This republic, indeed, had fallen, but the
distrust of the aims of the Roman Catholic Church remained
intense and burst into passionate fury the moment an
understanding of the aims of France gained currency.
There are indeed few passages in English history less creditable
than the panic fear of Roman Catholic plots which swept the
country in the days when Frontenac at Quebec was working to
destroy English and Protestant influence in America. In 1678,
Titus Oates, a clergyman of the Church of England who had turned
Roman Catholic, declared that, while in the secrets of his new
church, he had found on foot a plot to restore Roman Catholic
dominance in England by means of the murder of Charles II and of
any other crimes necessary for that purpose. Oates said that he
had left the Church and returned to his former faith because of
the terrible character of the conspiracy which he had discovered.
His story was not even plausible; he was known to be a man of
vicious life; moreover, Catholic plotters would hardly murder a
king who was at heart devoted to Catholic policy.
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