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ish with fines and imprisonment, yes, even with death, those who would not submit their consciences to the dictation of the magistrate. In these respects the Puritans of that day were no whit in advance of the prelates, as they proved conclusively upon coming into power. They disliked not the principle of intolerance, but intolerance as applied to their own tenets.

Milton stands out from those times as the only political writer whose Christianity and statesmanship were broad and generous enough to enable him to appreciate the inestimable value of unfettered thought, and to inscribe openly upon his phylactery the golden truth of religious toleration.

Upon first entering the arena of controversy, Milton's modesty led him to say, "I was not disposed to this manner of writing, wherein knowing myself inferior to myself, led by the genial power of nature to another task, I have the use, as I may account it, but of my left hand."* But posterity has reversed his

* Introduction to second volume of "Reasons of Church Government."

verdict, and sincerely thanks him for his polemical works, not because they are always fair, or always just, or always right, but because, honestly meant, they abound in noble thoughts magnificently expressed, and because their tendency is towards truth and liberty.

CHAPTER VIII.

UPON the outbreak of hostilities, the Parliament took the reins of government in their own hands, and proceeded to the correction of many abuses. One of their first steps was, to exclude the bishops from their seats in the upper House. Soon after, in 1643, the Lords and Commons signed together the "Solemn League and Covenant" which bound England and Scotland to the extirpation of Popery and Prelacy.*

Considering how greatly Milton's writings had contributed towards that consummation, it must have afforded him undisguised joy, because with his sentiments, as expressed in his several treatises against the prelates, he considered, as the Parliament the Parliament appears to have done, that popery and prelacy were then identical, or at least so closely united that the death of one insured the burial of the other. He considered that the overthrow of

* Hume's History of England, Vol. VII., p. 470.

prelacy would assimilate the Episcopacy to the simpler, and as he thought, the more apostolic model of the reformed churches in other countries-introducing their exactness of discipline, as they already held their purity of doctrine.*

The rule of the Parliament, from the opening battle of the civil war at Edge-hill in 1642, up to the year 1644, had been checkered by alternate victory and defeat; still, upon the whole, the Puritans had gained, and their rule continued firm.

In 1644 there occurred an event which proved Milton to be the friend of impartial liberty, not of a clique, and as ready to lash the inconsistencies of his political associates as he had been to expose the sophistries of the oppressive prelates. Unlike another famous character in English history, he would never consent "to give up to party what was meant for mankind."

"No pent-up Utica confined his powers."

When he beheld the Puritans, who, while smarting under the intolerant license laws of

Milton.

*Mitford's Life of Milton, p. 33.
6,

the prelates, had been the clamorous friends of the freedom of the press, themselves, upon their assumption of power, reënacting those very statutes restricting printing, the glaring inconsistency of these apostate patriots kindled his scornful indignation, and called forth an argument which the voices of the most opposite critics have, with singular unanimity, described as one of the most masterly and eloquent compositions ever originated by the wit of man. Milton called his argument, "AREOPAGITICA; or, An Oration to the Parliament of England for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing."

From the establishment of printing in England, the business had been constantly interfered with by the government, which in this respect imitated the inquisitorial inspections of the Vatican. In the reign of Philip and Mary an attempt was made to consolidate the printing trade, and the incorporation of the "Stationers' Company of London" was finally effected in 1557. By the act of incorporation, the exclusive privilege of printing and pub

* From the Greek Арɛожауʊç, an ancient Athenian high court.

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