was first used in 1528.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oed.com/dictionary/papist_n?tl=true|title=papist, noun and adjective|website=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

The word was in common use by Protestant writers until the mid-nineteenth century, as shown by its frequent appearance in [[Thomas Macaulay]]'s ''History of England from the Accession of James II'' and in other works of that period, including those with no sectarian bias.

The word is found in certain surviving statutes of the [[United Kingdom]], for example in the English [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights]] of 1689 and the Scottish [[Claim of Right Act 1689|Claim of Right]] of 1689. Catholics have been excluded from the British throne for centuries. In 1701, Parliament passed the [[Act of Settlement]], which requires that only a Protestant monarch could rule over England and Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-08-06|title=Which European royals are not in line for the British throne?|url=https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/which-european-royals-are-not-in-line-for-the-british-throne-146837/|access-date=2020-11-16|website=Royal Central|language=en-GB}}</ref> Under the [[Act of Settlement 1701|Act of Settlement]] of 1701, no one who professes "the popish religion" may succeed to the throne of the [[Kingdom of England]] and the Act continues to apply to the United Kingdom and all of the [[Commonwealth Realms]];<ref name="Act-1700">{{Cite book|url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/Will3/12-13/2/section/I|title=Act of Settlement|publisher=UK Government|year=1700|quote=That all and every Person and Persons that then were or afterwards should be reconciled to or shall hold Communion with the See or Church of Rome or should professe the Popish Religion ... should be excluded and are by that Act made for ever (incapable) to inherit possess or enjoy the Crown and Government of this Realm and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging or any part of the same or to have use or exercise any regall Power Authority or Jurisdiction within the same}}</ref> until the [[Succession to the Crown Act 2013]] amended it with effect from 2015, the Act of Settlement also banned from the throne anyone who married "a papist". Fears that [[Roman Catholic]] secular leaders would be [[Anti-Protestantism|anti-Protestant]] and would be unduly influenced from Rome arose after all allegiance to the Pope was banned in England in the reigns of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] and [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]. 
[[Jonathan Swift]] (1667–1745), the author of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'', employed the term in his satirical essay ''[[A Modest Proposal]]'', in which he proposed selling Irish babies to be eaten by wealthy English landlords. [[Daniel Defoe]] wrote in the popular ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' (1719), near the end of the novel: "[...] I began to regret having professed myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the best religion to die with."

Similar terms, such as the traditional ''popery'' and the more recent ''papalism'', are sometimes used,<ref>[http://anglicanhistory.org/orthodoxy/abramtsov.pdf Dr J. J. Overbeck and His Scheme for the Re-establishment of the Orthodox Church in the West]</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/popery | title=Popery }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/popery| title = Popery Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster}}</ref> as in the [[Popery Act 1698]] and the Irish [[Popery Act]]. The [[Seventh-day Adventist]] prophetess [[Ellen G. White]] used the terms ''papist'' and ''popery'' throughout her book [[The Great Controversy (book)|''The Great Controversy'']], a volume harshly criticized for its anti-Catholic tone.

During the [[1928 United States presidential election|American presidential election of 1928]], the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee [[Al Smith]] was labeled a ''papist'' by his political opponents. He was the first Roman Catholic ever to gain the presidential nomination of a major party, and this led to fears that, if he were elected, the United States government would follow the dictates of the Vatican.<ref>Michael O'Brien, ''John F. Kennedy: A Biography'', Thomas Dunne Books, 2005, p. 414.</ref> {{As of|2022}}, [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Joe Biden]] are the only Roman Catholics to have been elected President of the United States.

The term is still sometimes used today,<ref>[http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/259/letter-a-papist/ Vladimir Moss, ''Letter to a Papist'']</ref><ref>[http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=oaths Ian Paisley, ''Papist Doctrine of Oaths'']</ref> although much less often than in earlier centuries.

==Crypto-Papism==
{{See|Nicodemite}}
In early use the term appeared in the compound form "Crypto-Papist", referring to members of Reformed, Protestant, or nonconformist churches who at heart were allegedly Roman Catholics.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/secrethistoryox00walsgoog <!-- quote=crypto-papists. --> Walter Walsh, The Secret History of the Oxford Movement (C.J. Thynnes, 1898), pp. 8 and 187]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YfAWAAAAYAAJ&dq=crypto-papists&pg=RA2-PA190 The American National Preacher, August 1851, Sermon DLIII, p. 190]</ref> [[Aleksey Khomyakov|Alexis Khomiakhov]], a Russian [[lay theologian]] of the nineteenth century, claimed that "All Protestants are Crypto-Papists".<ref>{{cite book|title=Three views on Eastern Orthodoxy and evangelicalism|author=James J. Stamoolis|editor=Brad Nassif|year=2004|publisher=Zondervan|isbn=0310235391|page=20}}</ref>

Although the term has been used as a means of attacking Protestants with [[high church]] sympathies, such as [[William Laud]] and [[John Spottiswoode]], at other times there have been individuals who have secretly converted to Catholicism, for example, [[James II of England]], [[Bartholomew Remov]] and [[Yekaterina Petrovna Rostopchina|Yelizaveta Rostopchina]]. Some people may later on openly convert, such as [[George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore]], or secretly convert with reservations, such as [[John III of Sweden]].

== See also ==
*[[List of Anglican bishops who converted to Roman Catholicism]]
*[[A free admonition without any fees / To warne the Papistes to beware of three trees]], a 16th century broadside ballad

=== Established uses and related topics ===

* [[Popish Plot]]
* [[Popish soap]]
* [[Papists Act 1740]]
* [[Popery Act 1627]]
* [[Popery Act 1698]]
*[[Papal supremacy]]
*[[Romanism]]
*[[Black Legend]]

=== Pejorative terms for Roman Catholics ===
*''[[prayer beads|Bead puller]]''
*the ''[[Dago (slur)]]'' for South European (Italian, Portuguese and Spanish) Christians
*''[[Great Apostates]]''
* ''[[Mackerel snapper]]''
*''[[Mariolater]]''
* ''[[Romish]]''
* ''[[Taig]]'' or ''Teague''
* [[List of ethnic slurs#D|''Dogan'']] (refers specifically to [[Irish Roman Catholic]]s)

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Papacy}}
{{Religious slurs}}
{{Intermediates between Catholicism and Protestantism}}

[[Category:Anti-Catholic slurs]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:History of Catholicism in the United States]]
[[Category:English words]]