L. K. Washburn: "Paine knew that he was marked for death. What did he do? Did he try to escape? No! He sat down and wrote the 'Age of Reason.'"
Paine found the world cursed with two great evils, kingcraft and priestcraft, twin vultures that from the earliest ages have fed upon the vitals of humanity. In his "Common Sense" and "Rights of Man" kingcraft was dealt the deadliest blows that it has yet received. He had resolved to strike a blow at priestcraft before he died. Seeing imprisonment and death approaching he hurried to his task. The first part of his immortal work was finished six hours before the summons came.
The second part, it is generally believed, was written during his confinement in the Luxembourg. And here, undoubtedly, it was planned and at least a part of it composed. It was probably finished, and it was published, while he lived with James Monroe, after his release from prison. This, briefly, is the history of the conception and birth of this, the last and greatest of Paine's three great intellectual children.
"Just before his arrest he had finished the first part of the 'Age of Reason.'... While in prison he worked upon the second part."—International Encyclopedia.
Encyclopedia Americana: "It [first part] was published in London and in Paris in 1794. On the fall of Robespierre he was released, and in 1795 published at Paris the second part of the 'Age of Reason.'"
Dr. Francois Lanthenas: "I delivered to Merlin de Thionville a copy of the last work of T. Paine, formerly our colleague.... I undertook its translation before the Revolution [Reign of Terror] against priests, and it was published in French about the same time."
People's Cyclopedia: "During his imprisonment he wrote the 'Age of Reason' (second part) against Atheism and against Christianity, and in favor of Deism."
"A second part, written during his ten months' imprisonment, which was published after his release, represents the Deism of the 18th century."—Encyclopedia Britannica.
McClintock and Strong's Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Cyclopedia: "The religion which Paine [in his 'Age of Reason'] proposed to substitute for Christianity was the belief in one God as revealed by science; in immortality as the continuance of conscious existence; in the natural equality of man; and in the obligation of justice and mercy to one's neighbor."
Rufus Rockwell Wilson: "Of all epoch-making books the one most persistently misrepresented and misunderstood."