Popish Plot

A pretended plot in the reign of Charles II, having for its object the a a ination of the King and the forcible establishment of the Roman Catholic religion. The arch-informer, Titus Oates, was a renegade English clergyman, who had been admitted into the Jesuit order. It is po ible that there may have been some such scheme on foot, but the so-called revelations of Oates and his fellow-informers were nothing but a ti ue of absurdities. Unfortunately, the murder by some person unknown of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, before whom Oates made his first deposition, so inflamed the popular mind that no justice could be expected, and five Catholic peers denounced by Oates were sent to the Tower, while many innocent priests and others were condemned and executed.