OATES, Titus. - Political-religious adventurer, b. at Oakham (Rutlandshire) in 1649, d. in London on 23 July 1705. His name is linked to the famous fabricated plot, known as the “Oates’s Plot” or “Popish Plot.”
Originally an Anabaptist, then an Anglican, he pretended to be converted in order to infiltrate and uncover the secrets of the Jesuits; but he was expelled by their colleagues at Valladolid (1667) and at St-Omer (1668). In revenge, he fabricated the claim that on 27 April 1668 he had attended a meeting of Jesuits at which the death of King Charles II, the massacre of Protestants, and the restoration of the Catholic Church were plotted. The accusation comprised eight articles, and in defending it Oates fell into the most glaring contradictions, so much so that King Charles II himself declared that he did not believe a word of II. Nevertheless, under pressure from Lord Shaftesbury, Parliament accepted it as true; arrests were made and sentences passed. Over four years there were 2,000 arrests, and many innocent people were hanged as traitors, including eleven Jesuits, three Franciscans, one Benedictine, five secular priests, and several laymen (eighteen of these martyrs were beatified in 1929). The last victim was Bl. Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh.
Oates was later tried under James II and sentenced to imprisonment and heavy fines; but he was later released under William III of Orange and reinstated in honour and office by the Protestants.