Murderous Fantasies

Abstract

Protestant demonology was always full of the inflammatory terrors of papistry. The legendary execution pyres of Smithfield and the everlasting fires of Hell presided over by the Antichrist Pope always gave to Protestant discussions of Catholicism a whiff of ash and sulphur. In 1666 London was still a city of wood and wattle, prone to every spark from every fire. One such spark, from a baker’s premises in Pudding Lane, started a conflagration that began at the very heart of the ancient city and burned everything in its path until it reached to within a few yards of Temple Bar. The fire began on 2 September and lasted five days, destroying two-thirds of the old City. St Paul’s Cathedral, eighty-seven churches, the ancient Guildhall, over forty livery halls, the Royal Exchange, Customs House and 13,200 houses, shops and workrooms were reduced to ash and rubble as Londoners fled to surrounding fields or over London Bridge to stay with relatives and friends or camp in the open. For urban dwellers before the general use of less combustible building materials a city fire was second only to plague in the terrors it suggested.