Popery

Papist is a term, referring to one of four common systems of church governance; that is, one that is centralized under a Pope, particularly the bishop of Rome. The other three are: (1) Episcopal, a confederation of priestly overseers such as may be found in Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism; (2) Presbyterian, local church organization under the direction of a board of ordained elders or "presbyters;" (3) Congregational, in which decisions are made by vote of the congregation as a whole.

Currently, some Roman Catholics regard this term as an insult.

Historical background

Originally the term was strictly technical, referring to one form of Church governance. Moreover, until about the time of the Oxford Movement, "Catholic" meant the whole Christian church, as contrasted with specific sects or institutions. The word papist, dating from A.D. 1534, derives via Middle French from Latin papa, meaning "Pope". It became a popular term, especially among Anglicans and Presbyterians .

Papist was in common use until the mid-nineteenth century; it occurs frequently in Macaulay's History of England from the Accession of James II, and in other historical or controversial works from that period. It survives in the British legal system one of the surviving relics of the Penal Laws, Roman Catholic ineligibility to the throne under the current law of the United Kingdom. Under the Act of Settlement enacted in 1701 and still in force, no one who professes "the popish religion" or marries "a papist" may succeed to the throne of the United Kingdom. Fears that Roman Catholic secular leaders would be Anti-Protestant arose during the first separation of England from Rome during the reign of Henry VIII and the subsequent burning at the stake of Protestant Christians during the reign of the Roman Catholic Mary I of England.

Development into a disparaging term

Over time, however, the term came to indicate abuse of church power consolidated in Rome. For example, the Twenty-First Homily of the Second Book of Anglican homilies (1571) is entitled "Against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion;" the last sections of the homily go into depth alleging that concentrating all church under the authority of a single mortal man was a usurpation of the headship of Christ; that the bishop of Rome was encouraging peoples across Europe to rebel against their lawful secular leaders; and that the bishop of Rome had campaigned arduously for the fall of Constantinople. This, claimed the homily's author, led to the invasion of the Christian Empire of the east by Muslim "paynims" and the murder of myriads of Christians.

This homily reads:

But, after that ambition and desire of dominion entered once into ecclesiastical ministers whose greatness after the doctrine and example of our Saviour, should chiefly stand in humbling themselves (1 Peter 5.3, Matthew 18.4, 20.28, Luke 9.48, 22.27); and that the bishop of Rome, being by the order of God’s word none other than the bishop of that one see and diocese and never yet well able to govern the same, did by intolerable ambition challenge, not only to be the Head of all the Church dispersed throughout the world, but also to be Lord of all kingdoms of the world, as is expressly set forth in the book of his own canon laws (Sex Decre. Bk. 3, tit. 16, chap. unic., Bk. 5, tit. 9, Chap. 5 in glossa) — most contrary to the doctrine and example of our Saviour Christ whose Vicar, and of his Apostles (namely Peter) whose successor he pretendeth to be. After his ambition entered and this challenge once made by the bishop of Rome, he became at once the spoiler and destroyer both of the Church, which is the kingdom of our Saviour Christ, and of the Christian empire, and all Christian kingdoms as an universal tyrant over all.

The 39 Articles of Religion are official Church doctrine of the Anglican communion, and are typically representative of the views of Bible-believing Protestantism as a whole, as well as in line with those of Eastern Orthodoxy. Articles XVIII and XIX indicate that those churches under the power of the bishop of Rome had ceased being "Catholic" and instead had become their own institution, that is, sectarian. These Articles read:

XVIII. Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ.

They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.

XIX. Of the Church.

The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ’s ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.

Thus, members of the Roman Catholic Church interpret the term as disparaging or as an anti-Roman slur. For example, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) author of Gulliver's Travels, frequently uses the term in his satirical work A Modest Proposal in which he proposes selling Irish children to wealthy English landlords for cannabilistic purposes.

Similar terms

A derivative term Apist is used to describe Anglo-Catholics who ape or copy the practices of the Roman Catholics, including the wearing of brightly coloured and elaborately embroidered vestments and large, twin-peaked episcopal mitres. Apist may be used by Protestants believing such apparel to be effeminate and foreign to Anglo-Saxon traditions.

Currently loyalty to the Pope is sometimes indicated by the newer term Papalism with no pejorative intended. [1]

During United States presidential election, 1928, when Democratic Party nominated Governor of New York Al Smith, who was a first Catholic ever received presidential nomination from major party, he was attacked as a "papist" and voters were scared that "if Al Smith were President, United States were ruled by Vatican"

The term is still used occasionally today as a slur by some anti-Catholic writers and preachers.

See also

• Sect
• List of Christian denominations
• Anti-Catholicism
• Popery
• Mackerel Snapper