“The So-called Council of State” 1649–1652He was also gratified by reports of the sensation the book was causing in learned
circles abroad, in anticipation and at publication.^111 Europeans appear to have been
delighted by the contest, watching with grudging admiration to see the great
Salmasius equaled or bested by an unknown Englishman. They also appreciated
Milton’s Latin and his rhetoric, whatever they thought of his ideas. Milton was
surely pleased to hear that by March 14/24 twenty-five copies had been ordered for
members of the Dutch government.^112 On March 30 a correspondent from The
Hague wrote that Salmasius’s ill health might prevent his expected reply to “Milton’s
book, which here is very much applauded.”^113 On July 1, a letter from Leyden
reported that Milton’s book had been burned in Toulouse and Paris, “for fear of
making State-Heretiques,” that its doctrine “begins to be studied and disputed more
of late,” and that it would be still more eagerly sought after the burning.^114 On July
9/19, a correspondent from Paris wrote:
M. Milton’s Book hath been burnt by the hands of the common Executioner.... It
is so farr liked and approved by the ingenuous sort of men, that all the Copies, sent
hither out of the Low-Countries were long since dispersed, and it was designed here
for the Press, whereof notice being taken, it is made Treason for any to print, vend, or
have it in posssession; so great a hatred is born to any piece that speaks liberty and
Freedom to this miserable people.^115A largely erroneous but often-repeated story had it that Milton’s book led Queen
Christina of Sweden to reverse her former high opinion of Salmasius, causing him
to flee her court in disgrace and decline into an early death.^116 Salmasius’s enemies
and rivals, Isaac Vossius and Nicholaas Heinsius, were prime movers in circulating
this tale, as well as other disparaging gossip about Salmasius as a henpecked husband
and disgraced scholar.^117 Still, Vossius’s report of his own, and the queen’s, surprise
to discover the unknown Milton’s learning and stylistic excellence is credible: “I
had expected nothing of such quality from an Englishman”; “In the presence of
many, she [Christina] spoke highly of the genius of the man, and his manner of
writing.”^118 Not surprisingly, Milton believed the reports of Salmasius’s disgrace at
Christina’s court. In 1654 he made that story part of his self-construction as an epic
hero who, on the field of polemic battle, conquered and humiliated the scholar of
giant reputation, Salmasius:
When he with insults was attacking us and our battle array, and our leaders looked
first of all to me, I met him in single combat and plunged into his reviling throat this
pen, the weapon of his own choice. And (unless I wish to reject outright and dispar-
age the views and opinions of so many intelligent readers everywhere, in no way
bound or indebted to me) I bore off the spoils of honor. That this is actually the truth
and no empty boast finds ready proof in the following event – which I believe did not
occur without the will of God.... When Salmasius had been courteously summoned
by Her Most Serene Majesty, the Queen of the Swedes (whose devotion to the liberal