The Fifth Monarchists' reading of the book of Daniel's four kingdoms as due to be succeeded by a fifth, everlasting monarchy of Christ and his saints, with the year 1666, read by many adherents as significant for containing the number of the beast, taken as marking the world's readiness for that transition. Two failed armed risings, in 1657 and 1661, tried to help bring it about by force.
Facts
Fulfillment
Documented ResponseSome Fifth Monarchists concluded the monarchy would have to be brought about by force rather than awaited. Thomas Venner led a first, abortive rising in April 1657, betrayed before it could begin and put down without a fight, and a second, brief armed uprising in London in January 1661, which held out for four days before being defeated by government forces. Venner and other leaders were executed after the second rising, and the movement was effectively suppressed as an organized political force afterward, though isolated millenarian expectation persisted quietly among some former adherents. 1 Attributions
TraditionThe Fifth Monarchists, an English Puritan sect active chiefly during the 1650s and into the Restoration. 1 Dating
Predicted DateAround 1666, a year many Fifth Monarchists read as significant for containing the number 666, understood as marking the world's readiness for the fifth, everlasting monarchy of Christ and the saints to begin, succeeding the four kingdoms identified in the book of Daniel. 1 Date AttributedCirculating within the movement from its emergence in the early 1650s, strengthening after the movement lost influence at the center of government under the Commonwealth. 1 Sources
Primary SourceContemporary trial records, pamphlets and government accounts of both risings are collected and analyzed in Bernard Capp's The Fifth Monarchy Men, the standard scholarly history of the movement. 1 Origins
Attributed Author / CompilerNo single named author; the reading of Daniel's four kingdoms and the coming fifth monarchy circulated among Fifth Monarchist preachers, among them Christopher Feake and Vavasor Powell, from the movement's emergence in the early 1650s. 1 Debunked
Claimed FulfillmentThat the fifth, everlasting monarchy of Christ and his saints would begin to be established, ending the rule of ungodly earthly governments. No such transformation occurred, either through the general expectation surrounding 1666 or through the armed attempts some Fifth Monarchists made to help bring it about by force. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Led the movement's two failed attempts, in 1657 and 1661, to help bring the fifth monarchy about by armed force.
Belongs to Tradition
Sources
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