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THE POLITICAL USE OF THE BIBLE IN EARLY MODERN BRITAIN:
Fifth Monarchists: Saintly Rule for a Godly Commonwealth
That which was spoken enow [was] concerning
the conjunction that is between Antichrist, or
that mystery of iniquity in the world carried
on by men that call themselves the church,
thatd certainly it is with the conjunction of
men in places of power or authority in the
world, with kings and great men. And truly
my thoughts were much upon it this night,
and it appears to me very clearly from that
which God hath set down in his word in the
Book of the Revelations—. . . . It is said in the
Revelation, that the kings of the earth should
give up their power unto the Beast, and the
kings of the earth have given up their power to
the Pope. . . . Truly I could bring it to this
present kingdom wherein we are.
Lieutenant-Colonel William Goffe, the Putney
Debates, 1647. 208
The most radical and unique group of political thinkers
this study incorporates is the millennial sect known as
the Fifth Monarchy men. Their constitutional
proposals, presented in a few strategic platforms timed
in response to key political events, are oftentimes
overshadowed by their aggressive rhetoric and failed
armed resistance against Cromwell’s second
Protectorate (1656-58) and the restored Stuart
Monarchy (1660). Interestingly, some of the
movement’s leaders had been officers in Cromwell’s
New Model Army.
The insurrectionary character of Fifth Monarchism was
found in those fringe extremists inspired by a millennial
theology wrapped in a radical apocalypticism. They
read from Daniel 7 and Revelation 20 a program of
action to forcibly install Christ’s outward Fifth
Kingdom, or Monarchy, prophesied to rise from the
destruction of the Beast and his Fourth Kingdom. The
movement was considerably theocratic in nature and
resulted in unique political and legal reform proposals
which found an institutional expression in the shortlived
‘Barebone’s Parliament.’ Sometimes called the
Nominated Assembly, or Assembly of Saints/Elders of
Christ’s earthly representatives, it was established, in the
minds of some of its members, to usher in Christ’s
millennial rule. Those engrossed in the fervour of
millennial ecstasy considered the time of Christ’s return
as King and Ruler, imminent, and therefore, the
political window for reform time-sensitive and fleeting.
Nevertheless, Barebone’s limited and disappointing
tenure of five months (July 4 - December 12, 1653)
never produced the reforms it so desperately sought.
Many Interregnum political proposals were presented in
response to Cromwell’s politics and Protectorates, and
the Fifth Monarchy men’s perspective of Cromwell
altered with their reinterpretation of the signs of the
times. From the dissolution of the Rump Parliament on
April 20, 1653 and commencement of Barebone’s on
July 4, Cromwell was lauded as the ‘nursing father,’ and
the ‘new Moses.’ Numerous biblical parallels were
presented to demonstrate how God chose him as His
instrument to lead Britain into the promised land of
godly reform and establish the New Jerusalem. This of
course is not to suggest that Cromwell adopted such
descriptions or role, but when the Assembly of the
Saints resigned on December 12 of that year, with
Cromwell simultaneously establishing the First
Protectorate with its new constitution, the Instrument
of Government, he was ridiculed as being the
‘antichrist,’ ‘the little boastful horn,’ and the ‘Beast’ of
Revelation. He took notice of these radical accusations
which soon turned militant. Fifth Monarchists claimed
that since he ruled like a ‘single person’ in a
government established apart from the saints, the
Protectorate was at war with them in its service to
antichrist, and therefore, to be disobeyed. Some Fifth
Monarchy men sought to overthrow Cromwell’s
Protectorate by force, as depicted in the famous uprising
of April 9, 1657 led by Thomas Venner who, along with
a few others, was imprisoned. Not long after his release,
he led another uprising of Fifth Monarchy men and
members of his Swan Valley Congregation against
Charles II on January 6 - 9, 1661. Twenty soldiers were
killed along with another twenty civilians. Venner and
twelve others were sentenced to death on January 19,
1661.
We should not be surprised at such exaggerated
caricatures and claims not uncommon to radicals who
consider their role as salvific, and themselves endowed
with a messianic morale for some eschatological agenda.
Many scholars though have unnecessarily written off the
entire Fifth Monarchy movement as inane and bizarre
given the radical and militant activities of its more high
profile millennial visionaries. Bernard Capp, the leading
scholar on the Fifth Monarchy movement, noted that
“millenarianism,” of the Fifth Monarchy type, “had
little to offer to future political and intellectual trends,”
and the “movement is still brushed aside as an interlude
of insanity. . . The ridicule of the Fifth Monarchists by
many historians stems from an assumption that they
208
Woodhouse, ed., Puritanism and Liberty Being the Army Debates
(1647-9), 39-40.
39