Cyril Martindale, Mgr. Benson's depiction of the future was in many ways an inversion of the science fiction novels of H. G. Wells. Like many other Christians of the era, Benson was sickened by Wells' belief that Atheism, Marxism, World Government, and Eugenics would lead to an earthly utopia. Due to his depiction of a Wellsian future as a murderous global police state, Benson's novel has been called one of the first modern works of dystopian science fiction. History A further source of inspiration was Mgr. Benson's interest in history. Fr. Percy Franklin's constant fear of arrest while carrying out his priestly ministry in London is inspired by Mgr. Benson's research into the aftermath of the English Reformation—indeed, Benson would later write a historical novel, Come Rack! Come Rope! (1912), set during that time. Fr. Franklin's suspicion that Fr. Francis may have become a police informant and his belief that Mrs. Brand's request for a priest is a trap to ensnare him are reminiscent of the tactics used by Elizabethan Era priest hunters like Sir Richard Topcliffe. Julian Felsenburgh's leadership style was modeled after that of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose mistakes he was intended to correct. In one of the three notebooks he kept while writing Lord of the World, Mgr. Benson wrote that while Napoleon's weakness was "his soft heart: he forgave," Felsenburgh, "never forgives: for political crime he strips of position, making the man incapable of holding office; for treachery to himself he drops them out of his councils." He further described the Anti-Christ as "complete hardness, and kindness". The number of former priests and bishops who reject Catholicism are inspired by the priests who took an oath rejecting the authority of the Holy See following the French Revolution. All were excommunicated by the Pope and became employees of the French Government following the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The word, "Recusants", which Fr. Franklin uses to describe Catholics who absent themselves from compulsory Humanist worship, dates from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The word was originally used to describe both Catholics and Puritans who, despite heavy fines and imprisonment, refused to attend weekly Anglican services. The conspiracy to suicide bomb President Felsenburgh and its grisly aftermath are inspired by the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which a small group of English Catholic noblemen led by Robert Catesby planned to blow up King James I of