“I... Steer Right Onward” 1654–1658claim they are called by the Spirit to preach; and Fifth Monarchists cry for war
against Antichrist in an orgy of violence: “Fall on, fall on, kill, kill.”^53 Milton’s
reaction to his nephew–pupil’s first poetic publication (if he knew it) was probably
mixed. Phillips could have picked up some of these views from Milton, who was
no friend of establishment clerics of any stripe, and he had had ample opportunity
to gain from Milton himself both models of and practice in writing coarse and
indecent satire.^54 But Phillips’s blanket condemnation of Puritanism is in the vein of
royalist satire and at times implies that the old religion was closer to true Christian-
ity.^55 The poem ends with a Milton-like distinction between hypocrites who dwell
on the “husk and shell” of religion and those who “By a true knowledge, doe
obtaine the fruit.”^56 Milton was probably happier with John’s translation a few
months later (c. January 9, 1656) of Bartolomé de las Casas’ exposé of Spanish
maltreatment of the Indians, dedicated to Cromwell and offered as support for his
war against Spain.^57
From December, 1655 Milton’s correspondence for the Protector greatly in-
creased, in part because the other Latin Secretary, Philip Meadows, was appointed
on February 19, 1656 as special envoy to Portugal; he left around March 11 and
returned in July, but he was then recovering from an attempt on his life. During the
several months before the second Protectorate parliament met on September 17,
1656 Milton translated fourteen or so letters about captured ships or goods to be
restored, merchants’ property seized for debt, or English merchants’ claims against
foreign parties.^58 Three letters to Portugal in August had larger import. One agrees
to renogotiate the clauses Portugal wanted to modify in a treaty just agreed to; the
others strongly protest the assault on Meadows and demand that the perpetrators of
this “cruel and wicked crime” be punished lest peace between the two countries be
endangered.^59
Milton probably contributed some memorable language to several letters dealing
with Cromwell’s efforts to promote a Protestant League against Rome and Spain.
In January, 1656 Cromwell wrote to the Evangelic Cantons of Switzerland recall-
ing the Waldensian massacre and offering them encouragement and monetary relief
in their struggle with the Roman Catholic canton of Schwyz: “Do not allow your
laws and confederations – nay your liberty of conscience and your very religion –
to be trampled down by the worshippers of idols” (717–18). Several letters address
or concern King Charles X of Sweden as the pivot of such an alliance. Cromwell
congratulated him (February 7, 1656) on the birth of a son who will be an Alexan-
der to his Philip of Macedon, and also on his conquest of Poland: “we do not doubt
that the tearing away by your arms of the Kingdom of Poland from the command
of the Pope, as if from the horned beast, and the making of peace with the Duke of
Brandenburg, will have great importance for the peace and advantage of the church”
(721–2). Even letters for departing or traveling diplomats are placed in the context
of Charles X’s importance to the Protestant struggle.^60 In August Cromwell sent
parallel letters to the United Provinces and to Sweden offering to mediate a dispute