Strafford, the King had inaugurated his Reign of Thorough, had repressed and persecuted Calvinistic Theology, and all Puritan opinions, and had systematically promoted a high Prelacy and a ritualistic ceremonial of worship, which in the eyes of the Puritans brought the Church of England back into the shadow of the Church of Rome. The large mass of the population lay in a dumb agony of discontent, sighing for a Parliament but not daring to mutter the word. With these Milton was in sympathy. And having his mind full of those subjects, he, in 1638, set out for Italy on a journey which extended over sixteen months. It was then that he wrote his Epistle to Manso (see p. 15).

When he returned to England he found politics still worse. Charles, in forcing Episcopacy on Scotland, found the Scottish people not only stubbornly arrayed against him with their famous Covenant, but firmly resolved to abide by the old Presbyterian system of Knox. The King was bent on coercing them, and civil war had almost begun.

Milton did not stay long at Horton, but in 1640 removed to London, took a house there, and gave himself up to the educating of his two nephews, John and Edward Philips, the sons of his elder sister. Meantime troubles grew thick and fast in public affairs Charles losing hold of his people, in open conflict with the Scots, and paving the way for his own destruction. All thoughts of poetry were driven out of Milton's mind by the dismal outlook; he was whirled into politics, and for twenty years (1640-1660), he figured as a prose writer. It was on the Church question that he first spoke out. The Long Parliament had executed Strafford, had imprisoned Laud, and had subjected Charles to constitutional checks. The only question for the time was as to the Church. All were agreed that Episcopacy as Laud wished it was not to be thought of. Some, however, advocated a limited Episcopacy, while others insisted on a Presbyterian re-construction. These last

were the Root and Branch Reformers, and it was in favour of their views that Milton launched his first pamphlet Of Reformation,' followed shortly afterwards by others (Animadversions on the Remonstrant, p. 89), which may be called his Anti-Episcopal Pamphlets.

In 1642, began the great Civil War. From that date Englishmen were divided into two opposed masses-the Parliamentarians, taking the side of the majority of the House of Commons, and the small minority of the House of Lords, which still sat on as the two Houses; and the Royalists, taking the side of the King and of the bulk of the nobility, with the minority of the Commons. Milton, of course, was a resolute Parliamentarian. Although he did not serve in the Parliamentary Army, he watched its progress with the keenest interest and sympathy.

In 1643, the Poet married Mary Powell, whose family, strange as it may seem, were Royalists. The lady was very young, and not taking readily to Milton's philosophical life, soon went home to her friends, and her husband could not induce her to return. Her conduct set Milton writing on the subject of divorce, and it was then that he enunciated the opinion that obstinate incompatibility of mind and temper between husband and wife is sufficient ground for their separation and marrying again. Two years later his wife returned to him, but this marriage was the greatest blunder of his life, and the cause of much unhappi

ness.

Shortly after Milton's marriage, the Parliamentary party began to dispute among themselves on a subject which not only interfered with the prosecution of the war, but was of great consequence in the future history. This was the dispute between the Presbyterians and the Independents. Whether was the form of Church Government in England to be of the Scottish pattern with a gradation of Church Courts, from congregation and presbytery to the representative assembly or on the con

gregational system, with every congregation independent within itself? A further question was:-Must every one conform to the new Establishment, or is dissent to be tolerated? The majority of the English divines were in favour of strict Presbytery, but a considerable minority, finally swelled by the Baptists and a great many other sects that had lurked in English society since Elizabeth's time, held by the principle of liberty of conscience, and considered compulsory Presbyterianism as monstrous as Papacy. Strangely enough, Independency had come to prevail largely in the Parliamentary Army, and Cromwell was regarded as its head. Out of this antagonism grew various results. The Presbyterians viewed with suspicion the success of Cromwell and his army-Independents, and fearing ruin to England from the principle of toleration, if the King were won over to that side, they contented themselves with scheming to bring the King to terms with themselves rather than to beat him thoroughly. Cromwell, on the other hand, and the Independents, were resolute to defeat the King at all hazards. Indeed before 1644 was ended, it was clear that the Independents were the more thorough-going revolutionists of the two, and they gradually became the stronger party. The army was re-modelled, and under the new generals a more vigorous policy was pursued in the field, until, in 1645, Naseby virtually finished the war by the utter rout of the King.

