Titus Oates: Difference between revisions

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Titus Oates (1649–1705) was a clergyman who invented the "Popish plot".

Oates was born in Oakham, Rutland, and attended Caius College, Cambridge, where he gained a reputation for stupidity and homosexuality.^[1] He transferred to St John’s College in 1669 but left without a degree. In 1675, while living in Hastings, he falsely accused a local schoolmaster of sodomy in an attempt to become schoolmaster himself.^[1] Oates was accused of perjury, but escaped and fled to London. In 1677 he was appointed as a chaplain of the ship Adventurer in the English navy, but dismissed on suspicion of a homosexual offence.

In 1678 he claimed to have discovered a plot by Roman Catholics to murder King Charles II. This aroused considerable anti-Catholic feeling, but was eventually revealed as a forgery. In 1681 Oates was convicted of sedition and imprisoned. In 1685 he was tried again, this time for perjury and ordered to be imprisoned, pilloried, and whipped.

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 http://blogs.dickinson.edu/tellmewhy/2011/10/08/titus-oates-and-the-papist-plot-of-1678/

[dickinson-1] 1.0 ^1.1 http://blogs.dickinson.edu/tellmewhy/2011/10/08/titus-oates-and-the-papist-plot-of-1678/

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 '''Titus Oates''' (1649–1705) was a clergyman who invented the "Popish plot".
-Oates was born in Oakham, [[Rutland]], and attended Caius College, [[Cambridge]], where he gained a reputation for stupidity and homosexuality.<ref name=dickinson>http://blogs.dickinson.edu/tellmewhy/2011/10/08/titus-oates-and-the-papist-plot-of-1678/</ref> He transferred to St John’s College in 1669, but left without a degree. In 1675 he falsely accused a [[Hastings] ]schoolmaster of [[sodomy]] in an attempt to become schoolmaster himself.<ref name=dickinson /> Oates was accused of perjury, but escaped and fled to London. In 1677 he was appointed as a chaplain of the ship ''Adventurer'' in the English navy. He was soon accused of [[buggery]], which was a capital offence, and spared only because of his clergyman's status.
+Oates was born in Oakham, [[Rutland]], and attended Caius College, [[Cambridge]], where he gained a reputation for stupidity and homosexuality.<ref name=dickinson>http://blogs.dickinson.edu/tellmewhy/2011/10/08/titus-oates-and-the-papist-plot-of-1678/</ref> He transferred to St John’s College in 1669 but left without a degree. In 1675, while living in [[Hastings]], he falsely accused a local schoolmaster of [[sodomy]] in an attempt to become schoolmaster himself.<ref name=dickinson /> Oates was accused of perjury, but escaped and fled to London. In 1677 he was appointed as a chaplain of the ship ''Adventurer'' in the English navy, but dismissed on suspicion of a homosexual offence.
+In 1678 he claimed to have discovered a plot by Roman Catholics to murder King Charles II. This aroused considerable anti-Catholic feeling, but was eventually revealed as a forgery. In 1681 Oates was convicted of sedition and imprisoned. In 1685 he was tried again, this time for perjury and ordered to be imprisoned, pilloried, and whipped.
 ==References==