Anti-Catholicism was not a central force driving the colonists to revolt, but it played a role, shaping their political beliefs in profound ways, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.,Anti-Catholicism was not a central force driving the colonists to revolt, but it played a role, shaping their political beliefs in profound ways, writes NCR columnist Michael Sean Winters.
20 days ago
The article titled "The role of anti-Catholicism in framing the American Revolution," published on November 26, 2025, examines the influence of religious prejudices on the ideological foundations of the American Revolution.1 It highlights how anti-Catholic sentiments, prevalent among Protestant colonists, shaped revolutionary rhetoric and political framing.1
Anti-Catholicism in colonial America stemmed from longstanding Protestant fears of papal authority and Catholic influence, intensified by British policies favoring Catholic Quebec after 1774.1 This bias framed the Revolution not just as a quest for liberty, but as a defense against perceived Catholic tyranny.1
The article discusses how pamphlets and sermons during the 1760s-1770s invoked anti-Catholic tropes to rally support against British rule, portraying King George III as aligned with Catholic powers.1 Figures like John Adams and Samuel Adams leveraged these sentiments to unify diverse Protestant groups.1
By embedding anti-Catholicism into revolutionary ideology, the article argues it contributed to the exclusionary aspects of early American identity, influencing later constitutional debates on religious freedom.1 This perspective underscores the Revolution's roots in religious as well as political conflicts.1
Investigate anti‑Catholicism’s influence on Revolutionary ideology
The American Revolution's ideology, centered on principles of liberty, republicanism, and religious freedom, emerged from a colonial context deeply marked by Protestant dominance and anti-Catholic prejudice. While the revolutionary rhetoric championed universal rights and separation from monarchical tyranny—often symbolized by British Anglicanism—it was not free from inherited biases against Catholicism, which was viewed with suspicion as a foreign, authoritarian faith loyal to the Pope and incompatible with emerging democratic ideals. Drawing from Catholic historical analyses, this investigation reveals that anti-Catholicism subtly shaped the Revolution's ideological framework by reinforcing the need for disestablishment of religion while perpetuating exclusions that limited true pluralism. Initial colonial experiments in toleration, such as in Maryland, prefigured revolutionary freedoms but quickly succumbed to suppression, influencing founders to prioritize a neutral state religion that masked underlying Protestant favoritism. Post-Revolution, this bias manifested in state-level restrictions, underscoring how revolutionary ideology balanced Enlightenment aspirations with entrenched anti-Catholic fears.
Catholicism's early presence in British America set the stage for revolutionary tensions, as the faith faced systematic marginalization that informed debates on liberty and governance. The colony of Maryland, founded in 1634 by the Catholic Lord Baltimore (George Calvert), was envisioned as a haven for persecuted English Catholics amid England's penal laws, which made celebrating Mass a capital offense. The colony's Act of Toleration in 1649 marked one of the earliest legal protections for religious freedom in the New World, allowing Catholics, Protestants, and even Jews to practice their faiths without interference—a radical departure from European norms. This policy briefly fostered coexistence, with the first Mass in British America celebrated by Jesuit Father Andrew White on March 25, 1634.
However, this experiment proved fragile. By the early eighteenth century, pressure from surrounding Puritan colonies and the English Crown led to the establishment of Anglicanism as Maryland's state religion, banning Catholic worship and imposing severe penalties. Catholics endured double taxation, property confiscation, loss of voting rights, and forced Protestant upbringing for their children; if one spouse in a Catholic marriage died, the surviving parent could lose custody to ensure Protestant education. This shift highlighted a broader colonial reality: religious toleration was conditional, often collapsing into "soft" persecution when Catholic numbers or influence grew. Such experiences underscored the thin line between toleration and coercion, a dynamic that revolutionaries would later navigate in crafting a national ideology of freedom.
Catholic historians have long emphasized Maryland's role in the revolutionary narrative, portraying its toleration act as a precursor to the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776) and the Declaration of Independence (1777), both penned by Thomas Jefferson. Figures like Charles Carroll, the sole Catholic signer of the Declaration, and his cousin John Carroll, the nation's first bishop and Georgetown University's founder, symbolized Catholic contributions to the patriot cause, including support during the Revolutionary War. Yet, these narratives also reveal an underlying anti-Catholic undercurrent: colonial Protestants feared Catholicism's ties to absolutism, viewing it as a threat to self-governance. This prejudice, rooted in English history, influenced revolutionary thinkers to advocate for religious disestablishment not as full equality, but as a safeguard against any "papist" influence akin to British monarchy.
