“For the Sake of Liberty” 1652–1654ary politics, and power-plays of the Long Parliament and he would soon, in the
Second Defense, charge the Rump Parliament with the same faults and justify
Cromwell’s dismissal of them:
When you [Cromwell] saw delays being contrived and every man more attentive to
his private interest than to that of the State, when you saw the people complaining
that they had been deluded of their hopes and circumvented by the power of the few,
you put an end to the domination of these few men, since they, although so often
warned, had refused to do so. (CPW IV.1, 671)That phrasing casts the dissolution of parliament as an act reclaiming government
from a venal and power-hungry “few.”
Cromwell’s dismissal of the Rump met with the approval of many, though Vane,
Bradshaw, Fairfax, and some others refused to have anything to do with the new
government.^92 Cromwell, eager to avoid the appearance and indeed the fact of
exercising absolute power, moved quickly to set up governing bodies with some
appearance of legality. A new Council of State comprised of army officers and some
previous members of the Council of State was in place by the end of April, and by
the first week in May the new Nominated Parliament was planned along the lines
desired by Harrison, but not as the Sanhedrin of 70 godly men called for by his Fifth
Monarchist and millenarian followers. It had twice that number: five from Scotland
and six from Ireland nominated by civil and military authorities, and the rest nomi-
nated by gathered church congregations in the cities and counties of England and
Wales. Cromwell and the Council of State were to make final choices among the
nominees. This produced a legislature dedicated to the revolution, with a core of
religious radicals though also a sprinkling of nobility, gentry, local officials, and
army officers. Practicing lawyers were excluded. Members assembled on July 4 to
hear Cromwell review God’s providences to the revolutionary cause and charge
them to be “faithful with the Saints,” to protect the liberties of the most mistaken
Christians, and to answer God’s call to govern during the hopefully brief interim
while the people are not fit to exercise their suffrage: “Who can tell how soon God
may fit the people for such a thing, and none can desire it more than I! Would all
the Lord’s people were prophets. I would all were fit to be called, and fit to call.”^93
He presented a document entrusting them with “the Supreme Authority and Gov-
ernment of this Commonwealth” until November 3, 1654, after which they were
to arrange for their successors. This “Barebones” Parliament, nicknamed pejora-
tively for Praisegod Barebone, an Anabaptist leather merchant from London who
was one of its prominent members, set up a 31-member Council of State with a
six-month term. Milton was informally continued in office by that council and on
November 3 formally reappointed by its successor, to serve “in the same Capacity
he was in to the last Councell,” and at the same salary (LR III, 347).
Milton was only minimally involved with the chief diplomatic business of the