The Quebec Act (1774) and the Hanoverian church-state relationship

Walsh, Ashley ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6480-1523 2025. The Quebec Act (1774) and the Hanoverian church-state relationship. English Historical Review 140 (502) , pp. 103-133. 10.1093/ehr/ceae093

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Abstract

By providing for freedom of worship among Catholics in the conquered Province of Quebec, the Quebec Act (1774) later proved to be one element in the long and complicated process of Catholic emancipation in Britain, Ireland and the empire. Historians have examined the press campaign against the Quebec Act, contrasting the culture of Enlightenment toleration among its drafters and defenders with the Protestant zealotry of its opponents and, latterly, the Gordon rioters in 1780. But this characterisation neglects the ecclesiological debate about the connection between the legislation and the Hanoverian church–state relationship. Drawing on Enlightenment critiques of priestcraft and superstition, opponents of the Quebec Act claimed that it established, rather than tolerated, Catholicism. By contrast, defenders of the Quebec Act argued that priestcraft and superstition were declining among Canadian Catholics and that enshrining the right of Catholic priests to collect tithes did not represent a church establishment. The debate turned on the problem of Catholic loyalty in a Protestant state. Opponents of the Quebec Act held that Protestants alone could reconcile secular and spiritual loyalties through the royal supremacy. Supporters of the Quebec Act not only claimed that conquered Catholics could be loyal to the imperial state, but also that they merited a bishop and endowed priests to perform the public offices of their faith, holding out the possibility that Catholicism could be a civil religion.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0013-8266
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 May 2024
Date of Acceptance:	22 October 2021
Last Modified:	23 May 2025 13:58
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/140428

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