| Summary: | In the centuries following the Reformation, Antichrist--the biblical Beast, whose coming was to precede the end of the world and the coming of Christ's kingdom--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?<br> <br> Christopher Hill, one of Britain's most distinguished historians, here reconstructs the significance of Antichrist during the revolutionary crises of the early seventeenth century. Radical Protestant sects applied the term--a name synonymous with repression and persecution--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.
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