OATES'S PLOT
174
OATES'S PLOT
a ribbon-weaver in Norfolk who, having taken a de-
gree at Cambridge, afterwards became a minister of
the Estabhslied Church.
Titus Gates began his career at Merchant Taylors' School in 1G65, when he was sixteen. He was ex- pelled two years later and went to a school at Scdles- combe, near Hastings, whence he passed to Cambridge in 16t57, being entered as a sizar in Gonville and Cains College, whence he afterwards migrated to St. John's. His reputation at Cains, accdrding to a fellow student, was that of "the most ilUtcnit<' dunce, inoa])able of improvement"; at St. John's, Dr. Watson wrote of him: "He was a great dunce, ran into debt, and, being sent away for want of money, never took a degree". "Removing from there", says Echard, "he slipped into Orders", and was preferred to the vicarage of Bobbing in Kent, on 7 ^Iarch, 1673. At this time or earlier, according to the evidence of Sir Denis Ash- burnham at Father Ireland's trial, "he did swear the Peace against a man" and was forsworn, but they did not proceed upon the indictment. Next year he left Bobbing, with a licence for non-residence and a repu- tation for dishonesty, to act as curate to his father at Hastings. There father and son conspired to bring against Wm. Parker, the schoolmaster, an abomi- nable charge so manifestly trumped up that Samuel was ejected from his living, while Titus, charged with perjury, was sent to prison at Dover to await trial. Having broken jail and escaped to London, unpur- sued, he next procured an appointment as chaplain on board a king's ship sailing for Tangier, but within twelve months was expelled from the Navy.
In August, 1676, he was frequenting a club which met at the Pheasant Inn, in Fuller's Rents, and there, for the first time, he met Catholics. His admittance into the Duke of Norfolk's household, as Protestant chaplain, followed almost immediately. On Ash \^'ednesday, 1677, he was received into the Catholic Church. The Jesuit Father Hutchinson (alias Berry) was persuaded to welcome him as a repentant prodigal and Father Strange, the provincial, to give him a trial in the F.nclisii College at Valladolid. Five months later, ( )ai( > « :i^ ixpcDed from the Spanish college and, on 30 < III , lii77, was scut back to London. In spite of his di.-j;iacu, the Jesuit provincial was persuaded to give him a second trial, and on 10 Dec. he was ad- mitted into the seminary at St. Omers. He remained there as "a younger student" till 23 June, 1678. After being expelled from St. Omer's also, he met Tonge, probably an old acquaintance, and conceived and concocted the story of the "Popish Plot".
Israel Tonge was, as Echard describes him, "a city divine, a man of letters, and of a prolifick head, fill'd with all the Romish plots and conspiracies since the Reformation". There is some evidence and con- siderable likelihood that he not only suggested the idea of the plot to Oates by his talk, but actually co- operated in its invention. At Stafford's trial Oates declared that he never was but a sham Catholic. If this be true, we may accept Eehard's assertion as probable: that Tonge "persuaded him [Oates] to in- 6inuat(' himself among the Papists and get particular a<'quainlance with them". Moreover, it is credibly reported that, at a great supper given in the city by Alderman Wilcox in honour of Oates, when Tonge was present, the latter's jealousy led to a verbal quar- rel between the two informers, and Tonge plainly told Oates that "he knew nothing of the plot, but what he learned from him". Tonge may or may not have helped Oates in the manufacture of his wares; but he undoubtedly enabled him to bring them to market and dispose of them to advantage. With the help of Kirkby, a man associated with the royal laboratory, he succeeded in bringing the plot before the careless and sceptical notice of King Charles.
Oates' depositions, as they may be read in his "True and Exact Narrative of the Horrid Plot and Con-
spiracy of the Popish Party against the Life of His
Sacred Majesty, the Government and the Protestant
Religion, etc., published by the Order of the Right
Honorable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Par-
liament assembled ", are in themselves clumsy, puerile,
ill-written, disjointed libels, hardly worth notice but
for the frenzied anger they aroused. The chief items
tell of a design to assassinate the king, or ratlier a
complication of plots to do away with "48" or "the
Black Bastard" — His Majesty's supposed designa-
tions among the Catholic conspirators. Pickering, a
Benedictine lay brother, antl Grove (Honest William),
a Jesuit servant, are told off to shoot hiiii with
"jointed carabines" and silver bullets, in considera-
tion of £1,500 to be paid to Grove and 30,000 Masses
to be said for Pickering's soul. To make more cer-
tain of the business, the king is to be poisoned by Sir
George Wakeman, the queen's physician, at a cost
of £15,000. Furthermore he is to be stabbed by An-
derton and Coniers, Benedictine monks. All these
methods failing, there are in the background four
Irish ruffians, hired by Dr. Fogarthy, who "were
to mind the King's Postures at Winsdor" and have
one pound down and £80 afterwards in full discharge
of their expenses. There is some frivolous talk of
other assassinations — of the removal of the Prince of
Orange, the Duke of Ormonde, Herbert, Lord Bishop
of Hereford and some lesser fry. And Oates himself
is offered and actually accepts £50 to do away with
the 1;errible Dr. Tonge, "who had basely put out the
Jesuits' morals in English".
Summing up the plot with the help of someone more scholarly than himself, Oates makes the following declaration: "The General Design of the Pope, Society of Jesus, and their Confederates in this Plot, is, the Reformation, that is, (in their sense) the Reduction of Great Britain and Ireland, and all His Majesties Do- minions by the Sword (all other wayes and means being judged by them ineffectual) to the Romish Religion and Obedience. To effect this design; 1. The Pope hath entitled himself to the Kingdomes of England and Ireland. 2. Sent his Legate, the Bishop of Cassal in Italy into Ireland to declare his Title, and take possession of that Kingdom. 3. He hath appointed Cardinal Howard his Legat for England to the same purpose. 4. He hath given Commission to the Gen- eral of the Jesuites, and by him to While, their Provin- cial in England, to issue, and they have issued out, and given Commissions to Captain Generals, Lieutenant Generals, etc., namely, the General of the Jesuites hath sent Commissions from Rome to Langhorn their Ad- vocate General for the Superior Officers: And White hath given Commissions here in England to Colonels, and inferior Officers. 5. He hath by a Consult of the Jesuits of this Province Assembled at London, con- demned His Majesty, and ordered Him to be a.ssassi- nated, etc. 6. He hath Ordered, That in case the Duke of York will not accept these Crowns as forfeited by his Brother unto the Pope, as of his Gift, and settle such Prelates and Dignitaries in the Church, and such Officers in Commands and places Civil, Naval and Military, as he hath commissioned as above, extirpate the Protestant Religion, and in order thereunto ex post f ado, consent to the assassination of the King hia Brother, Massacre of His Protestant Subjects, firing of his Towns, etc., by pardoning the Assassins, Mur- derers and Incendiaries, that then he be also poysoned or destroyed, after they have for some time abused His Name and Title to strengthen their Plot, weak- ened and divided the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland thereby in Civil Wars and Rebellions as in His Father's Time, to make way for the French to seize these Kingdoms, and totally ruine their Infantry and Naval Force."
Besides this Papal, there appears also another French plot, or correspondence (an afterthought, sug- gested to Oates by the discovery of Coleman's letters).
