Image: The Solemn Mock Procession of the Pope (1680)

Description: An engraved broadside on the Popish Plot showing a Whig mock procession held in London on 17 November 1680 during the height of the Exclusion Crisis. An Exclusion Bill was introduced in the House of Commons with the aim of excluding James, Duke of York, the brother and heir presumptive of Charles II of England from the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland because he was Roman Catholic. The Tories opposed exclusion while the "Country Party", who were soon to be named the Whigs, supported it. Every November, on the anniversary of Elizabeth I's accession, the Whigs organised huge processions in London in which the Pope was burnt in effigy. The three bottom sections of the engraving show effigies of the Pope, cardinals, Jesuits, priests and nuns being carried in a mock procession. The top section shows the effigies being thrown on to a large bonfire outside Temple Bar while a crowd observes the proceedings.
Title: The Solemn Mock Procession of the Pope, Cardinals, Jesuits, Fryers, Nuns exactly taken as they marcht through the Citty of London November the 17th, 1680.
Credit: [2], archived from the original on 11 May 2008.
Author: After Stephen College (circa 1635–1681).
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No