R Hampton:

You say: <<>>

I see. I assumed he was thinking more broadly of the planet at large, where Catholics were then (and, I think, are now) the largest religion. The same would apply if he were thinking of what he would have thought of as the civilized world; i.e., America and Europe and all British and European colonies collectively.

I knew of course that Catholics were far fewer in America (in his day, that is; unless I’m mistaken they’re the most numerous single American denomination [i]now[/i], though the Protestant denominations, taken together, outnumber them).

Anyway, had he said merely “superstition” I would have assumed he meant Christians in America, but “monkish” threw me off; so I assumed he had European history in mind.