Anti-Catholic protesters responding to the plot's "revelation", 1678
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy invented by Titus Oates that, from 1678 to 1681, gripped the kingdoms of England and Scotland in anti-Catholic hysteria. Oates, a compulsive liar and false priest, claimed to have infiltrated the Jesuits and discovered a Catholic conspiracy to assassinate King Charles II of England and empower the Catholic lords of England to replace him in power. His intricate web of accusations fueled public fears and paraonia, and the murder of the Protestant magistrate Edmund Berry Godfrey on 12 October 1678 lent credence to a Catholic conspiracy. The Catholic lords William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis, William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford, Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, William Petre, 4th Baron Petre, and John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse were arrested for their alleged involvement in the plot, and the Test Act, which excluded Catholics from membership in Parliament until 1829, was passed before their impeachment trial in 1679. Lord Petre died in the Tower of London in 1683, but the others were released in 1685 after the plot was proven false. The hysteria continued through the late 1670s and early 1680s; around 13 people were tried and executed for allegedly supporting Catholic plots. Nine Jesuits were executed and 12 died in prison, but inconsistencies in Oates' testimony began to unravel the plot. Eventually, Oates was arrested and convicted for perjury, exposing the fabricated nature of the conspiracy.