Castration of Popish Ecclesiastics

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 is ostensibly very offensive in tone, but G. C. Moore Smith thinks it might be an ironic satire in the manner of Defoe's The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, which promoted increased hostility towards another religious minority in England.

[4] The author's broader purpose in this pamphlet was to advocate for a Protestant alliance in Europe against Louis XIV's France.

[7] To the crimes with which the priests are charged is added, in conclusion, the following accusation:They not only corrupt the Morals of People themselves by such Practices and Principles as above mention'd, but bring over and encourage others to do it; particularly those Italians, &c. who sell and print Aretin's Postures; and in order to debauch the Minds of Women, and to make them guilty of unnatural Crims [sic] invent and sell 'em such things as Modesty forbids to name.The work was reprinted in Dublin as Reasons humbly offer'd to both houses of parliament, for a new Law to enact the castration or gelding of popish ecclasiastics, in this kingdom ... As the best way to prevent the growth of popery (Dublin, 1710; price 3d; 4to.

)[8] In the 19th century this pamphlet was reprinted by the Protestant Evangelical Mission and Electoral Union in a tract of 32 pages,[9] to which was added an Appendix containing the three following pieces: