Prophecy
Most forms of divination were practised deliberately. Prophecy (arguably along with second sight) belongs in a different category. Typically it was conceived of as a gift vested on people by God; prophets saw the future not because of their own skill, but through divine inspiration. Prophets commonly foretold the apocalypse, and urged people to repent of their sins. Prophecy was also very frequently political. Periods of upheaval, such as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-53), usually prompted a flood of public speeches prognosticating the downfall of one side or the other, as well as pamphlets dissecting the meaning of particular prophecies.
Prophecy took many forms. Early modern theologians pored over biblical prophecies. Purportedly historical non-biblical prophecies were also popular, and circulated in manuscript or in print. They commonly featured spurious attributions to ancient figures such as Saint Bede, ancient Greek oracles, or the mythical Merlin, as well as medieval figures including the thirteenth-century Thomas of Erceldoune (Thomas the Rhymer) and the legendary Ursula Sontheil (Mother Shipton), born in the late fifteenth century. Prophecies might be attributed to various figures interchangeably, and probably usually post-dated the events to which they referred.
Woodcut from a 1555 work on prophecy.2Olaus Magnus, On the Art of Prophecy. 1555. Wikimedia Commons.
Contemporary prophets might publish their work, or make speeches in public arenas. Members of fringe religious groups were more likely to take on the mantle of prophecy. Many were women. At least 300 female visionaries preached and prophesied during the Interregnum (1649-60), of whom around 220 were Quakers.3Phyllis Mack, ‘Women as Prophets during the English Civil War’, Feminist Studies 8:1 (1982), 18-45, at p. 24. Some theologians considered women to be particularly suitable vehicles for divine messages because women’s inherent weakness meant that they were easily subsumed. All the same, prophecy gave some women a rare opportunity to speak authoritatively on political subjects.
This is a prophecy that was allegedly found in the medieval St Benet’s Abbey, Norfolk. In truth it was likely composed in 1623. Can you decipher the prophecy’s meaning?
The subject is the Spanish Match, an unpopular attempt to negotiate a marriage between Charles, son of King James VI and I of England, and Infanta Maria Anna of Spain. Charles travelled to Spain in 1623, but the negotiations stalled in the face of James’s and Charles’s reluctance to ease restrictions on Catholicism in Britain. Charles subsequently married Henrietta Maria of France, and declared war on Spain in 1625.
When you are finished with the interactive activity, click below for a full explanation of the prophecy.4Alastair Bellany and Andrew McRae (eds), Early Stuart Libels: An Edition of Poetry from Manuscript Sources, Early Modern Literary Studies Text Series I (2005), Ni4. This edition of the prophecy gives the second line as ‘Thou maist till 44 or five’. We have changed this to the more logical ‘34 or five’, which appears in other editions of the prophecy.
After the Armada – Spain’s failed attempt to invade England in 1588 – England ‘thrived’ for 34 or 35 years, i.e. until 1622-3. Following the death of the ‘maiden queen’ Elizabeth I in 1603, the Scottish James VI inherited the English throne. He survived the 1605 Gunpowder Plot. His son Henry died in 1612; he would otherwise have reigned as Henry IX. James was instead succeeded by his second son, Charles I.
In 1623, the Spanish Habsburgs sought – according to the prophecy – to ‘catch’ Charles. There were rumours circulating at the time that Spanish agents had tricked Charles into his 1623 journey. The Habsburg coat of arms featured a two-headed eagle. ‘One of the maiden’s name’ is Charles’s sister Elizabeth, who shared a name with the ‘maiden Queen’ Elizabeth I. She was married to Frederick V, Elector Palatine, an enemy to the Spanish Habsburgs.
There was a much-discussed conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter on 9 July 1623. Mahomet is Mohammed; ‘Mahomet shall show his prize’ most likely suggests victories by the Islamic Ottoman Empire. ‘But sure much alteration / Shall be had in religion’ references contemporary fears that a marriage to Maria Anna would further the Catholic cause in England. The meaning of the last two lines is unclear; they perhaps refer to a Spanish Protestant convert (one interpreter suggested the monk Fernando de Tejada).
Charles, c. 1623.5Portrait of Charles as Prince of Wales (c. 1623) after Daniel Mytens (1590-c. 1647), Wikimedia Commons.
Elinor Channel was a prophet from the civil war period. Directing her message at Oliver Cromwell, she preached that ‘The sword must be stayed. The world draweth toward an end, and the knots of peace & love must be made in all Christian lands.’ The passage below describes how she first received divine inspiration.6Elinor Channel, A Message from God, by a Dumb Woman to his Highness the Lord Protector (London, 1653), pp. 1-3.
…your petitioner is an inhabitant at Cranley in Surrey, who upon a Sabbath-day about two months agone, at night, as she was in bed in a slumber, had a blow given her upon her heart, which blow awaked her. And immediately with that, the thoughts of her heart were changed, and all the corruption thereof taken away, that from that day to this, she could think of no evil. And then she heard an audible voice, which said unto her, Come away, I will send thee on my message to London, fear not to go, for I thy Lord am with thee. And the thoughts of your petitioner’s heart was so directed, that she was given to understand, how that the Spirit of the Lord had called her; to the end that she should be sent to your Highness: and by the same Holy Spirit, inwardly though she be but a weak woman in expression, she was taught in brief how to express her message from God to your Highness. And your petitioner being three times hindered by her husband, who is a very poor man, and hath many small children, three of them very young ones, her mind was sore troubled that her sleep went from her; and at sometimes she was speechless: whereupon your petitioner’s husband seeing her restless condition, consented to let her come to London, that she might express her mind to your Highness and have rest in her spirit.
Above: Study for the prophet Jeremiah (1764-70) by Henry Fuseli.7Wikimedia Commons.
Below: Image of Arise Evans from a 1647 broadsheet depicting various people or sects of ‘false and dangerous’ beliefs.8Arise Evans in A Catalogue of the Severall Sects and Opinions in England and other Nations: With a Briefe Rehearsall of their False and Dangerous Tenents (1647),
Wikimedia Commons;
full image Wikimedia Commons.
Engraving of the Delphic sibyl, an ancient Greek prophet.9Crispijn van de Passe the Elder (c. 1564-1637), Sibylla Delphica, Wellcome Collection.
Above: Woodcut from a seventeenth-century pamphlet about the prophet Mother Shipton.10Title page to The Strange and Wonderful History of Mother Shipton (London, 1686), Wikimedia Commons.
Below: Arise Evans (c. 1607-c.1660) was a Welsh prophet, and like Elinor Channel, a royalist. Having travelled to London he published Channel’s prophecies, as well as many of his own.11Arise Evans, An Eccho to the Voice from Heaven (London, 1652), pp. 14-18.
… a voice came to me in a dream, saying, get thee to the root, which root I understood to be the Lord Almighty God … [I] fell upon my knees, went to prayer, and putting my whole strength and faith to obtain, and fervency to ask the true light and knowledge of God’s will concerning myself, I soon was out of breath and not able to utter a word though my spirit boiled within me … [a] sharp shrill, hasting voice near mine ear, said to me go to thy book … I suddenly started up and to the table I went, where my Bible lay open, immediately fastening mine eyes upon Ephes. 5.14. being these words, wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light … the Scripture came on a sudden all into my mind, as if I had learned them by heart … and my tongue became fluent, my answers so ready, that all which knew me before were amazed at it … within three days I had all the Scripture at command, gave upon them such an exposition that none could contradict me, yet so strange that all were afraid to hear me, because that I gave them to understand that the King and Kingdom was to be destroyed suddenly … And having so many visions upon visions to confirm the certainty of the judgement, I could not contain my knowledge, but was forced to declare to all that I had to do with.
