Christopher Hill
In the centuries following the Reformation, Antichristâ€”the biblical Beast, whose coming was to precede the end of the world and the coming of Christâ€™s kingdomâ€”was an intensely real figure. The debate raged as to who this Antichrist, whose downfall was now at hand, might be. Was he the Pope? Bishops? A state church? The monarchy? Or was it just a term of abuse to be hurled at anybody one disliked?,Christopher Hill, one of Britainâ€™s most distinguished historians, here reconstructs the significance of Antichrist during the revolutionary crises of the early seventeenth century. Radical Protestant sects applied the termâ€”a name synonymous with repression and persecutionâ€”to those Establishment institutions of which they disapproved; in particular, the Pope. Then, with that revolution in thought which resulted in the separation of religion from politics, the figure of Antichrist lost its significance.
Religion
Antichrist in Seventeenth Century England