Fifth-monarchy Men

Fifth-monarchy Men, an extreme sect of the time of the Puritan revolution, strongly represented in Cromwell's army, who looked on the establishment of his power as the commencement of a new reign of Christ on earth, in succession to the four great monarchies of Antichrist marked out by the prophet Daniel. Their wild destructiveness quickly brought them under the iron hand of Cromwell, who with characteristic vigour crushed their rebellious intrigues with his soldiers, and their plot to murder himself, and in 1657 flung their leaders, Venner, Grey, and Hopkins, into prison. In January 1661 Venner headed another rising in London, for which he and sixteen others were executed.