THAT your Petitioner in the Year 1678, discovered a horrid Popish Conspiracy for the Destruction of the late King Charles the Second, his present Majesty, and the Protestant Religion within these Kingdoms; and prov'd it so fully, that several Parliaments, and Courts of Justice, before whom he gave his Testimony, de­clared their Belief of it by publick Votes, and the Condemnation of several of the Conspirators. For which Rea­son and because your Petitioner would not be terrified by their Threats, nor seduced by their Promises of great Rewards (with both which Temptations they often assaulted him) to desist in his Discovery; the Jesuits and Papists pursued him with an implacable Malice, and endeavoured to take away his Fame and Life, by suborning Witnesses to accuse him of Capital Crimes; but being defeated in that Villanous Attempt, they first procured King Charles the Second to withdraw that Protection and Subsistence his Majesty had, at the Request of several Parliaments, allowed to your Petitioner; and then instigated his Royal Highness the Duke of York to prosecute your Petitioner in an Action of Scandalum Magnatum, for speaking this notorious Truth, viz. That he the said Duke of York was reconciled to the Church of Rome; and that It is High Treason to be so reconciled wherein a Verdict and Judgment for one Hundred Thousand Pounds Damages were obtained against your Peti­tioners and your Petitioner was committed to the King's-Bench-Prison.

After this, the same Popish Party obtained leave from King Charles the second, to prefer two several Indictments against your Petitio­ner, for two pretended Perjuries in his Evidence concerning the said Conspiracy, which they brought on to Tryal in the Reign of King James the second; and your Petitioner was upon the Evidence of those very Witnesses, who had confronted him in three former Tryals, and were disbelieved; and through the Partial Behaviour of the Chief Justice Jeffreys, in brow-beating his Witnesses; and mis­leading the Juries, convicted of the said Pretended Perjuries, and received this inhumane and unparallel'd Sentence following, viz. ‘To pay two thousand Marks to the king; To be devested of his Canonical habit: To be brought into Westminster-Hall with a Paper upon his Head, with this Inscription, Titus Oates convicted upon full Evidence of two horrid Perjuries: To stand in and upon the Pillow two several days, for the space of an Hour: To be whip'd by the common Hang-man, from Aldgate to Newgate on Wednesday, and to be whip'd again on the Friday following from Newgate to Tiburn: To stand in and upon the Pillow five times in every Year of his Life; and to remain a Prisoner during his Life.’ Which Sentence being intended, as your Petitioner hath just reason to believe, to murther him, was accordingly executed with all the Circumstances of Barbarity; he having suffered some thousands of Stripes whereby he was put to unspeakable Tortures, and lay ten Weeks under the Surgeons Hands. Neither did their Cruelty cease here, but because your Petitioner, by God's Mercy miraculously supporting him, (and the extraordinary Skill of a Judicious Chirurgion) outlived that Bloody Usage, some of them afterwards got into your Petitioner's Chamber whilst he was weak in his Bed, and attempted to pull off the Plaisters apply'd to cure his Back, and threatned to destroy him: And that nothing within their Power or Malice might be wanting to compleat your Petitioner's Misery, they procured him to be loaded with Irons of excessive Weight for a whole Year, without any Intermission, even when his Legs were swoln with the Gout; and to be shut up in the Dun­geon, or Hole of the Prison, whereby he became impair'd in his Limbs, and contracted Convulsion Fits, and other Distempers, to the great Hazard of his Life. All which illegal Proceedings, and barbarous Inhumanities, your Petitioner humbly conceives were not only intended as a Revenge upon him, but likewise to cast a Reproach upon the Wisdom and Honour of four successive Parlia­ments who had given him Credit, and upon the Publick Justice of the Nation. And your Petitioner humbly hopes that since the Papists themselves have verified and confirmed his Evidence by their late open and avowed Violations of our Religion, Laws, and Li­berties, this Honourable House will vindicate the Proceedings of former Parliaments, and discharge your Petitioner from those Arbitrary and Scandalous Judgments, and the unjust Imprisonment he lies under.

Your Petitioner doth therefore most humbly beseech your Lordships and your Honours, to take his deplorable Case into your generous and tender Consideration, and to give him such Redress therein as to your Lordships and your Honours great Wisdom, Justice, and Goodness, shall seem meet:

And your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c.