Tea and Vitriol

Titus Oates was an English clergyman who, in the late 17th Century, claimed that he was privy to a Popish plot to assassinate King Charles II. He accused all sorts of Catholic noblemen and prominent persons, including Charles's queen, Catherine of Braganza, and his brother James, Duke of York (the future King James II), of being in on the plot. While England was virulently anti-Catholic at the time, not too many prominent Protestant politicians really believed Titus but, as they were opposed to Charles in Parliament, allowed Titus to rouse the mob to stick it to the king, which resulted in numerous prominent Catholics fleeing to exile, being imprisoned and even being beheaded. Eventually, Titus's supporters got tired of him, and he spent the remaining twenty years of his life facing spells of imprisonment, being defrocked and dying in 1705, an object of derision to all. Fast forward to the 21st Century in Rochester, New York. Jarrod Jones, a Black Rochester firefighter with 14