author
William Hogan
d. 1848
An Irish-born former Catholic priest who became a fiercely controversial religious writer in the United States, he is best known for anti-Catholic books that stirred strong debate in the 1830s and 1840s. His life moved from the pulpit to the public stage, where his lectures and publications drew both attention and criticism.
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About the author
Born in Ireland around 1788, William Hogan was educated at Maynooth College and was ordained as a Catholic priest before emigrating to the United States in 1819. After working in New York and then Philadelphia, he became a highly contentious figure in the American Catholic Church and was eventually expelled from priestly ministry.
He later reinvented himself as a lecturer and author. Writing from the perspective of a former priest, he published strongly anti-Catholic works including Auricular Confession and Popish Nunneries and Popery! as It Was and as It Is, books that found a readership in a period of intense religious and political tension in the United States.
Hogan died in Nashua, New Hampshire, on January 3, 1848. His books remain part of the history of 19th-century American religious controversy, reflecting both his turbulent personal story and the wider conflicts of the era.