“For the Sake of Liberty” 1652–1654new government: negotiations with a Dutch embassy that arrived June 17 to try to
make peace.^94 Eight papers were exchanged, two of them probably by Milton.^95
One (July 13) restated the English position: it sharply denied the Dutch assertion
that the war began through misunderstanding and chance, insisted on harsh repara-
tions for war damages, and urged a close political union amounting almost to an-
nexation of the United Provinces; the other (August 1) responded to a Dutch
complaint about the treatment of prisoners of war with the claim that the English
were much more humane in such matters than the Dutch. Talks broke off in Au-
gust. The few other letters Milton produced for this government commonly begin
with a review of God’s providences in establishing the republic and an affirmation
of England’s desire for peace with her ancient friends.^96 Among them was the par-
liament’s response (dated November 28) to several letters and a personal envoy
from the Swiss cantons urging peace with the Dutch; it praises the Swiss as “the first
of mankind throughout all Europe... to have acquired liberty for yourselves,”
thanks them warmly for their “surpassing affection for us and our Commonwealth”
and for their good offices in attempting to make peace between Protestant powers,
but insists on England’s right to demand a “very binding alliance” with the Dutch
as the price of peace.^97
Like many Independents, Milton probably hoped for good things from the Nomi-
nated Parliament as regards the causes nearest his heart, religious liberty and church
disestablishment. His laconic comment in the Defensio Secunda that the electorate
had been restricted “only to those who deserved it” (CPW IV.1, 671) implies that
he accepted, without much enthusiasm, the basis of selection. Some insight into his
state of mind can be gleaned from his versions of Psalms 1–8 composed in the week
of August 8–15 or thereabouts.^98 As he had in 1648, Milton again found in the
Psalms a means of expressing his personal and political anxieties and hopes. These
translations register his perception of the widening divide between the virtuous
lovers of liberty who can be entrusted with government and the disaffected masses.
A major theme of these psalms, set forth in Psalm 1, is God’s vindication and pro-
tection of the just and his wrath toward the unrighteous.^99 It may reflect his hopes,
however qualified, for the Nominated Parliament, whose composition might seem
to be indicated in one Miltonic line – “Nor sinners [abide] in th’assembly of just
men.”^100 Another theme, the suffering, beleaguered psalmist’s cry for God’s protec-
tion against slandering enemies, resonates with Milton’s sense of his own situation,
grieving, weak, under attack by enemies but confident of God’s deliverance: “Lord
how many are my foes” (Psalm 3, line 1). Besides the Clamor, other recent works
had attacked Milton’s Eikonoklastes, the Defensio, and the divorce tracts.^101 Also,
John Rowland’s Polemica responded to John Phillips’s Responsio to his anonymous
Apologia – which he now claimed as his, denouncing Phillips – or Milton – for
maliciously ascribing it to Bishop Bramhall.^102 Bramhall later claimed that he wrote
“roundly” to Milton about that error and about some unspecified scandals that
would make Milton “go near to hang himself.”^103 That mistake should have prompted