Castration of Popish Ecclesiastics
Anti-Catholic pamphlet (1700) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reasons humbly offer'd for a Law to enact the Castration of Popish Ecclesiastic[k]s is an anonymous anti-Catholic quarto pamphlet published in London in 1700. The work has been disputedly attributed to Daniel Defoe.[1][2][3]
The book accuses the Roman Catholic priests of practicing infanticide and sexual immorality. Concluding that the priests are more lecherous than ordinary men, the author suggests their punishment by enforced castration. Besides its anti-clericalism, the book also advocates for an alliance of the European Protestants against the Catholic France of Louis XIV.