The Popish Damnable Plot against our Religion and Liberties fairly laid open and discover’d…

Ezerel Tonge. (Attrib.),

The Popish Damnable Plot against our Religion and Liberties fairly laid open and discover’d…

London : printed for R. Janeway. 1680

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A series of passages related to the Popish Plot followed by “animadversions on the foregoing Breviats”. Here in the First Edition, complete with the initial blank, often missing.

The volume(s) measure about cm. by cm. by cm.

Each leaf measures about 293 mm. by 193 mm.

The full title reads:

The Popish Damnable Plot against our Religion and Liberties fairly laid open and discover’d in the breviats of threescore and four letters and papers of intelligence past betwixt the Pope, Duke of York, Cardinal Norfolk, Cardinal Cibo, Cardinal Barbarina, nuntio and internuncio for the Pope in Italy, France and Flanders, and the Lord Arundel, Mr. Coleman, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Conne. And also the said Mr. Coleman, Albany, Sr. German, Lybourn, Sheldon, Throgmorton, and several others. As they were drawn up by the Secret Committee of the House of Commons, for the satisfaction of the House of Lords, in the bill against the Duke of York, and expected tryals of the Lords. Now published for the vindication of the House of Commons upon the said bill, and for satisfaction of all the faithful subjects of His Majesties kingdoms, with several animadversions and remarks made upon the said letters. London : printed for R. Janeway in Queens-Head Alley in Pater-Noster-Row, MDCLXXX. [1680]

The volume is paginated as follows: [4], 31, [1] p. First leaf is blank.

The volume collates as follows:  [A]² B-I².

ESTC: R28265  Wing T1879A

The Volume is in Very good Condition disbound, with generally clean, well margined leaves, some mild general toning, as well as some small creases and fox marks. The paper has softened a bit and there is some tearing where it was removed from a binding.

Please take the time necessary to review the photos On Our Website in order to gain a better understanding of the content and condition of the volume.

Israel Tonge (11 November 1621 – 1680), aka Ezerel or Ezreel Tongue, was an English divine. He was an informer in and probably one of the inventors of the “Popish” plot.

On Oates’s return from France he further stoked Tonge’s paranoia with stories of Jesuit conspiracies, including a plot against a feared anti-Catholic author – Tonge himself. At Tonge’s request Oates wrote a lengthy manuscript- the first of many Plot Narratives- and arranged with Tonge that Tonge would pretend to find it in the gallery of Sir Richard Barker’s house at the Barbican, where Tonge was then living. So excited was Tonge by the contents of the Narrative that through his friend, the chemist Christopher Kirkby, who assisted the King with his chemical experiments, he managed to obtain an audience with Charles II, where he summarised Oates’ claims.

Charles soon became a complete sceptic about the Plot, but his initial reaction was that “among so many particulars he could not say that there might not be some truth”. He was at least sufficiently impressed to ask the Lord Treasurer, Danby, to investigate. Danby agreed that the matter deserved inquiry, despite opposition from another leading minister, Sir Joseph Williamson, who knew Tonge and believed he was insane.

Tonge then took two crucial decisions: firstly he persuaded Oates to swear to the truth of his allegations before the much respected magistrate, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. Secondly he persuaded the King and Danby to put the matter before a full meeting of the Privy Council. At the hearing Tonge himself made a bad impression: his reputation for madness was well known, and he was “altogether smiled at “. Oates on the other hand gave a superb performance: so detailed and convincing was his story that the Council ordered the arrest of all the leading Jesuits accused, as well as Edward Coleman, former secretary to the Duke of York (later James II & VII.) The news of this, followed by the murder of Godfrey, caused public hysteria to erupt.

During the years of the Plot, Tonge was a secondary figure: he did not claim to have any first hand knowledge of the Plot itself, and was never a witness in any of the Plot trials. However a generous allowance from the Crown allowed him to live out his last years in comfort at Whitehall; the Crown even paid for his funeral.

Tonge’s reputation has suffered through his close association with Oates, and some historians have bracketed them together as a pair of perjurers. However J. P. Kenyon, in his classic study of the Plot, concludes that Tonge truly believed Oates’ lies, because they confirmed his own fixed belief in a Jesuit conspiracy. That Tonge was an honest fanatic seems to have been the view of most of those who knew him, including the King, Danby, and Gilbert Burnet, who wrote in 1678 that Tonge was “so lifted up that he seemed to have lost the little sense he had.”

Wikipedia

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