Titus Oates

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. He transferred to St John’s College in 1669, but left without a degree. He became vicar of Bobbing in Kent, but was charged with perjury after accusing a schoolmaster in Hastings of sodomy. Oates was put in jail, but escaped and fled to London. In 1677 he was himself 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.