A widely believed prophecy set the world’s end for 1588.

Evidence

Basically the prophecy of doom depended on the numerology of the Revelation of St John, clarified (if that is the right word) by hints in Daniel xii, and reinforced by a blood-curdling passage in Isaiah. To those who had sufficiently studied the question there seemed to be no doubt that all history since the first year of Our Lord was divided into a series of cycles, complicated permutations of multiples of ten and seven, each cycle terminated by some gigantic event, and the whole series closing with awful finality in 1588. — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 396

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 396
• XREF: connects to: Philip II’s urgency in 1588 came from a new conviction of divine destiny — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 461

Broader Connections

• Philip II’s urgency in 1588 came from a new conviction of divine destiny #corroborates (0.75) — Garrett Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 461