The son of a Baptist preacher, Titus Oates’, incessant troublesome behavior and pretentions sooner caused him to plot his own stars that ended his life in misery and seclusion. While serving as a chaplain for the Protestants in 1677 under Henry VI of Norfolk, he became acquainted with Israel Tonge, an anti- Catholic fanatic. Tonge easily persuaded Oates of the existence of a conspiracy among the Jesuits’ to assassinate King Charles II and place his Roman Catholic brother, James, Duke of York on the throne. He went on to invent a series of treasonable letters and accounts and had forged them. His false allegations resulted in barbaric executions and deaths of many innocent lives. However, when King James II acceded the throne …show more content…
Rather, Oates was fined 2,000 marks, stripped of his clerical habit, sentenced to life imprisonment, whipped through the streets of London five days in a year for the rest of his life and pilloried four times in a year. During the reign of King Charles, Protestantism was the religion upheld by the monarchy and it was also at this time that the Church of England was restored as the national church after Cromwell’s Puritan protectorate had ended. Prior to this period, a faction existed between the Protestants and the Catholics. Catholics were perceived to be a threat to the English throne and the state and so during this period, any narratives regarding the Catholics will readily raise the prejudices of the people. Oates, who was in a terribly bad light with his ill-reputation and poor financial condition had to gain the interests of the people and propel himself back to society. Apparently, he was successful in exploiting the people’s traditional fear of the Roman Catholics with his fictitious ‘Poppish plot.’ This fear was a legacy borne of those dreadful days between Queen Mary Stuart who was Catholic and his half sister, Queen Elizabeth I, a protestant. And in the present