CATHOLICS AS A CULT

• The Protestant Reformation had begun less than a 100 years before the first permanent settlement.
• Two themes characterize America by the time Catholic immigrants began to arrive in large numbers in the 19th century:
• 1. Protestants were well entrenched
• 2. The tensions that emerged when Protestant groups broke from Catholicism were still very much alive.
• Hence, the large numbers who arrived on American shores from Catholic countries were perceived a threat both to the established social order and the religious order.
• Catholics were vilified more than any other group that arrived in the new world.
• Much of the vilification took a religious character