1649–1654

Apocalyptic Radicalism in the English Revolution: the Fifth Monarchists, Anna Trapnel and Gerrard Winstanley

During the English Revolution radicals read Daniel and Revelation as a political programme. The Fifth Monarchists (Mary Cary, Anna Trapnel) expected the imminent reign of “King Jesus” and gave the saints the role of God’s instruments. Gerrard Winstanley, digging the common land on St George’s Hill, read Daniel’s four beasts as the power of kings, of laws, of the buying and selling of land, and of the clergy. The assessments in this entry are Christopher Rowland’s.

Key points

• Rowland: in 1649 Mary Cary and other Fifth Monarchists taught that the succession of empires in Dan 2 and 7 had ended and the reign of “King Jesus” was near; Cary gave the saints an active role: they are Christ’s instruments in setting up the Kingdom; the rider of Rev 19:11 leads the armies of the saints. Anna Trapnel, in a trance (London, 1654), prophesied about Cromwell’s failures and asked for a polity reflecting the aims of the people’s army: the old order – private property, social ranks, a non-episcopal church – was still in place, and to believers in King Jesus this was apostasy. In 1649–51 Winstanley wrote tracts while digging the common land on St George’s Hill, prompted by a revelation: “work together, eat bread together”. He read Daniel’s four beasts as kingly power, selfish laws, the buying and selling of land, and clergy-power; peace comes when they fall. The second coming is “the rising up of Christ in sons and daughters”; spiritual regeneration and structural change are linked

People

• Mary Cary
• Anna Trapnel
• Gerrard Winstanley
• Oliver Cromwell

Place

London; Surrey (St George’s Hill)

More on the doctrine

• The Reformation and the last things: the rejection of chiliasm and the Münster "kingdom" (16th century (Münster – 1525–1535))
• Spiritualists and Quakers: The Freedom of the Spirit, the "Inner Word" and the "Inner Light" (16th–17th centuries)