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Titus Oates
Titus Oates
Titus Oates was born at Oakham. Though he was expelled from the Merchant Tailors' School at the age of 16, he attended Cambridge University, leaving, as his tutor noted, because "he was a great dunce, ran into debt; and, being sent away for want of money, never took a degree." Nevertheless, by 1673 Oates had somehow managed to enter the Anglican clergy. He used his office to defame a local schoolmaster, but he was denounced as a perjurer and jailed; later he escaped. After being expelled from a brief naval chaplaincy, Oates went to London, again posing as a cleric, though it is questionable whether he was ever ordained. In 1676 he joined forces with a vehement anti-Catholic clergyman, Israel Tonge. Together they projected an elaborate plan to discredit Roman Catholicism as a treasonous international conspiracy. The two, taking advantage of the not altogether unfounded rumor that King Charles II planned to sponsor the legalization of the Roman Catholic faith, magnified it into a specific plot to destroy the Protestant Church-state constitution. Oates, feigning conversion to Roman Catholicism for the purpose of gathering evidence, attended two Jesuit missionary schools on the Continent, being quickly expelled from both. He returned to England in 1678 with fictitious evidence that convinced gullible government officials of a plot to kill the king. For 3 years, Oates, through the apparently Catholic-inspired murder of an associate, the inadvertent discovery of seditious letters, confessions wrung from intimidated witnesses, and the timidity of the king himself, was given plenary power by Parliament and had merely to accuse to convict. He caused the execution of 35 persons, including the Roman Catholic archbishop of Ireland. Oates's testimony was not discredited until the end of 1681, when it was finally realized that his evidence was hearsay and contradictory. His power and large salary were gradually withdrawn, and when James II came to the throne in 1685, Oates was convicted of perjury, whipped, pilloried, and jailed. Though he was released after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rest of Oates's life was marked by lawsuits, debt, and fruitless intrigue and his entrance into, and expulsion from, the Baptist Church. He died in London in July 1705. Oates exploited the traditional English fear of Roman Catholicism between 1678 and 1681, terrifying the government into giving him complete judicial power. His emotional appeal to large audiences is an early instance of the political manipulation of public opinion. Further ReadingThe only biography of Oates is Elaine Dakers, Titus Oates (1949), and a short study of Oates is in Thomas Seccombe, ed., Lives of Twelve Bad Men (1894). These inadequate works should be supplemented by Sir John Pollock, Popish Plot (1903); David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2 vols., 1934; rev. ed. 1962); and Francis S. Ronald, The Attempted Whig Revolution of 1678-1681 (1937). □ |
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"Titus Oates." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Titus Oates." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404704815.html "Titus Oates." Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404704815.html |
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Titus Oates
Titus Oates 1649–1705, English conspirator. An Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal, he joined forces with one Israel Tonge to invent the story of the Popish Plot of 1678. Oates, who had been briefly a convert to Roman Catholicism, claimed that there was a Jesuit-guided plan to assassinate Charles II and to hasten the succession of the Catholic James, duke of York (later James II). The account was completely fabricated, and Oates, examined by the privy council, would perhaps have been immediately exposed had not treasonous letters from Edward Coleman, secretary of the duchess of York, to the French Jesuit, François La Chaise, been discovered as a result of his accusations. The unexplained death of Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, the judge to whom Tonge and Oates first told their story, was attributed without evidence to the Catholics, and three innocent men were hanged for it. A frenzy of anti-Catholic hatred swept through England, resulting in the judicial murder of a number of Roman Catholic peers and commoners and in the arrest and persecution of many others. Oates enjoyed temporary eminence and even accused Queen Catherine of plotting to poison the king. In 1685, Oates was convicted of perjury, severely flogged, and imprisoned. Under William III he was released and pensioned.
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"Titus Oates." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Titus Oates." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Oates-Ti.html "Titus Oates." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Oates-Ti.html |
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Oates, Titus
Oates, Titus (1649–1705). Perjurer and fabricator of the ‘Popish plot’. Despite his status as an Anglican priest, Oates's penchant was for lies and petty crime. Recognizing by the mid-1670s that the surest way to advancement was to feed the public taste for catholic scare-mongering, he wormed his way into catholic counsels, learning their secrets, and became a member of the faith himself in 1677. In 1678, he unveiled to the government his highly wrought tale of a conspiracy to overturn the protestant establishment for which corroborative evidence soon came to light. A wave of hysteria swept the country, the political impact of which was the Exclusion crisis, and Oates's accusations resulted in the execution of 35, including 9 Jesuit priests. From 1681, however, his testimony was increasingly discredited and he lost the court's protection. Tried in 1685 for perjury and condemned to life imprisonment, he was pardoned in 1689.
Andrew Hanham |
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JOHN CANNON. "Oates, Titus." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Oates, Titus." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-OatesTitus.html JOHN CANNON. "Oates, Titus." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O110-OatesTitus.html |
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Oates, Titus
Oates, Titus (1649–1705). Perjurer and fabricator of the ‘Popish plot’. Despite his status as an Anglican priest, Oates's penchant was for lies and petty crime. Recognizing by the mid‐1670s that the surest way to advancement was to feed the public taste for catholic scare‐mongering, he wormed his way into catholic counsels, and became a member of the faith himself in 1677. In 1678, he unveiled to the government his highly wrought tale of a conspiracy to overturn the protestant establishment. A wave of hysteria swept the country, the political impact of which was the Exclusion crisis, and Oates's accusations resulted in the execution of 35, including nine Jesuit priests. Tried in 1685 for perjury and condemned to life imprisonment, he was pardoned in 1689.
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JOHN CANNON. "Oates, Titus." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. JOHN CANNON. "Oates, Titus." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-OatesTitus.html JOHN CANNON. "Oates, Titus." A Dictionary of British History. 2004. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O43-OatesTitus.html |
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Oates, Titus
Oates, Titus (1649–1705) English clergyman and conspirator. He is remembered as the fabricator of the POPISH PLOT, a fictitious Jesuit plot that supposedly involved a plan to kill Charles II, massacre Protestants, and put the Catholic Duke of York on the English throne. Convicted of perjury in 1685, Oates was imprisoned in the same year, but was subsequently released and granted a pension.
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"Oates, Titus." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Oates, Titus." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-OatesTitus.html "Oates, Titus." A Dictionary of World History. 2000. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O48-OatesTitus.html |
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Oates, Titus
Oates, Titus (1649–1705) English author of the anti-Catholic Popish Plot (1678). He invented the story of a Jesuit plot to depose King Charles II. It provoked a hysterical reaction and encouraged efforts to exclude Charles' Catholic brother, the future James II, from the succession.
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"Oates, Titus." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "Oates, Titus." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-OatesTitus.html "Oates, Titus." World Encyclopedia. 2005. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O142-OatesTitus.html |
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Oates, Titus
Oates, Titus (1649–1705), conspirator. He spread stories of alleged RC intrigues to assassinate Charles II and place his brother James on the throne. The panic lasted from 1678 to 1681, and many people were executed on his false testimony.
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E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Oates, Titus." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Oates, Titus." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-OatesTitus.html E. A. LIVINGSTONE. "Oates, Titus." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. 2000. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O95-OatesTitus.html |
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Oates, Titus
Oates, Titus (1649–1705), the fabricator of the Popish Plot (1678), is the ‘Corah’ of Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Oates, Titus." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 26 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Oates, Titus." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 26, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-OatesTitus.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Oates, Titus." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 26, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-OatesTitus.html |
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