“For the Sake of Liberty” 1652–1654twelve, and she no doubt thought the arrangement would be mutually beneficial;
the boy would learn much by reading to and writing for such a teacher and Milton
would have more scribal help – all the more necessary because John Phillips prob-
ably left the household sometime in 1652, when he became 21. Jones had only to
walk across St James’s Park from his home in Pall Mall to be at Milton’s garden gate.
That was also true for his mother, who came from the distinguished literary and
scientific Boyle family.^85 She was one of the best-educated women of her time,
very knowledgeable in literary and philosophical matters, a student of Hebrew,
closely associated with the Hartlib circle, a Cromwellian in politics, and a friend of
Milton’s from the mid-1640s at least. This is another example of Milton’s capacity
to value and enjoy the society of able women – others were Margaret Ley and Miss
Davis, whoever she was – despite his concept of gender hierarchy. Milton could
always qualify ideology by personal experience in particular cases, though such
experience did not lead him (as it did with divorce) to call into question received
assumptions about gender hierarchy itself.
In the new year the army and parliament clashed head-on over religious ques-
tions and over how to regulate parliamentary elections so as to exclude persons
perceived by one or another group to be dangerous (royalists, “neuters,” disaf-
fected Presbyterians, fanatic sectaries). On February 25 the Rump voted to affirm
the principle Milton so vigorously opposed – that the magistrate has power in
matters of religion – and then proceeded to take up Owen’s 15 Proposals, one by
one. Many in the army, locating their own and the nation’s chief interest in tolera-
tion, abolition of tithes, and social reforms, thought that the large citizen army
which had shed blood for the Commonwealth had as good a claim to represent it
and help settle its government as that poor remnant of parliament, the Rump.
Many in the parliament were determined to preserve the principle of parliamen-
tary supremacy over the army and also to establish a state church and rein in the
sects. One army faction led by Major-General Thomas Harrison, who was now
closely associated with Fifth Monarchists, called insistently for a government by
well-affected persons of “known integrity, fearing God, and not scandalous in
their conversation” – meaning government by regenerate Saints. Another faction
led by Major-General John Lambert promoted government by a select council of
officers and civilian leaders, at least for a time. The bad feeling escalated to a crisis
on April 19–20, 1653.
Milton surely heard vivid accounts from friends in parliament about the dramatic
events of those days. On April 19, at an informal meeting of parliament leaders and
army officers, Cromwell proposed that the Rump dissolve itself forthwith and that
a council of some forty drawn from both groups govern for a time to put in place
speedily the desired reforms and guarantees of toleration. That done, he optimisti-
cally explained in the Army Declaration of April 22, “the People might forget
Monarchy and understanding their true Interest in the Election of Successive Par-
liaments, may have the Government setled upon a true Basis.”^86 He thought he had