In 1644, Milton published his “Areopagitica, or Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," addressed to the Parliament, and urging them to repeal an ordinance passed in 1643, for the regulation of the Press by a staff of official censors. In this pamphlet, it was evident that Milton was in complete political sympathy with the Independents. Moreover, his writings on Divorce had driven him into open war with the Presbyterians.

After Naseby, Charles gave himself up to the Scotsauxiliaries of the Parliamentary Army, but, of course, Presbyterian in opinion-and this complicated the struggle.

The

Presbyterians wished to treat with him for a strict and universal Presbytery in England without toleration; and this being quite opposed to Independent opinion, made the Independents furious against the King. Finally, the Scots handed him over to Cromwell's army, and the quarrel between the two parties became hotter than ever. The war was over, and the Presbyterians clamoured for disbanding the army. But it refused to be disbanded, and so violent grew the dispute, that at last the army disowned Parliamentary authority, marched to London, and was master of the situation. Cromwell and the other chiefs tried negotiations with the King, but these were futile. He escaped to the Isle of Wight, and made a Secret Treaty with the Scots that he would confirm Presbyterian Government in England, and suppress the Independents. The Scots invaded England to restore Charles to his rights, and in 1648 the Second Civil War began.

He defeated the

But Cromwell was equal to the occasion. Scots at Preston. The Parliamentary army brought Charles back from the Isle of Wight, purged the Parliament of antagonistic members, and compelled the Parliament so purged to set up a High Court of Justice for trying the King. Charles' doom was sealed, and though many of even the Independents shrank from the deed, he was executed, Jan. 30, 1649. England then became a Republic-governed by the Rump of the Long Parliament, i.e., the remnant of the House of Commons that the army had left in existence-in conjunction with a Council of State, or Ministry of forty-five members of the Rump.

To this Republic Milton gave a speedy adhesion, by publishing a thorough-going Republican pamphlet, defending the recent proceedings of the English Army, and containing a severe invective against Charles. The consequence was that there was at once offered to him the post of Secretary for Foreign Tongues, or Latin Secretary to the Council. He accepted the post, and for several years had a good deal to do in drafting Latin

letters to Foreign Governments, as well as in conducting other official and diplomatic business. Further, as he was known by the Council to be a fitting literary champion of the still-struggling Commonwealth, he was often requested by them to come forward in this capacity, and accordingly produced his Iconoclastes, and his Defensio pro Populo Anglicano. The first (The ImageBreaker), was an answer to the Eikon Basilike (Royal Image), a book professing to be meditations and prayers written by Charles I. in his last years. The King's Book, though now known to be a fabrication in his interest, was then all but universally believed in, and had a wide circulation, so that Milton's answer, which mercilessly criticised both the book and the dead King, was a signal service to the Government. The other, the Defensio (Defence of the people of England) was even of greater moment. It was published in 1651, in reply to the Defensio Regis, or Defence of Charles I., an attack on the English Commonwealth, which had been published in Holland the year before by the Leyden Professor-Salmasius, at the instance of Charles II. Never in the world had one human being inflicted on another a more ruthless or appalling castigation, and Milton suddenly became famous.

Meanwhile Cromwell, a member of the Council from the first, had been Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland, had conquered the Scots at Dunbar (1650), and finally crushed out rebellion in the great battle of Worcester (1651), and was back in London again, hailed as the saviour of the Commonwealth and the supreme chief of England. The young King was again in exile, and the Commonwealth was to all appearance stable and powerful.

In 1652, a great disaster fell on Milton-he became totally blind. The blindness, which had been gradually coming on for some years, was accelerated by his persisting to write his answer to Salmasius, in spite of the warnings of his physicians. Henceforth, though still normally in full rank as Foreign Secretary, he had to be greatly assisted in his work (see p. 89). To increase