“With Dangers Compast Round” 1660–1665protested that they were exorbitant. The incident is recorded by a parliamentary
diarist:
Dec. 17. The celebrated Mr. John Milton having now laid long in custody of the
serjeant at arms, was released by order of the house. Soon after, Mr. Andrew Marvel
complained that the serjeant had exacted £150 fees of Mr. Milton; which was sec-
onded by col. King and col. Shapcot. On the contrary, Sir Heneage Finch observed,
That Milton was Latin Secretary to Cromwell, and deserved hanging. However, this
matter was referred to the committee of privileges to examine and decide the differ-
ence.^27There is no record of the committee’s decision. The £150 charges may point to a
rather long stay, as this diarist thought – perhaps eight or ten weeks. Some years
later Colonel John Hutchinson waxed indignant at being charged £50 for 24 weeks’
imprisonment in the Tower.^28 But it also may be that the sergeant, supported by
Solicitor-General Finch who had prosecuted the condemned regicides, wanted to
see that Milton was punished severely in his pocketbook, at least. In any case,
having spent his fifty-second birthday in prison, Milton was able to spend the holi-
day season at home. What arrangements were made for his daughters during the
months he was in hiding and in prison is not known: they were perhaps with
relatives, or some friend or friends, or a servant. These were surely anxious and
disruptive times for them, with a father disgraced, economically distressed, and in
danger of prison or worse, and without much claim on anyone’s care or affection.
Soon after Milton was set at liberty the Convention Parliament was dissolved
(December 20), having gone far to reestablish the monarchy and the church on the
old lines. In an effort to defuse the discontent mounting among the Presbyterians in
parliament and in the City of London, Charles had issued a proclamation on Octo-
ber 25 offering, on a temporary basis, to accommodate Presbyterians and most
incumbent ministers in a national church with a circumscribed episcopacy and flex-
ibility in worship, until an inclusive synod could settle matters of doctrine and
liturgy.^29 But parliament pointedly declined such a settlement: instead, high-church
bishops were appointed, large numbers of Presbyterian clergy were removed from
livings so as to restore sequestered Anglicans and appoint new men, and local mag-
istrates enforced the use of the Prayer Book. Milton could take no joy in the accu-
racy of his predictions in The Readie & Easie Way about the folly of Presbyterian
hopes for accommodation. More dismaying still were the repressive measures en-
acted in response to the uprising on January 6, 1661 led by the Fifth Monarchist
Thomas Venner, whose little party of thirty-five or forty men was taken to be the
vanguard of widespread sectarian conspiracies. All religious meetings of Anabaptists,
Quakers, and other radical Independents and sects were forbidden, local militias
enthusiastically searched out suspected sectaries, especially Quakers, and more than
4,500 Friends were put in prison within six weeks.^30 Even before Venner’s uprising
John Bunyan had been jailed for preaching.