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Papist is a term, usually disparaging or an anti-Catholic slur, referring to a member of the Catholic Church. It was coined during the English Reformation to indicate that a Christian's loyalties were to the Pope, rather than to the anti-papal Church of England. Over time, however, it came to mean one who supported Papal authority over all Christians and thus became a popular term, especially among Anglicans and Presbyterians. The word, dating from A.D. 1534, derives via Middle French from Latin papa, meaning "Pope".[1]
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 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 Catholic Mary I of England.
Currently loyalty to the Pope is sometimes indicated by the newer term "Papalism" with no pejorative intended.[2]
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) author of Gulliver's Travels, frequently uses the term in his satirical work A Modest Proposal in which he proposes selling Irish children to be eaten by wealthy English landlords.
During the 1928 US presidential election, Democratic Party nominee Al Smith was accused of being a papist. He was the first Catholic to ever receive presidential nomination from a major party and this led to fears that, if he were elected, the United States would be ruled by the Vatican.
Today the term – and the related words "popery", "papistry" and "popish" – is still used occasionally by some writers and ministers, typically those of a Calvinist orientation, who seek to portray Roman Catholic or Arminian Protestant doctrine (interpreted by many as "un-Reformed") in a negative light.