“For the Sake of Liberty” 1652–1654grace accept criticism from his friends. As for poetry, Milton may have noted that
unsold copies of his Poems of 1645 were again being advertised in July.^132
Milton knew he was not finished with More. In July, Thurloe’s intelligence
network passed along information from the Continent about More’s efforts to sup-
press Milton’s book by buying up some five hundred imported copies and attempt-
ing, unsuccessfully, to keep Vlacq from publishing it.^133 There were also reports
that More was working on an answer to Milton. Milton, however, was called back
to his usual duties, producing over the summer of 1654 several Latin letters for the
Protector, most of them responding elegantly to congratulations on Cromwell’s
new position as they deal with various matters of diplomatic protocol: Oldenburg’s
new Safeguard, letters pertaining to the Spanish and Portuguese ambassadors, con-
gratulations to the new Swedish King Charles X.^134 Milton was not involved in the
now intensifying diplomatic negotiations with France and Spain as they competed
for an alliance with England.
He was no doubt dismayed when he heard about the conflicts that erupted as
soon as Cromwell’s first parliament convened on September 3, 1654, with its mix
of gentry, a few nobles and knights, longtime parliamentarians, army officers, law-
yers, and other men of some property. Though all were at least nominally commit-
ted to the Protectorate, they represented many colliding interests: Presbyterians still
insistent on a largely Presbyterian establishment and repression of dissent; hardcore
republicans for whom Cromwell’s new office was a repudiation of their struggle for
parliamentary supremacy; Cromwellians who supported toleration, an inclusive
church establishment, and other provisions of the Instrument; and sectaries intent on
much more radical reform in church, law, and state. Some of the disaffected re-
turned to parliament, still uneasy: Fairfax, the Fifth Monarchist Harrison, and the
republican Bradshaw, but not Vane or the scholarly John Selden. Immediately after
assembling they began to debate whether to recognize the Instrument of Government;
incensed, Cromwell locked them out of parliament on September 12 and lectured
them in the Painted Chamber to the effect that they might revise the Instrument in
some things but must accept its fundamentals as a core constitution. Before allow-
ing them into parliament he required their signatures to an Engagement to support
the government as “settled in a single Person and a Parliament.” By September 15
about three hundred had signed and returned, but they set themselves immediately
to rewrite the Instrument so as to make it parliament’s document. Sides were quickly
drawn up for the big fights ahead over parliamentary supremacy, toleration, church
establishment, and control of the military.
Toward the end of September Milton had a visit from his admired Athenian
friend Philaras, then staying in London.^135 He offered to consult, when he returned
to Paris, with the famed oculist François Thévenin about Milton’s blindness, if
Milton would give him an account of his symptoms. Hardly daring to hope that a
cure might yet be possible, Milton did so in a poignant letter dated September 28,
“that I may not seem to refuse aid whencesoever offered, perhaps divinely” (CPW