The English Protestant cleric John Foxe of the 16th century, known primarily if somewhat misleadingly as a martyrologist on the basis of his major work Actes and Monuments , wrote also on the interpretation of the Apocalypse , both at the beginning of his writing career in the 1550s, and right at the end of it, with his Eicasmi of 1587, the year of his death. [1]
John Bale writing in the 1540s had identified the Protestant Church of England as an actor in the historical struggle with the "false church" of Catholicism; and backed up his views with interpretation of the Book of Revelation . [2] The "English apocalyptic" was exceptional in the Protestant territories, with the concept of England as an "elect nation". [3]
Foxe's views became quite orthodox in the Church of England for a generation, and more: a war against Antichrist was being waged by the English people, but led by the Christian Emperor (echoing Constantine I) who was identified with Elizabeth I of England. [4] They were then challenged within the Church of England, for example by Thomas Brightman, and from outside by John Napier in particular. [5] Until the advent of Laudianism, the mixture of Foxe's historical support for the Church of England, including its bishops who were Marian martyrs, and his opposition to persecution, remained in the mainstream. [6]
Foxe's Latin drama Christus Triumphans (1556 in Basle, with a 1551 edition in London also recorded) [7] presaged his later theory of the history of the Christian church. [8] It was called a comœdia apocalyptica, and after 29 scenes ends on a note of anticipation and implication. [9] The final act, of a work unfinished by design, brings the dramatisation of Revelation to the Protestant Reformation, and allegorically to the England of the time. Edmund Spenser may have drawn his own apocalyptic views and model from this work of Foxe. [10]
The later editions of Actes and Monuments contained tables, of the numerological significance of numbers connected to the Book of Revelation, and a timeline of persecution of the Church. [11]
Foxe was an "amillennial historicist"; [12] which is not precisely the same as an amillennialist. The standard or initial position of the "English apocalyptic" was postmillennialist. [13] Typical Tudor interpretations of the Christian millennium place it in the past; and Foxe does so. He was in the mainstream in opposing the premillennialist interpretations, typified (somewhat later) by Arthur Dent, George Gifford and John Napier. This approach of the period is not equivalent to idealism, the essentially allegorical interpretation of the Apocalypse, as current usage of terminology might imply. [14]
The Book of Revelation, also erroneously called the Book of Revelations, is the final book of the New Testament. Written in Koine Greek, its title is derived from the first word of the text: apokalypsis, meaning 'unveiling' or 'revelation'. The Book of Revelation is the only apocalyptic book in the New Testament canon. It occupies a central place in Christian eschatology.
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli was an Italian diplomat, author, philosopher and historian who lived during the Renaissance. He is best known for his political treatise The Prince, written around 1513 but not published until 1532, five years after his death. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.
Preterism is a Christian eschatological view or belief that interprets some or all prophecies of the Bible as events which have already been fulfilled in history. This school of thought interprets the Book of Daniel as referring to events that happened from the 7th century BC until the first century AD, while seeing the prophecies of the Book of Revelation, as well as Christ's predictions within the Olivet Discourse, as events that happened in the first century AD. Preterism holds that Ancient Israel finds its continuation or fulfillment in the Christian church at the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Babylon the Great, commonly known as the Whore of Babylon, refers to both a symbolic female figure and place of evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Her full title is stated in Revelation 17 as "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth". Revelation 17 identifies the woman as a representation of "the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth".
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1563.
John Foxe was an English clergyman, theologian, and historian, notable for his martyrology Actes and Monuments, telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the 14th century and in the reign of Mary I. The book was widely owned and read by English Puritans and helped to mould British opinion on the Catholic Church for several centuries.
Premillennialism, in Christian eschatology, is the belief that Jesus will physically return to the Earth before the Millennium, heralding a literal thousand-year golden age of peace. Premillennialism is based upon a literal interpretation of Revelation 20:1–6 in the New Testament, which describes Jesus's reign in a period of a thousand years.
A Christian republic is a government that is both Christian and republican. As of the 21st century, the only countries in the world with a republican form of government and with Christianity as the established religion are Argentina, Costa Rica, Finland, Greece, Armenia, Samoa, Iceland, and Malta. Some other republics, such as Georgia, Peru, Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, and Paraguay, give some credit or preference to Christianity, but without establishing it as the religion of the state. Others, such as Hungary, and Zambia, describe themselves as Christian countries.
In Christian eschatology, historicism is a method of interpretation of biblical prophecies which associates symbols with historical persons, nations or events. The main primary texts of interest to Christian historicists include apocalyptic literature, such as the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. It sees the prophecies of Daniel as being fulfilled throughout history, extending from the past through the present to the future. It is sometimes called the continuous historical view. Commentators have also applied historicist methods to ancient Jewish history, to the Roman Empire, to Islam, to the Papacy, to the Modern era, and to the end time.
John Greville Agard Pocock is a New Zealand historian of political thought. He is especially known for his studies of republicanism in the early modern period, his work on the history of English common law, his treatment of Edward Gibbon and other Enlightenment historians, and, in historical method, for his contributions to the history of political discourse.
The four kingdoms of Daniel are four kingdoms which, according to the Book of Daniel, precede the "end-times" and the "Kingdom of God".
Robert Brady (1627–1700) was an English academic and historical writer supporting the royalist position in the reigns of Charles II of England and James II of England. He was also a physician.
A Nicodemite is a person suspected of publicly misrepresenting their religious faith to conceal their true beliefs. The term is sometimes defined as referring to a Protestant Christian who lived in a Roman Catholic country and escaped persecution by concealing their Protestantism.
The Actes and Monuments, popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by Protestant English historian John Foxe, first published in 1563 by John Day.
The Stratford Martyrs were eleven men and two women who were burned at the stake together for their Protestant beliefs, either at Stratford-le-Bow, Middlesex or Stratford, Essex, both near London, on 27 June 1556 during the Marian persecutions.
The Guernsey Martyrs were three women who were burned at the stake for their Protestant beliefs, in Guernsey, Channel Islands, in 1556 during the Marian persecutions.
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The "British Constantine" was a flattering conceit applied to both Elizabeth I and James I of England, implying a comparison with the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. It had both secular and religious implications, Constantine having unified the Roman Empire of his time, and made Christianity a state religion.
Historicism is a method of interpretation in Christian eschatology which associates biblical prophecies with actual historical events and identifies symbolic beings with historical persons or societies; it has been applied to the Book of Revelation by many writers. The Historicist view follows a straight line of continuous fulfillment of prophecy which starts in Daniel's time and goes through John of Patmos' writing of the Book of Revelation all the way to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.