A HISTORY OF LONDON growing ; James Duke of York was formally received into the Roman Church in 1672, and in March of the same year Charles issued the Declaration of Indulgence/^ withdrawn in 1673, when the Commons expressed their views in the Test Act. In the City the Fire was ascribed to the Papists, and this suspicion was recorded on the Monument ;" on 5 November 1673 the pope was burnt in effigy in Cheapside with extraordinary pageantry as a protest against the Duke of York's religion and his marriage with Mary of Modena/* and the Court of Aldermen ordered a search for Popish recusants in the City.'* The unpopularity of the duke and his co-religionists was increased in 1675 by the story of the attempt to coerce one Luzancy, a convert to the Church of England, who was threatened by a Jesuit belonging to the household of the Duchess of York,^" and a year later Edward Coleman, secretary to the duchess, was arrested on suspicion of being involved in a plot to force Romaa Catholicism on the country." All these events resulted in suspicion and unrest, voiced by the unsuc- cessful Exclusion Bill, and led to the crisis of 1678, following Titus Oates's revelation of his story to Dr. Tonge, rector of the destroyed church of St. Mary Staining, and a well-known opponent of the Roman Church.'* This is not the place for a discussion of the Popish Plot, but there is no doubt that the panic fostered by Oates had a considerable effect on the position of Roman Catholics in London during this and the following reign. All classes shared in the excitement ; on 3 December 1679 a proclamation was issued commanding the departure of all Papists from the City ;" the Court of Aldermen issued precepts for weekly searches for Papists, all recusants had to take the oath, and those common councilmen who had not taken the sacra- ment within the year were ordered to withdraw." In 1679 also the Court of Aldermen formally congratulated the king and Parliament on their care in maintaining the Protestant religion, and in 1 680-1 they received the thanks of the Short Parliament." The excitement of the people was increased by the trained bands being called out nightly," and posts and chains being put up in the streets." Rumours of murders and massacres abounded,*' and pre- posterous stories were recounted and believed,*' while the lord mayor received numerous petitions against the Popish Plot.™ The coronation day of Queen Elizabeth was celebrated with an elaborate procession ; " the Duke of Mon- mouth was the hero of the City," and at the election of the sheriffs in 1680 ' No Yorkist, No Papist ' was the popular cry." The Addresses of 1680 marked a lull in the sensation ; Oates brought discredit on the Plot, and probably through the influence of Charles II the Roman Catholics conducted their work quietly, though they were arriving in London in increasing numbers.^* " Evelyn, Diary, 12 Mar. 1 67 2. '" Sh.irpe, Lond. and the Kingdom, ii, 418 ; Rec. Corp. Repert. Ixxxvi, fo). 151, 162
- Evelyn, Diary, 5 Nov. 1 673 ; Hatton Coiresp. (Camd. Soc), i, 119. *' Rec. Corp. Repert. Ixxix, fol. 36.
■" Reresby, Mm. 8 Nov. 1675 ; J. F. Pollock, The Popish Plot, 16. " Reresby, Tl/^OT. 25 Oct. 1676. ** Evelyn, Diary, I Oct. 1678. " Wilkins, Concilia, iv, 604. " Rec. Corp. Repert. Ixxxiv, fol. 6, I I ; Journ. xlix, fol. 90. " Ibid. Repert. Ixxxiv, fol. 122^-4 ; Journ. xlix, fol. 41^5, 170. " Efistolary Curiosities (ed. R. Warner), 108, 113. " Cal.imy, Hist. Acct. of my own Life, i, 83. •^ B.ixter, Breviate of the Life of . . . Margaret, aife of Richard Baxter, 77. Cf. The Papist Oath of Secrecy (B.M. Pressmark 816, m, 22, no. 40). '" Rec. Corp. Repert. Ixxxiv, fol. 122^ et seq. " London's Defiance to Rome. " Hatton Corresp. (Camd. Soc), i, 203. " Life and Letters of Rachel IVriothesley, Lady Russell, 132. " Evelyn, Diary, 18 June 1683. 344
