Anti-Catholic sentiment came deeply engrained in the American psyche. Primarily English and overwhelmingly Protestant, America's earliest settlers carried racial memories of Henry VIII's Reformation, Mary Tudor's bloody reaction, Elizabeth I's battle against Catholics at home, abroad and across the Scottish border, the Stuart restoration and Glorious Revolution. France and Spain remained England's perennial enemies, menacing England, its empire and its colonies. Thus the early colonies proclaimed themselves a Protestant bastion, restricting the rights and franchise of ...