Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England: A Political and Social Study by Colin Haydon (review)

290 BOOK REVIEWS this moment. Mario Rosa, David Gentilcore, and others have recently examined the impact of missionary work on target populations in the South in terms of a clash between cultures. Instead of taking this clash seriously, the present volume uncritically adopts the perspective ofcontemporary episcopal visitation reports on the ignorance and vice of the population and reduces the opposition of the local barons to nothing but a legal dispute about land inheritance—reproposing, in an admittedly more sophisticated fashion, the apologetical approach of the hagiographers, which the authors declared it to be their very purpose to revise. Brendan Dooley Harvard University Anti-Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England: A Political and Social Study. By Colin Haydon. (Manchester University Press. Distributed in the United States and Canada by St. Martin's Press, New York. 1994. Pp. xii, 276. S69.95.) Dr. Haydon demonstrates the continuity of anti-Catholic feeling throughout the eighteenth century. He examines extensively the means by which antiCatholic propaganda was disseminated, and argues that while the elite became increasingly tolerant and pragmatic, the old hatreds and obsessions persisted among the general public. Anti-Catholic riots culiminating in the Gordon Riots of 1 780 gave expression to popular perceptions of popery as dangerous to the religious and national order. Dr. Haydon makes effective use of the techniques of modern social history to bring fresh understanding to his subject, and seeks to penetrate the mentality and social dynamics of this manifestation of collective prejudice. He examines the various interests which benefited from the active encouragement of fear of popery. He shows that despite changing political circumstances the state continued to need and to use this method of reinforcing national unity and shows that local reactions could be the result of the active intervention of agents of the state manipulating the cultural obsessions of the lower orders. The Church of England and Protestant dissenters also institutionalized anti-Catholicism, and many and varied political and social associations were formed to combat popery. In the local community ritualized rioting against deviance reaffirmed the sense of order and the self-importance of local leaders. Dr. Haydon raises the question of how far Catholics brought odium upon themselves. He considers the importance of their engagement in public polemical debate, and the extent of their proselytizing, but he believes that most provocative to the general public was their continued allegiance to the Stuarts, and this in turn leads to a subtle and complex investigation examining how far the official stance ofCatholic leaders reflected BOOK REVIEWS 291 real allegiance among Catholics of differing social degrees and the manner in which Catholic loyalties shifted through the century. There follows a thoughtful consideration of the impact of the Relief Act and other measures oftoleration in 1 778 and 1780, and the popular opposition to toleration expressed, not only in the Gordon Riots in London, but all over the country, emphasizing the continuing importance and centrality ofreligious issues in both central and local politics. Dr. Haydon offers insights from a wide range offorms ofhistorical inquiry— social, political, religious, ecclesiastical, literary, and local history. He draws together people and events which have hitherto been studied as discrete entities—from John Locke to Walter Wyatt, a farmer of Brailes, from bonfires in Brecon to the policies of Lord Rockingham and Edmund Bruce—with the result that we approach more closely to the complex elements of social and political change. The text is well produced and has the luxury of footnotes as opposed to endnotes. The illustrations are an important part of the argument, but their impact is reduced by being placed all together in the center pages, and having poor definition. This is a coherent, readable and thoroughly researched work. Fresh material, especially that relating to local affairs, makes an important contribution to our understanding of the period. It will be regrettable if it is marginalized by being deemed to relate only to a small minority of the population. Dr. Haydon more than justifies his claim that anti-Catholicism was an integral part of the whole culture of eighteenth-century England. Marie B. Rowlands University of Wolverhampton, Dudley Campus "Pedlar in Divinity": George Whitefleld and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737—1770. By...