With them was joined Burnet, whose well known hatred of Popery was likely to give weight to what he might say on such an occasion.
Somers was the chief orator on the other side; and to his pen we owe a singularly lucid and interesting abstract of the debate.
The Lords frankly owned that the judgment of the Court of King's Bench could not be defended.

They knew it to be illegal, and had known it to be so even when they affirmed it.

But they had acted for the best.

They accused Oates of bringing an impudently false accusation against Queen Catherine: they mentioned other instances of his villany; and they asked whether such a man ought still to be capable of giving testimony in a court of justice.

The only excuse which, in their opinion, could be made for him was, that he was insane; and in truth, the incredible insolence and absurdity of his behaviour when he was last before them seemed to warrant the belief that his brain had been turned, and that he was not to be trusted with the lives of other men.