I have before me a narrative of “the horrid Popish plot,” by Capt. W. Bedloe, 1679; another by Miles Prance, 1679; and a collection of letters relating to it published by order of the House of Commons, 1681. Oates’ narrative, which, though dated the 27th of September, 1678, was not published until the following April, contains a digested statement, in eighty-one items, of all the particulars which he had alleged.
[2] The letters are published in the collection just named. Some are in Rapin, iii. 171.
[3] History of his Own Time, i. 434.
[4] Life of Calamy, i. 83.
[5] Defoe quoted in Knight’s Hist. of England, iv. 335.
[6] Stayley was executed November 26th, Coleman December 3rd.
[7] In the Moneys for Secret Services, published by the Camden Society, are numerous entries of sums paid to Oates and others. Curious references to Oates’ character as an impostor, may be found in Reresby’s Memoirs, 239, and North’s Lives, i. 325.
[8] State Papers, Dom. Charles II., 1678, November 1, December (without further date), and December 28. It would divert attention from the main current of this history to go fully into Oates’ plot. The historical student will find a bundle of papers bearing on the subject under date 1678, and further papers on the same subject under 1679, January to June.
[9] Lord Keeper North “was of opinion that the fiction of the Popish Plot did not arise from the accident of Tongue’s and Oates’ informations, but from a preconcerted design.” The reasons are given in a MS. of North’s, printed in Dalrymple’s Memoirs, ii. app. 320. That the plot was invented by Shaftesbury there seems no sufficient ground for believing. See Campbell’s Lives of Lord Chancellors, iv. 197.
[10] Rapin, iii. 172. Evelyn says, “For my part I look on Oates as a vain insolent man, puffed up with the favour of the Commons, for having discovered something really true, more especially as detecting the dangerous intrigue of Coleman, proved out of his own letters, and of a general design which the Jesuited party of the Papists ever had and still have, to ruin the Church of England.”—Diary, ii. 140.