July 25: EOW Fears During the English Civil War

The English Civil War was a high-water mark for apocalyptic thinking (see Jan. 30, Mar. 14, and tomorrow). One figure from the period was Robert Fleming, a Scottish Presbyterian minister whose opposition to the restoration of Charles II led to his exile in Holland in 1673, where he ministered to an expat community of Scots.

In 1685 Fleming wrote The Confirming Worke of Religion, claiming Protestantism's travails would lead to the apocalyptic "pouring of the fifth vial" - since the French wars of religion, the reign or Mary Tudor, and Phillip II's war in the Netherlands had clearly constituted the pouring of the second and third vials. Fleming wrote two other books, 1687-8, On the Coming of Christ and The Jews' Jubilee which also celebrated the imminent end of the world.

Robert Fleming died on July 25, 1694, shortly after being allowed to return to England.