According to Tolkien, Lewis' belief that support for the Nationalists equated to Fascism was grounded in a refusal to face facts about Republican war crimes, which in turn was based in residual Anti-Catholicism from his Protestant upbringing in Northern Ireland, "But hatred of our church is after all the real foundation of the Cof E[ngland — so deep laid that it remains even when all the superstructure seems removed (C.S.L. for instance reveres the Blessed Sacrament, and admires nuns!). Yet if a Lutheran is put in jail he is up in arms; but if Catholic priests are slaughtered — he disbelieves it (and I daresay really thinks they asked for it). But Campbell shook him up a bit."