Editing Popish Plot (section)

===Beginnings===
The fictitious Popish Plot unfolded in a very peculiar fashion. Oates and [[Israel Tonge]], a fanatically anti-Catholic clergyman (who was widely believed to be insane), had written a large manuscript that accused the [[Catholic Church]] authorities of approving the assassination of Charles II. The [[Jesuit]]s in England were to carry out the task. The manuscript also named nearly 100 Jesuits and their supporters who were supposedly involved in this assassination plot; nothing in the document was ever proven to be true.

Oates slipped a copy of the manuscript into the [[wainscot]] of a gallery in the house of the [[physician]] Sir Richard Barker, with whom Tonge was living.{{sfn|Pollock|2005|p=13}} The following day Tonge claimed to find the manuscript and showed it to an acquaintance, Christopher Kirkby, who was shocked and decided to inform the King. Kirkby was a [[chemist]] and a former assistant in Charles' scientific experiments, and Charles prided himself on being approachable to the general public.{{sfn|Marshall|2008}} On 13 August 1678, whilst Charles was out walking in [[St. James's Park]], the chemist informed him of the plot.{{sfn | Brown|1999 | p=}} Charles was dismissive but Kirkby stated that he knew the names of assassins who planned to shoot the King and, if that failed, the Queen's physician, [[Sir George Wakeman]], would poison him. When the King demanded proof, the chemist offered to bring Tonge who knew of these matters personally. The King did agree to see both Kirkby and Tonge that evening, when he gave them a short audience. At this stage, he was already sceptical, but he was apparently not ready to rule out the possibility that there might be a plot of some sort (otherwise, Kenyon argues, he would not have given these two very obscure men a private audience). Charles told Kirkby to present Tonge to [[Thomas Osborne, 1st Duke of Leeds|Thomas Osborne, Lord Danby]], [[Lord High Treasurer]], then the most influential of the King's ministers.{{sfn|Knights|2008}} Tonge then lied to Danby, saying that he had found the manuscript but did not know the author.