Editing Popish Plot (section)

===Trial of the Five Catholic Lords===
Oates became more daring and accused five Catholic lords ([[William Herbert, 1st Marquess of Powis]], [[William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford]], [[Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour]], [[William Petre, 4th Baron Petre]] and [[John Belasyse, 1st Baron Belasyse]]) of involvement in the plot. The King dismissed the accusations as absurd, pointing out that Belasyse was so afflicted with [[gout]] that he could hardly stand, while Arundell and Stafford, who had not been on speaking terms for 25 years, were most unlikely to be intriguing together; but [[Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury]] had the lords arrested and sent to the [[Tower of London|Tower]] on 25 October 1678. Seizing upon the anti-Catholic tide, Shaftesbury publicly demanded that the King's brother, James, be excluded from the [[royal succession]], prompting the [[Exclusion crisis]]. On 5 November 1678, people burned effigies of the [[Pope]] instead of those of [[Guy Fawkes]].{{sfn|Williams|1958|pp=104-118}} At the end of the year, the parliament passed a bill, a second [[Test Act]], excluding Catholics from membership of both Houses (a law not repealed until 1829).

On 1 November 1678, the House of Commons resolved to proceed by [[Impeachment in the United Kingdom|impeachment]] against "the five popish lords". On 23 November all Arundell's papers were seized and examined by the Lords' committee; on 3 December the five peers were arraigned for [[high treason]]; and on 5 December the Commons announced the impeachment of Arundell. A month later Parliament was dissolved, and the proceedings were interrupted. In March 1679, it was resolved by both houses that the dissolution had not invalidated the motions for the impeachment. On 10 April 1679 Arundell and three of his companions (Belasyse was too ill to attend) were brought to the House of Lords to put in pleas against the articles of impeachment. Arundell complained of the uncertainty of the charges, and implored the peers to have them "reduced to competent certainty" but on 24 April this plea was voted irregular, and on 26 April the prisoners were again brought to the House of Lords and ordered to amend their pleas. Arundell replied by briefly declaring himself not guilty.

The [[impeachment trial]] was fixed for 13 May, but a quarrel between the two houses as to points of procedure, and the legality of admitting the bishops as judges in a capital trial, followed by a dissolution, delayed its commencement until 30 November 1680. On that day it was decided to proceed first against Lord Stafford, who was condemned to death on 7 December and beheaded on 29 December.{{sfn|Holmes |2004}} His trial, compared to the other Plot trials, was reasonably fair, but as in all cases of alleged treason at that date the absence of defence counsel was a fatal handicap (this was finally remedied in 1695), and while Oates' credit had been seriously damaged, the evidence of the principal prosecution witnesses, Turberville and Dugdale, struck even fair-minded observers like [[John Evelyn]] as being credible enough. Stafford, denied the services of counsel, failed to exploit several inconsistencies in Tuberville's testimony, which a good lawyer might have turned to his client's advantage.

On 30 December, the evidence against Arundell and his three fellow prisoners was ordered to be in readiness, but their public proceedings stopped. In fact, the death of William Bedloe left the prosecution in serious difficulties, since one protection for a person accused of treason, that there must be two eyewitnesses to an overt act of treason, was observed scrupulously, and only Oates claimed to have any hard evidence against the remaining Lords. Lord Petre died in the Tower in 1683. His companions remained there until 12 February 1684 when an appeal to the [[Court of King's Bench (England)|Court of King's Bench]] to release them on bail was successful. On 21 May 1685 Arundell, Powis, and Belasyse came to the House of Lords to present petitions for the annulling of the charges and on the following day the petitions were granted. On 1 June 1685, their liberty was formally assured on the ground that the witnesses against them had perjured themselves, and on 4 June the [[bill of attainder]] against Stafford was reversed.{{sfn|Lee|1885}}