Papist
Papist is a
sectarian term referring to "
Roman Catholics". It was coined during the English
Reformation to indicate a Christian who remained obedient to the Pope as opposed to those who maintained reformed Catholic faith apart from Papal authority. Originally the term was descriptive without especially negative connotations. Over time, however, it came to mean one who believed in Papal primacy over all Christians and thus became a slur popular among
Anglicans and especially
Presbyterians. The word ultimately derives from
Latin papa, meaning "
Pope". "Popish" is an adjective that originally was descriptive but overtime became pejorative as well.
The word 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, 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 suppression of the Catholic Church in England during the reign of
Henry VIII and the subsequent persecution of Protestants during the reign of the Roman Catholic
Mary I of England.
Modern day usage of the term is genally confined to loyalists in Northern Ireland, including Presbyterian politicians such as
Ian Paisley.
A derivative
pejorative term
Apist is used to describe
Anglo-Catholics who
ape or copy the practices of the Roman Catholics, including the wearing of brightly colored and elaborately embroidered
vestments and large, twin-peaked episcopal miters. Apist may be used by Protestants believing such apparel to be effeminate and foreign to Anglo-Saxon traditions.
Currently adherence to the polity under the Pope is sometimes indicated by the newer term "Papalism" with no pejorative intended.[
1]
*
Popery*
Mackerel Snapper*
Anti-Catholicism
