MDDM 35 Christ and History

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While there was certainly anti-Catholic sentiment especially in a political
sense in England and the english colonies, the more devasting philosophical
anti-Catholic and anti-Jesuit (the two were not necessarily the same thing)
sentiment was centered in the Catholic countries themselves, especially France.
Voltaire, Diderot and the rest of "the philosophes" despised religion in
general and Catholicism in particular. Most of them were forced into hiding
if not exile, at least for some of their careers, and their books were regularly
burned in Paris at the order of the censor, the city council or both (Which usually
resulted in higher sales.)


In a message dated Wed, 20 Feb 2002  4:16:30 PM Eastern Standard Time, jbor writes:

> I don't think anyone has been reading the novel as "anti-Catholic" or
> "anti-Jesuit". I certainly don't read it this way. What it does do is give
> voice to the extreme anti-Catholic and anti-Jesuit sentiments which
> prevailed in England and America in the latter part of the 18th c., and
> which had prevailed for quite a time up to that point. The representation of
> these sentiments is in keeping with the historical authenticity of the great
> bulk of Pynchon's text.
> 
> best