Popish Plot and led to conflict with parliament during the 1670s. In December 1677 an anonymous pamphlet (possibly by Andrew Marvell) spread alarm in London by suggesting that the Pope planned to change the lawful government of England. The fictitious Popish Plot unfolded in a very peculiar fashion. Oates and Israel Tonge, a fanatically anti-Catholic clergyman (who was widely believed to be insane), had written a large manuscript that accused the Catholic Church authorities of approving the assassination of Charles II. The Jesuits in England were to carry out the task. The manuscript also named nearly 100 Jesuits and their supporters who
A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish-Plot by a thief. The murder of Godfrey is an attempt by participants in the plot to bring the vengeance of "th[e] excess of Jesuitical rage" upon London by stealing from and setting fire to its houses, which they have attempted to do many times before. The narrator may even be attributing blame for the Great Fire of London of 1666 to the plotters: Y[ou] have seen how they once set the Town all in flame; And divers times since have attempted the same The narrator then credits the fraudster and informer William Bedloe for knowledge of Jesuits conniving their way