CATHOLIC HYSTERIA

In 1680 England was in a state of crisis. Allegations had been made in a manuscript by ex-priest Titus Oates of a clandestine fifth column of Catholics operating in secret. This group had the motive and – with the help of Catholic France and Ireland – the means to carry out their threat: to invade England, overthrow the king, burn London to the ground and install the Duke of York, who had known Catholic sympathies, as king, under the Pope.

When the magistrate investigating the claims in the manuscript, Sir Edmundberry Godfrey, was mysteriously murdered, panic set in. The plot took on a life of its own. With nothing more than Oates as a star witness, members of the House of Lords were impeached (trial by their fellow peers in the Lords chamber) and duly executed for their supposed involvement in the plot. The queen’s physician, Sir George Wakeman, and the queen herself were placed under suspicion. Meanwhile, Protestant-minded MPs came together to pass acts of parliament at first limiting the powers of the Duke of York and then to explicitly exclude him from the line of succession. Charles only managed to stop the rebels by dissolving parliament. The tension in London was palpable. There were genuine fears