it could have obtained credence among sane men, but in the state of
opinion at the time, it was seized upon by Shaftesbury and others as
the best means of stirring up a great anti-Catholic agitation that
would bar the way to the accession of the Duke of York. The mysterious
death of Sir Edmund Godfrey, a London magistrate to whom Oates had
entrusted a copy of his depositions, and the discovery of some French
correspondence amongst the documents of Father Coleman, the private
secretary of the Duchess of York, helped to strengthen public belief
in the existence of the plot. When Parliament met in 1678 both houses
professed their belief in the existence of a "damnable and hellish
plot," voted a salary to Oates, ordered all Catholics to leave London
and Westminster, procured the arrest of a number of Catholic peers,
and decreed the exclusion of Catholics from the House of Commons and
the House of Lords by exacting a declaration against the Mass,
Transubstantiation and the invocation of the Blessed Virgin (1678). It
was only with the greatest difficulty that the king succeeded in
securing an exemption in favour of the Duke of York. A number of
priests and laymen were arrested, one of whom was put to death in
1678, eleven in 1679, two in 1680 and one, the Venerable Oliver
Plunket, Archbishop of Armagh, the last victim put to death for
religion upon English soil, in 1681. In addition to this eight priests
were put to death during the agitation merely because they were
priests.[18]

Three times the Exclusion Bill was introduced, but it failed to become
law owing to the determination of Charles II. to uphold the rights of
his brother. At last the storm of passion began to die away, and the
absurd statements of Oates, even though supported by the testimonies
of infamous hirelings like Bedloe and Dangerfield, were no longer
accepted as trustworthy. Shaftsebury was obliged to make his escape