papists
Vatican faithful, derogatorily
Papists is a disparaging term for Roman Catholics, emphasizing their allegiance to the Pope.
The word carries centuries of Protestant suspicion about divided loyalties—the fear that Catholics answer to Rome before their own nation: The papists plot against the Crown.
Now old-fashioned, it appears mainly in historical contexts or deliberate insult.
Catholic Church's supreme leader
- RomeItaly's capital city
- VaticanPapal city-state
- transubstantiationChange of underlying substance
- MassCatholic worship service
sacraments · confession · saints · relics · indulgences · purgatory · hierarchy · infallibility
Catholic conspiracy against James
- JacobitesExiled royal line supporters
- Mary TudorSixteenth-century English queen
- Counter-ReformationChurch's internal reform movement
- InquisitionChurch tribunal against heretics
martyrs · persecution · Elizabethan · Stuart · Bloody Mary · priest holes · seminary · clandestine
Christians following Rome
- anti-CatholicBiased against Roman Catholics
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- slurInsulting group label
- sectarianRigidly devoted to faction
Protestant · derogatory · prejudice · nativist · intolerance · Reformation · heretic · idolater
Pope
Catholic Church's supreme leader
- RomeItaly's capital city
- VaticanPapal city-state
- transubstantiationChange of underlying substance
Mass · sacraments · confession · saints · relics · indulgences · purgatory · hierarchy · infallibility · clergy
Gunpowder Plot
Catholic conspiracy against James
- JacobitesExiled royal line supporters
- Mary TudorSixteenth-century English queen
- Counter-ReformationChurch's internal reform movement
Inquisition · martyrs · persecution · Elizabethan · Stuart · Bloody Mary · priest holes · seminary · clandestine · Mass
Catholics
Christians following Rome
- anti-CatholicBiased against Roman Catholics
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- slurInsulting group label
sectarian · Protestant · derogatory · prejudice · nativist · intolerance · Reformation · heretic · idolater · superstition
papistsProtestants
Post-Reformation Christian denominations
heretics · Lutherans · Calvinists · Anglicans · evangelicals