Popish Plot

The Popish Plot (1678–1681) was an alleged Catholic conspiracy. In fact the plot was devised as part of a conspiracy to discredit Catholics in England.

In 1678 a pair of corrupt English clergymen named Titus Oates and Israel Tonge announced that they had uncovered a "Popish Plot" to murder King Charles II of England and replace him with James, his Roman Catholic brother. Nonconformists rushed to support the Anglican Whigs, who consequently won a great majority in the House of Commons. In 1679 the Whigs passed the "Exclusion Bill" to keep James from the throne, but the act failed to pass the House of Lords. It later became known that Oates and Tonge had lied; the Whigs — having capitalized on near civil war — suffered a decline in popularity.

Gallery

Informer William Bedloe	Titus Oates uncovers plot	Magistrate Edmund Berry Godfrey with Oates	William Brooks, Alderman of Dublin
Thomas Pickering, Benedictine monk and victim of the Popish Plot	Nathaniel Reading in Pillory	Edward Coleman a victim of Oates's plot	The execution of the five Jesuits

Literature

• Douglas C. Green (Hg.), Diaries of the Popish Plot, New York 1977
• John Kenyon, The Popish Plot, Phoenix Press 1972 ISBN 1842121685
• John Pollock, The Popish Plot: A Study in the History, Kessinger Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1417965762
• Caroline M. Hibbard, Charles I and the Popish Plot. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1983

See also

• Anti-Catholicism
• Bigotry
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• Playing card
• Popery

External links

• Nathaniel Reading
• Names of eight Jesuit victims

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