This chapter examines the conceptualization of Catholic liturgical practices within the Protestant anti-Catholic polemics of early modern England. I argue that, insofar as Protestants typically glossed such practices as ‘idolatry’, and thus, as the worship of a false god, Protestants explicitly accused Catholics of falling victim to the deceptive tendencies of their imaginations. Hence, for English Protestants, Catholics were responsible for transforming the good news of the Gospel into a mere fiction of their own making. More than a mere rhetorical posture — though of course it was also that — it is here argued that Protestant anti-Catholic polemic encodes a more generalized anxiety about the role of imagination within religious, social and political life, and thus serves as a microcosm of larger-scale transformations within the intellectual and political discourse of early modern England. Most obviously, the emphasis on the imagination, in particular within Protestant polemics, indicates a new context into which traditional scholastic psychological categories were forced in order to accommodate confessional differentiation and the new political realities of a post-Reformation world. Thus, by understanding just what Protestant polemicists meant by fictions, we can open up deeper continuities across the intellectual and political discourse of the period.

中文翻译：

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“心灵的虚构”：现代早期英格兰的想象和偶像崇拜

本章考察了近代早期英格兰新教反天主教论战中天主教礼仪实践的概念化。我认为，就新教徒通常将这种做法掩饰为“偶像崇拜”，因此，作为对假神的崇拜，新教徒明确指责天主教徒成为他们想象中欺骗性倾向的牺牲品。因此，对于英国新教徒来说，天主教徒有责任将福音的好消息转变为他们自己编造的虚构。不仅仅是一种修辞姿态——当然也是如此——这里认为，新教的反天主教论战包含了一种更普遍的焦虑，即想象在宗教、社会和政治生活中的作用，因此，它是现代早期英格兰知识和政治话语中大规模变革的缩影。最明显的是，对想象力的强调，尤其是在新教论战中的强调，表明了一个新的背景，传统的经院心理学类别被迫进入一个新的背景，以适应信仰分化和宗教改革后世界的新政治现实。因此，通过理解新教辩论家对小说的含义，我们可以在这一时期的知识和政治话语中开辟更深层次的连续性。表明了一个新的背景，传统的经院心理学范畴为了适应宗教分化和宗教改革后世界的新政治现实而被迫置身其中。因此，通过理解新教辩论家对小说的含义，我们可以在这一时期的知识和政治话语中开辟更深层次的连续性。表明了一个新的背景，传统的经院心理学范畴为了适应宗教分化和宗教改革后世界的新政治现实而被迫置身其中。因此，通过理解新教辩论家对小说的含义，我们可以在这一时期的知识和政治话语中开辟更深层次的连续性。