Titus Oates

1648-1705. A leader of the 1678 Popish Plot.* Born at Oakham, Rutland, son of a Baptist minister of checkered career, he received Anglican ordination in 1673 without an academic degree, was converted to Catholicism but expelled from their schools in Spain, and returned to London with alleged information of a plot to assassinate Charles II and place the Roman Catholic duke of York on the throne. With Israel Tonge he produced documentary “proof” which caused a great stir and for a time made him a hero. The plot was discounted, Oates was convicted of perjury in 1685, and died in obscurity.