Reprint of the original, first published in 1840.

Excerpt from A Succinct and Accurate Account: Of the System of Discipline, Education, and Theology Adopted and Pursued in the Popish College of Maynooth The Author sends the following work forth to the country, with the fervent hope that the important and painful truths which it undeniably contains, may not fail of awaking public attention to the state of an Institution for the support of which it is taxed, without knowing the demoralizing, vicious, and abominable principles inculcated therein. In the following pages little is said of the religious errors taught in the institution which forms their subject matter. He has confined himself to the practical principles of a pernicious tendency there maintained, which affect the rights, liberties, and lives of his Protestant fellow-subjects, and prove so detrimental to the peace, tranquillity, and well-being of his unhappy country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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The book of Genesis records the fiery fate of Sodom and Gomorrah—a storm of fire and brimstone was sent from heaven and, for the wickedness of the people, God destroyed the cities “and all the plains, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” According to many Protestant theologians and commentators, one of the Sodomites’ many crimes was homoerotic excess. In Visions of Sodom, H. G. Cocks examines the many different ways in which the story of Sodom’s destruction provided a template for understanding homoerotic desire and behaviour in Britain between the Reformation and the nineteenth century. Sodom was not only a marker of sexual sins, but also the epitome of false—usually Catholic—religion, an exemplar of the iniquitous city, a foreshadowing of the world’s fiery end, an epitome of divine and earthly punishment, and an actual place that could be searched for and discovered. Visions of Sodom investigates each of these ways of reading Sodom’s annihilation in the three hundred years after the Reformation. The centrality of scripture to Protestant faith meant that Sodom’s demise provided a powerful origin myth of homoerotic desire and sexual excess, one that persisted across centuries, and retains an apocalyptic echo in the religious fundamentalism of our own time.