Israel Tonge (11 November 1621 – 1680), aka Ezerel or Ezreel Tongue, was an English

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

. He was an informer in and probably one of the inventors of the "Popish" plot.

Career

Tonge was born at

Tickhill Tickhill is a market town and civil parish in the City of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, close to the border with Nottinghamshire. At the 2001 census it had a population of 5,301, reducing to 5,228 at the 2011 Census. Geography It ...

, near

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated i ...

, the son of Henry Tongue, minister of

Holtby Holtby is a small village and civil parish in the unitary authority of the City of York in North Yorkshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 166. It lies close to the A166 about east of York. History The village is ment ...

, Yorkshire. He graduated from

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...

and became a schoolmaster at Churchill, Oxfordshire where he became interested in gardening, alchemy, and chemistry. In 1656 he became a doctor of theology, and taught grammar at the Cromwellian

Durham College Durham College of Applied Arts and Technology is located in the Durham Region of Ontario, Canada, with a campus co-located with Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, a second campus in Whitby, and community employment services in Uxbridge, Port ...

until its closure in 1659. In 1656 he provided a loan of 100 pounds to

Johannes Sibertus Kuffler Johannes Sibertus Kuffler (1595–1677) was a German inventor and chemist, from Cologne. He had a 1618 doctorate from the University of Padua. After he married Catherina, daughter of Cornelius Drebbel, he started in a successful dyeing business in ...

to have him and his family (including his wife Catharine, daughter of the famous inventor

Cornelius Drebbel Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel ( ) (1572 – 7 November 1633) was a Dutch engineer and inventor. He was the builder of the first operational submarine in 1620 and an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, ...

) moved from the Netherlands to England so that "his abilities in his profession, his relation to Cornelius Dribellius his life & conversation & concerning the reality & certaintie of the Experiments, hereafter mentioned in these præsents, shall vnto wise & indiferent men be of satisfaction." Following the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration *Restoration ecology ...

, he held a succession of livings. He became chaplain of the garrison of

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label= French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.St Mary Staining, but only three months later the church burnt down during the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...

Anti-Catholic activity

Tonge blamed the

Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

for both his own and London's losses. His obsession was so great that he wrote many articles denouncing the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and containing conspiracy theories about Rome's insatiable quest for power. He made very little money from his writing, for which he blamed the Government's hostility, but which the historian J. P. Kenyon attributed to his appallingly "turgid and incoherent" prose style. From 1675, Tonge was acquainted with the fervently anti-Catholic physician, Sir Richard Barker. Barker provided Tonge with food, lodgings, and money. He encouraged Tonge's anti-Catholic studies and had him appointed rector of Avon Dassett in Warwickshire, but "illegall practices", claimed Tonge, prevented him from accepting the position. Barker also sponsored the Baptist preacher Samuel Oates. In 1677 at the physician's Barbican home, Tonge met Samuel's son,

Titus Oates Titus Oates (15 September 1649 – 12/13 July 1705) was an English priest who fabricated the "Popish Plot", a supposed Catholic conspiracy to kill King Charles II. Early life Titus Oates was born at Oakham in Rutland. His father Samuel (1610� ...

. Tonge provided Titus with money and the two agreed to co-author a series of anti-Catholic pamphlets. In fact, Titus converted to Catholicism and left England for the Jesuit College of St Omer. At the time Tonge was puzzled by Oates's disappearance but he would later claim that he encouraged Oates's actions to learn more about the

The fabricated Popish Plot

On Oates's return, he further stoked Tonge's paranoia with stories of Jesuit conspiracies, including a plot against a feared anti-Catholic author – Tonge himself. At Tonge's request Oates wrote a lengthy manuscript- the first of many Plot Narratives- and arranged with Tonge that Tonge would pretend to find it in the gallery of Sir Richard Barker's house at the Barbican, where Tonge was then living. So excited was Tonge by the contents of the Narrative that through his friend, the chemist Christopher Kirkby, who assisted the King with his chemical experiments, he managed to obtain an audience with Charles II, where he summarised Oates' claims. Charles soon became a complete sceptic about the Plot, but his initial reaction was that "among so many particulars he could not say that there might not be some truth". He was at least sufficiently impressed to ask the

Lord Treasurer The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State i ...

, Danby, to investigate. Danby agreed that the matter deserved inquiry, despite opposition from another leading minister, Sir Joseph Williamson, who knew Tonge and believed he was insane. Tonge then took two crucial decisions: firstly he persuaded Oates to swear to the truth of his allegations before the much-respected magistrate, Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey. Secondly, he persuaded the King and Danby to put the matter before a full meeting of the Privy Council. At the hearing, Tonge himself made a bad impression: his reputation for eccentricity, if not outright madness, was well known, and he was "altogether smiled at ". Oates, on the other hand, gave a superb performance: so detailed and convincing was his story that the Council ordered the arrest of all the leading Jesuits accused, as well as Edward Coleman, former secretary to the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs. ...

(later James II & VII.) The news of this, followed by the murder of Godfrey, caused public hysteria to erupt. During the years of the Plot, Tonge was a secondary figure: he did not claim to have any first-hand knowledge of the Plot itself, and was never a witness in any of the Plot trials. However, a generous allowance from the Crown allowed him to live out his last years in comfort at

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament ...

; the Crown even paid for his funeral.

Reputation

Tonge's reputation has suffered through his close association with Oates, and some historians have bracketed them together as a pair of perjurers. However J. P. Kenyon, in his classic study of the Plot, concludes that Tonge truly believed Oates' lies, because they confirmed his own fixed belief in a Jesuit conspiracy. That Tonge was an honest fanatic seems to have been the view of most of those who knew him, including the King, Danby, and

Gilbert Burnet Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, ...

, who wrote in 1678 that Tonge was "so lifted up that he seemed to have lost the little sense he had."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tonge, Israel 1621 births 1680 deaths English theologians People associated with the Popish Plot Alumni of University College, Oxford Tickhill

Career

Anti-Catholic activity

The fabricated Popish Plot

Reputation

See also

References