ABSTRACT
One consequence of the rise of fundamentalist Protestantism during the 1640s was the increased debate amongst contemporaries about the relevance and meaning of reports of apparitions, ghosts, monstrous births and strange visions in the sky. Some saw them as direct signs or portents from God because of the sinfulness of mankind, whilst others thought such reports were superstitious nonsense. Publication of accounts of this nature reached their peak during the English Civil War, partly because of the removal of censorship from printing and also because many felt the political and social upheaval caused by the Civil War heralded the end of the world and the beginning of Christ’s rule on Earth.1 The period thus resulted in the publication of a huge quantity of prophetic tracts, many of which preached millenarian ideas. By 1649 there were some 80 books published in England on the subject.2
