ABSTRACT
In the context of ultra-Protestant militancy in Britain and its colonies during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, memories of religious intolerance were mobilised by activists to generate popular support. In an attempt to curb growing State religious tolerance, anti-Catholic militants used both memory and history to show how deeply violent and intolerant Roman Catholicism had been and still was. Hence, different types of memorial strategies were used: commemorative monuments for Protestant martyrs, mass circulation of booklets and pamphlets, street demonstrations. Furthermore, ultra-Protestants popularised their vision of history in books, newspapers, and periodicals by arguing that since the Reformation, God’s plan for the ‘chosen’ Britons included moral vigour, religious fervour, imperial expansion, and economic prosperity. Overall, their anti-Catholic discourses and actions did not impede State religious toleration, but their undertakings were symptomatic of competing visions of national identities.
