“Our Expiring Libertie” 1658–1660He completed and published the tract after their July 27 vote to continue tithes,^46
formally aligning himself with those determined to regard that vote merely as an
interim decision. He urged the Rump to emulate commonwealths that invite pub-
lic comment on laws before they “pass to a full establishment” (278). His radical
case for separation of church and state marshals all the usual sectarian arguments for
abolishing not only tithes but any public maintenance for the clergy, and for deny-
ing ministers’ need for university education, or ordination, or state approval. This
tract carries to its logical conclusion Milton’s disposition from the time of the
antiprelatical tracts to deny any essential distinction between clergy and laity: he
now asserts categorically that anyone called by the Spirit can perform any church
office. But his proposed separation of church and state was unacceptable to many
dedicated republicans: James Harrington challenged Milton’s tract directly, insist-
ing that a commonwealth must have a national religion and an endowed ministry,
with wide toleration guaranteed, since otherwise the major part of the nation are
deprived of their liberty of conscience and will then, inevitably, deprive the minor
part of theirs.^47
Milton’s enthusiastic welcome to the Rump contrasts sharply with his denuncia-
tion and rejection of that body in 1653. He also seems to repudiate Oliver Cromwell,
whom he had hailed as a savior in 1654, as well as the Protectorate regime which he
had served for more than five years. He calls the Rump,
next under God, the authors and best patrons of religious and civil libertie, that ever
these Ilands brought forth. The care and tuition of whose peace and safety, after a
short but scandalous night of interruption, is now again by a new dawning of Gods
miraculous providence among us, revolvd upon your shoulders. (274)Along with others who had also repudiated the Rump and supported Cromwell,
Milton has persuaded himself that a return to the Commonwealth’s first form is a
providential act making possible a hopeful new beginning. As the author of A Short
Discourse concerning the work of God in this Nation put it, the return of the Rump is a
sure sign of God again owning the Cause and this parliament.^48 Despite the appar-
ent difficulty of reading Milton’s term “short” as a reference to the entire Protec-
torate era, similar usages with that meaning are common: Woolrych points to a
pamphlet of May, 1659, rejoicing in “this morning of Freedom, after a short, but a
sharp night of Tyranny and oppression,” during which Oliver, the “Grand Back-
slider,” led the army astray.^49 I think this is Milton’s meaning, but I doubt that he
thinks he was wrong about the Rump’s grave failings in 1653, or about Oliver’s
great promise at the beginning of the Protectorate: unlike many others, he does not
describe his support of the Protectorate as backsliding. Rather, his phrase implies
that Cromwell had disappointed the high hopes once fairly vested in him: in the
Second Defense Milton had solemnly warned him that the wrong would be grievous
if he did not promote liberty. Milton could conscientiously continue working in