Oates, Titus

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 plot, entirely invented, known under the name of "Oates's Plot" or "Popish Plot."

First an Anabaptist, then an Anglican, he feigned conversion in order to be able to frequent the Jesuits and ferret out their secrets; but he had himself expelled from their colleges of Valladolid (1667) and St-Omer (1668). Out of revenge, he lied, asserting that he had attended an assembly of the Jesuits on 27 Apr. 1668, at which the death of King Charles II, the massacre of the Protestants, and the restoration of the Catholic Church had been plotted. The accusation comprised 81 articles, and O., in defending it, fell into the most glaring contradictions, so much so that Charles II himself said he did not believe a word of it. Nevertheless Parliament, under pressure from Lord Shaftesbury, accepted it as true; arrests were carried out and sentences handed down. Over the course of 4 years there were 2000 arrests, and many innocent people were hanged as traitors, among them 11 Jesuits, 3 Franciscans, 1 Benedictine, 5 secular priests, and some laymen (18 of these martyrs were beatified in 1929). The last victim was the Bl. Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh.

O. was later tried, under James II, and condemned to prison and heavy fines; but he was released later, under William III of Orange, and restored to honor and to office by the Protestants.