The Revolution's ideology—articulated in documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—promoted natural rights, popular sovereignty, and separation of church and state, drawing implicitly from Neoscholastic philosophy via thinkers like Thomas Aquinas, Robert Bellarmine, and Francisco Suárez. Catholic historians in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries argued that these ideas filtered through English Whigs to founders like Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson, creating a "limited state" aligned with natural law. In this view, the Revolution unwittingly advanced Catholic principles of ordered liberty, with the First Amendment's prohibition on establishing religion or impeding its free exercise (ratified 1791) echoing Maryland's earlier toleration.
Yet, anti-Catholicism profoundly influenced this ideology by framing religious freedom as a Protestant bulwark against perceived Catholic threats. During the colonial era, Tories—largely Anglican elites loyal to the Crown—resisted independence partly because it threatened their established church privileges and exposed them to Catholic influences, such as alliances with Catholic France. In New York, where Tories dominated, over 30,000 fled to England or Canada after the Revolution, fearing the loss of Protestant ascendancy under a republic of "freedom and equality." Those who remained, aligning with the Federalist Party, sought to preserve Protestant dominance through legislation. John Jay, future Chief Justice, embedded in New York's 1777 Constitution a clause denying citizenship to foreign-born Catholics unless they renounced papal allegiance—a provision that endured until 1821.
This bias extended to federal policy under Federalist President John Adams (1797–1801), whose administration passed the Alien and Sedition Acts. The Alien Act allowed expulsion of "disaffected" immigrants—many Irish and German Catholics fleeing persecution—while extending naturalization residency to 14 years, targeting Catholic influxes. Such measures reflected revolutionary ideology's ambivalence: while decrying British religious tyranny, it internalized anti-Catholic tropes, associating the faith with foreign intrigue and disloyalty. Paul Blanshard, a mid-twentieth-century critic, later amplified these historical tensions by citing papal condemnations of religious indifferentism (e.g., by Gregory XVI and Pius IX) to argue that Catholicism inherently opposed American democracy. Early American bishops like John Ireland countered by affirming Catholic patriotism, but underlying fears persisted, shaping the Revolution's emphasis on a secular state to neutralize Catholic "power."
The Revolution's success in enshrining religious freedom federally did not eradicate anti-Catholicism, which lingered at the state level and exposed ideological fault lines. Massachusetts maintained church-state union until 1833, forcing Catholics to fund the Protestant establishment through taxes. New Jersey's anti-Catholic constitution lasted until 1844, and New Hampshire disqualified Catholics from office until 1877. These delays illustrate how revolutionary ideology's promise of liberty was selectively applied, prioritizing Protestant norms over full Catholic inclusion.
Catholic thinkers later professionalized this history through the American Catholic Historical Association (founded 1915), using scientific methods to affirm Catholicism's compatibility with the Republic while highlighting its suppressed role. John Courtney Murray, S.J., in his 1960 work We Hold These Truths, argued that the American consensus derived from natural law, allowing seamless Catholic participation. This culminated in Vatican II's Dignitatis Humanae (1965), influenced by Murray, which affirmed immunity from religious coercion—a validation of revolutionary freedoms.
However, modern Catholic postliberals like D.C. Schindler contend that America's liberal foundations are "anti-Catholic at [their] root," inheriting a voluntarism that undermines the Church's public role. They revisit revolutionary ideology as flawed, echoing Blanshard's critiques by questioning whether true Catholic fidelity requires state confessionalism rather than mere toleration. This debate underscores anti-Catholicism's enduring influence: the Revolution advanced pluralism but on Protestant terms, creating a framework where Catholicism was tolerated yet marginalized.
Anti-Catholicism influenced revolutionary ideology by necessitating religious disestablishment as a defense against perceived papal authoritarianism, while embedding biases that delayed Catholic equality. From Maryland's failed toleration to Federalist restrictions, the era's push for liberty was shadowed by Protestant hegemony, as seen in persistent state laws and immigrant-targeted policies. Catholic contributions, like those of the Carrolls, enriched the founding, yet the ideology's Enlightenment veneer masked exclusions. Today, as echoed in Vatican II, this history calls Catholics to engage American democracy faithfully, advocating for a fuller realization of the freedoms the Revolution promised but imperfectly delivered.