The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part F.: From Charles II. to James II.
David Hume · en
the pope; that he confirm all the papal commissions for offices and
employments; that he ratify all past transactions, by pardoning the
incendiaries, and the murderers of his brother and of the people; and
that he consent to the utter extirpation of the Protestant religion. If
he refuse these conditions, he himself was immediately to be poisoned or
assassinated. “To pot James must go,” according to the expression
ascribed by Oates to the Jesuits.
Oates, the informer of this dreadful plot, was himself the most infamous
of mankind. He was the son of an Anabaptist preacher, chaplain to
Colonel Pride; but having taken orders in the church, he had been
settled in a small living by the duke of Norfolk. He had been indicted
for perjury, and by some means had escaped. He was afterwards a chaplain
on board the fleet; whence he had been dismissed on complaint of some
unnatural practices not fit to be named. He then became a convert to
the Catholics; but he afterwards boasted, that his conversion was a mere
pretence, in order to get into their secrets and to betray them.[*] He
was sent over to the Jesuits’ college at St. Omers, and though above
thirty years of age, he there lived some time among the students. He
was despatched on an errand to Spain; and thence returned to St. Omers;
where the Jesuits, heartily tired of their convert, at last dismissed
him from their seminary. It is likely that, from resentment of
this usage, as well as from want and indigence, he was induced, in
combination with Tongue, to contrive that plot of which he accused the
Catholics.
This abandoned man, when examined before the council, betrayed his
impostures in such a manner, as would have utterly discredited the most
consistent story, and the most reputable evidence. While in Spain, he
had been carried, he said, to Don John, who promised great assistance to
the execution of the Catholic designs. The king asked him what sort of
a man Don John was: he answered, a tall, lean man; directly contrary to
truth, as the king well knew.[**] He totally mistook the situation of
the Jesuits’ college at Paris.[***] Though he pretended great intimacies
with Coleman, he knew him not, when placed very near him; and had no
other excuse than that his sight was bad in candle light.[****] He fell
into like mistakes with regard to Wakeman.
* Burnet Echard, North, L’Estrange, etc.
** Burnet North.
*** North.
**** Burnet, North, Trials.