Defoe, Unigenitus, and the “Catholic” Crusoe

Daniel Defoe’s sequel The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) undermines the habitual identification of Crusoe’s religious experience with Protestant spirituality. This article contextualizes Defoe’s positive portrayal of French Catholicism within the contemporary debate surrounding the papal bull Unigenitus Dei Filius (1713) and the persecution of the French Jansenist clergy. As proponents of religious tolerance, Jansenists represented the possibility of achieving a broader Christian unity despite England’s own Bangorian controversy. Crusoe’s contradictory impulses between conflict and consensus embody Britain’s own religious ambivalences, demonstrating the vulnerability of traditional Christian values such as love and mercy in light of more compelling forces such as sectarian violence.