The last of the five great empires referred to in the prophecy of Daniel (Dan. ii. 44), in the 17th c. identified with the millennial reign of Christ predicted in the apocalypse. Also attrib., esp. in Fifth-monarchy man, one of those in 17th c. who believed that the second coming of Christ was immediately at hand, and that it was the duty of Christians to be prepared to assist in establishing his reign by force, and in the meantime to repudiate all allegiance to any other government.
1657. Evelyn, Diary, 10 Aug. Our Vicar, from John 18. v. 36, declaim’d against the folly of a sort of enthusiasts and desperate zealots, call’d the Fifth-Monarchy-Men, pretending to set up the kingdome of Christ with the sword.
1677. Dk. Lauderdale, in L. Papers (1885), III. lvii. 89. How soone they [the disaffected in W. Scotland] may take armes no man can tell; for, as I have often said, they are perfitely fifth monarchye men, and no judgment can be made upon the grounde of reason what they may attempt.
1702. S. Sewall, Diary, 31 Jan. (1879), II. 52. William Parsons of 88 years, is buried. Was in the fifth-monarchy fray in London: but slipt away in the Crowd.
1731. E. Calamy, Life (1830), I. i. 76. He [Calamy’s schoolmaster] was a sort of Fifth Monarchy man.
Hence Fifth-monarchical, a., of or pertaining to the Fifth-monarchy; Fifth-monarchism nonce-wd., the principles of the Fifth-monarchy-men; Fifth-monarchist = Fifth-monarchy-man.
1679. Oates, Narr. Popish Plot, Ded. A ij b. An Anti-christian pretence of a Fifth Monarchical Soveraignty over all the Kings and Princes of Christendom.
1705. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., II. ix. Fifth-Monarchical Fanaticks.
1736. Ellys, A Plea for the Sacramental Test, 110. Venner, and the other Fifth-Monarchists in England.
1832–4. De Quincey, Cæsars, Wks. 1862, IX. 9. The fanatics of 1650 who proclaimed Jesus for their king, and who did sincerely anticipate his near advent in great power, and under some personal manifestation, were usually styled Fifth-Monarchists.
1870. Lowell, Among my Bks., Ser. I. (1873), 235. Nor had it ever putrefied into the turbid zeal of Fifth-Monarchism and sectarian whimsey.
