Editing John Napier (section)

==Theology==
[[File:Logarithms book Napier.jpg|thumb|upright|Cover of ''Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio'' (1614)]]
[[File:Napier log table 45 degrees.agr.jpg|thumb|upright|Page from ''Mirifici logarithmorum canonis descriptio,'' for 45 degrees]]
Napier had an interest in the ''[[Book of Revelation]]'', from his student days at [[St Salvator's College, St Andrews]]. Under the influence of the sermons of [[Christopher Goodman]], he developed a strongly anti-papal reading, going as far as to say that the Pope was the [[Antichrist]] in some of his writings.<ref name="DNB"/><ref name="Rice 2017 65">{{Citation|last1=Rice|first1=Brian|title=John Napier|date=2017|work=The Life and Works of John Napier|pages=1–60|publisher=Springer International Publishing|isbn=9783319532813|last2=González-Velasco|first2=Enrique|last3=Corrigan|first3=Alexander|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-53282-0_1}}</ref>

Napier regarded ''A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St. John'' (1593) as his most important work. It was written in English, unlike his other publications, in order to reach the widest audience and so that, according to Napier, "the simple of this island may be instructed".<ref name="Rice 2017 65"/> ''A Plaine Discovery'' used mathematical analysis of the ''Book of Revelation'' to attempt to predict the date of the [[Apocalypse]]. Napier identified events in chronological order which he believed were parallels to events described in the ''Book of Revelation'' believing that ''Revelation''<nowiki/>'s structure implied that the prophecies would be fulfilled incrementally.<ref name="Rice 2017 65"/> In this work Napier dated [[the seventh trumpet]] to 1541, and predicted the end of the world would occur in either 1688 or 1700. Napier did not believe that people could know the true date of the Apocalypse, but claimed that since the Bible contained so many clues about the end, God wanted the Church to know when the end was coming.<ref name="Rice 2017 65"/>

In his dedication of the ''Plaine Discovery'' to [[James VI]], dated 29 January 1594,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Plaine-Discovery-of-the-Whole-Revelation-of-Saint-John|title=Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of Saint John, work by Napier|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=12 June 2024}}</ref> Napier urged the king to see "that justice be done against the enemies of God's church," and counselled the King "to reform the universal enormities of his country, and first to begin at his own house, family, and court." The volume includes nine pages of Napier's English verse. It met with success at home and abroad. In 1600 [[Michiel Panneel]] produced a Dutch translation, and this reached a second edition in 1607. In 1602 the work appeared at [[La Rochelle]] in a French version, by [[Georges Thomson]], revised by Napier, and that also went through several editions (1603, 1605, and 1607). A new edition of the English original was called for in 1611, when it was revised and corrected by the author, and enlarged by the addition of ''With a resolution of certain doubts, moved by some well affected brethren.'';<ref>[http://lib.ugent.be/en/catalog/rug01:001591742 ''A plaine discovery ...''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150207235346/http://lib.ugent.be/en/catalog/rug01:001591742 |date=7 February 2015 }}, Universiteitsbibliotheek Gent</ref> this appeared simultaneously at Edinburgh and London. The author stated that he still intended to publish a Latin edition, but it never appeared. A German translation, by [[Leo de Dromna]], of the first part of Napier's work appeared at Gera in 1611, and of the whole by [[Wolfgang Meyer]] at [[Frankfurt-am-Main]], in 1615.<ref name = DNB/> Among Napier's followers was Matthew Cotterius ([[Matthieu Cottière]]).<ref>Arthur H. Williamson, ''Scottish National Consciousness in the Age of James VI'' (1979), p.&nbsp;34.</ref>