Romanism

{{Short description|Historical and derogatory name for Roman Catholicism}}

{{about|anti-Catholicism|the scholarly discipline|Romance studies|the Flemish school of painters|Romanism (painting)|other uses|Romanist (disambiguation){{!}}Romanist}}

{{refimprove|date=December 2021}}

File:The history of Romanism- from the earliest corruptions of Christianity to the present time - with full chronological table, analytical and alphabetical indexes and glossary. Illustrated by numerous (14779038452).jpg authoring his book The History of Romanism.{{cite book

|title=The History of Romanism: from the Earliest Corruptions of Christianity to the Present Time

|url=https://archive.org/details/historyromanism00dowlgoog

|first=John

|last=Dowling

|year=1845

|edition=fourth

|publisher=E. Walker

|pages=–2}}]]

Romanism is a derogatory term for Roman Catholicism used when anti-Catholicism was more common in the United States.

The term was frequently used in late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Republican invectives against the Democrats, as part of the slogan "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" (referencing the Democratic party's constituency of Southerners and anti-Temperance, frequently Catholic, working-class immigrants). The term and slogan gained particular prominence in the 1884 presidential campaign and again in 1928, in which the Democratic candidate was the outspokenly anti-Prohibition Catholic Governor of New York Al Smith.

In Northern Ireland, the term was also used by Democratic Unionist Party founder Ian Paisley in anti-Catholic speeches.{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zlwLyZwnBg | title=Rev Ian Paisley 1966 – YouTube | website=YouTube }}