William Blake

The visionary English artist and poet William Blake was known as “barmy” Blake, as he believed he had long conversations with biblical heroes and other famous historic figures. Even as a child he had visions of angels in a tree and the prophet, Ezekiel in a field. If his wife Catherine decided that her eccentric husband was spending too much time with his visions and angels and not enough earning his daily bread, at mealtime she placed an empty plate at his end of the table.
The Non-conformist mystic wanted to escape from puritanical repressive Christianity and had contempt for organized religion. He believed that England had a special relationship with God, having accepted the myth that Christianity had been established at Glastonbury almost in Christ’s own lifetime, by his follower Joseph of Arimethea, and that as the Jews have failed him, God replaced them with the English as his “chosen people.” In 1804 Blake wrote in his preface to his long poem Milton, Jerusalem, a poem of spiritual power and sexual liberty. The line “and did these feet in ancient time” referred, according to Blake, to Joseph of Arimethea. Sir Hubert Parry put the poem to music in 1916 to beef up British morale during the bleakest days of the First World War. Despite the unorthodox theology of the words it is now one of the most popular hymns in the English language and many of the English population would like this to replace "God Save The Queen" as their national anthem.