"
Another historian who lived in those days, the Rev. Laurence
Eachard, Archdeacon of Stowe, states Dr. Tonge was "a man of
letters, and had a prolific head filled with all the Romish plots
and conspiracies since the reformation." According to this
author, Tonge took Oates into his house, provided him with
lodging, diet, and clothes; and when the latter complained he
knew not where to get bread, the rector told him "he would put
him in a way." After this, finding Oates a man of great
ingenuity and cunning, "he persuaded him," says Archdeacon
Eachard, "to insinuate himself among the papists, and get
particular acquaintance with them; which being effected, he let
him understand that there had been several plots in England to
bring in popery, and that if he would go beyond sea among the
Jesuits, and strictly observe their ways, it was possible there
might be one at present; and if he could make that out, it would
be his preferment for ever; but, however, if he could get their
names, and some information from the papists, it would be very
easy to rouse people with the fears of popery."
Hungering for gold, and thirsting for notoriety, Oates quickly
agreed to the scheme laid before him. Accordingly he became
acquainted with, and was received into the Catholic Church by,
Father Berry, a Jesuit, and in May, 1677, was sent by the Jesuits
to study in one of their seminaries, situated in Valladolid, in
Spain. Oates, however, though he had proved himself an excellent
actor, could not overcome his evil propensities, and before seven
months had passed, he was expelled from the monastery.
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