Oates, Titus

Titus Ots was born in Ockham . His father, Samuel, was the head of Marsham County in Norfolk before becoming an Anabaptist during the English Revolution and reuniting with the Church of England during the Restoration of the Stuarts. Oates attended a school of tailor-traders (he was admitted there in June 1665), perhaps he studied at a school in Sussex for a while, then at Gonville and Cayus College in Cambridge from June 29, 1667 and St. John's College in Cambridge from February 2, 1668 or 1669. Oates was not a good student and was expelled from both schools, but subsequently claimed that he also studied at Westminster School before entering college. A few months after being expelled from the last college, he became an Anglican priest and vicar of the Bobbing ward in Kent. During this period, Oates was charged with perjury for reporting the sodomy of a teacher from Hastings. Oates was imprisoned, but escaped (according to another version - miraculously escaped prosecution for giving false evidence) and went to London.

In 1677, he was appointed as chaplain of the Adventurer in the English Navy. Soon he was charged with sodomy (which was punishable by the death penalty in England at that time) and was pardoned only because of his status as a priest.

After being expelled from the fleet, he went to the Catholic Duchy of Norfolk as an Anglican priest. On ashen Wednesday in 1677 he was admitted to the fold of the Catholic Church. Oddly enough, at the same time, Oates co-authored a number of anti-Catholic brochures with Israel Tong, whom he met through his father Samuel, who once again returned to Baptist doctrine.

Oates was associated with the Jesuit organizations of Saint-Omer (in France) and the Royal English College in Valladolid, Spain (like many diocese seminaries of the time, these were essentially Jesuit institutions). Oates was enrolled in Valladolid with the support of Richard Strange as brother Ambrose, despite his lack of even basic knowledge of Latin. He later lied that he became a doctor of Catholic theology. After a while he was expelled from Spain, but in October 1677 he applied for admission to Saint-Omer and entered there in December. Thomas Whitbred, however, took a tougher stance against Oates than Strange, and in June 1678 he expelled him from St. Omer.

When Oates returned to London, he revived his friendship with Israel Tong. Oates said that he pretended to be a Catholic to learn about the secrets of the Jesuits, and that before leaving, he heard about the planned meeting of the Jesuits in London.

Oates entered the history of the fabricated Papist conspiracy - through one of the royal ministers, using fake letters, he managed to convince King Charles II that the Catholics were secretly preparing an attempt on him. Oates's slander led to massive anti-Catholic hysteria in the country, massive arrests of Catholics and executions of famous people, but in the end his fraud was revealed.

On 31 August 1681, Oates was arrested for “calling for rebellion,” sentenced to a fine of £ 100,000, and thrown into prison. In May 1685, when Jacob II ascended the throne, Oates was convicted again - for giving false evidence - and was sentenced to several days of torture. So, on the first day he was tied to a pillory, and passers-by threw eggs on him, on the second day he was again tied to a pillar. On the third day he was stripped naked and dragged through the streets tied by the legs to the cart, after which they brutally flogged. The next day he was flogged again, and repeated flogging was thought to have killed him, but Oates still survived.

Oates spent the next three and a half years in prison. In 1689, after the accession to the throne of William of Orange and the beginning of yet another indignation against the Catholics, he received partial freedom and immediately tried to appeal his sentence to the House of Lords, whose members, admitting his injustice, nevertheless, when considering, confirmed it on 23 points out of 35. However, members of the House of Commons passed a bill repealing the decision; as a result, a joint conference was held at which the members of the House of Lords, recognizing that they were legally wrong, adhered to their previous definition. The issue with Oates was finally resolved by a royal pardon and a pension of £ 260 a year. The payment of the pension was then suspended, but in 1698 renewed and even increased to 300 pounds per year.

Heavy punishment and imprisonment did not change Oates in the least, and he spent the rest of his life in various dirty intrigues. In 1691, he met William Fuller , another conspirator and impostor, with whom he was involved in a new conspiracy, but did not achieve any success in this. He married a rich widow in 1693, but his extravagance soon led him to ruin. In 1696, he dedicated a book called Eikon Basilike to King William III of Orange, where he spoke negatively of the late King Jacob. In 1698, he was given the opportunity to become a member of the Baptist Church and began to preach at Wapping, but in 1701, as a result of a financial scandal, he was formally expelled from the church. Titus Oates died on July 12, 1705.