STRANGE ABROAD, DANGEROUS AT HOME; VICTORIANS AND THE PERCEPTION OF CATHOLICS
STRANGE ABROAD, DANGEROUS AT HOME; VICTORIANS AND THE PERCEPTION OF CATHOLICS

Summary/Abstract: Since the Protestant Reformation the English perspective on Catholicism has been often characterised by negativity if not outright demonization. No aspect of English life during the years following the Reformation, be it artistic, spiritual or political, has escaped the disdain for Catholicism. It manifested early in the way art evolved and the topics approached by literature and later, with the reopening of the monasteries, incited a trend of paranoia as Victorian men began to fear the upheaval of the proper social order that might come from it. The scope of this paper is to explore these manifestations in English works of literature, especially from travel writers of the Victorian era - but not limited exclusively to the – and compare it to the perception of Catholic practices back in England.

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