The question before Parliament was in relation to the great fire in London:  ’as to the causes of the late fire; whether there might be any design therein;’ and Lilly was supposed to know something about that matter, because he, in his book or pamphlet entitled ’Monarchy or no Monarchy,’ published in 1651, had printed on page seventh a hieroglyphic ’representing a great sickness and mortality, wherein you may see the representation of people in their winding sheets, persons digging graves and sepultures, coffins, etc.;’ and on another page another hieroglyphic representing a fire:  two twins topsy-turvy, and back to back, falling headlong into a fire.  ’The twins signify Gemini, a sign in astrology which rules London:’  all around stand figures, male and female, pouring liquids (oil or water?) on the flames.  When, therefore, the great fire of 1666 followed the plague of the preceding year, these hieroglyphics again attracted attention, and the maker of them was called before Parliament to declare if he, who had foreseen these events, could see into them, and give any explanation of their causes.  But Lilly was prudent:  to the question, ‘Did you foresee the year of the fire?’ he replied:  ‘I did not; nor was I desirous; of that I made no scrutiny.’  As to the cause of the fire, he said:  ’I have taken much pains in the search thereof, but cannot, or could not, give myself any the least satisfaction therein:  I conclude that it was only the finger of God; but what instruments he used therein I am ignorant.’

That William Lilly, who, as we have seen, was twice called before Parliament and questioned, attracted much attention elsewhere by his prophecies and publications, there can be no doubt; and his books found many readers.  Their titles, so far as known to us, are as follows:  ‘Supernatural Insight;’ ‘The White King’s Prophecy;’ ’The Starry Messenger;’ ‘A Collection of Prophecies;’ an introduction to astrology, called, ‘Christian Astrology;’ ‘The World’s Catastrophe;’ ’The Prophecies of Merlin, with a Key thereto;’ ’Trithemius of the Government of the World by the Presiding Angels;’ ’A Treatise of the Three Suns seen the preceding winter,’ which was the winter of 1648; ’An Astronomical Judgment;’ ‘Annus Tenebrosus;’ ‘Merlinus Anglicus,’ a kind of astrological almanac, published annually for many years, containing many prophecies—­a work which got extensive circulation, ’the Anglicus of 1658 being translated into the language spoken in Hamburg, printed and cried about the streets as it is in London;’ and his ’Majesty of Sweden,’ of whom ‘honorable mention’ was made in Anglicus, sent to the author of it ‘a gold chain and a medal worth about fifty pounds.’