Notes to Chapter 1sions,” ELN 18 (1981), 266–82; Thomas Kranidas, “Style and Rectitude in Seven-
teenth-century Prose: Hall, Smectymnuus, and Milton,” Huntington Library Quarterly
46 (1983), 237–48; James Egan, “Creator–Critic: Aesthetic Subtexts in Milton’s
Antiprelatical and Regicide Polemics,” MS 30 (1993),49; and Anselment, Betwixt Jest
and Ernest, 61–93.
62 Page 676–7. On the basis of this passage, the anonymous author who answered Milton’s
tract inferred Milton’s own licentious character and lifestyle, to which Milton takes
furious umbrage in the Apology. See p. 139.
63 Pages 727–8. Continuing the metaphor, he claims the freedom of sons to be obedient
only to their true mother, the reformed catholic church as a whole.
64 A minister is not made by ordination but by “the calling of God... and his own
painfull study and diligence.” The laity is well able to judge the fitness of ministers
(CPW I, 715). A “plaine unlearned man that lives well by the light which he has” is a
better pastor than “a hireling Clergy though never so learned” (720). A “true Pastor of
Christs sending... requires either nothing, if he could so subsist, or a very common
and reasonable supply of humane necessaries” (721).
65 A Grand Remonstrance Presented to the King at Hampton Court, Dec. 1, 1641 in the Name of
the Commons of England, in John Rushworth, Historical Collections of Private Papers of
State, 8 vols (London, 1721–2), IV, 438–51.
66 Rushworth, Historical Collections IV, 425, 428.
67 Reason of Church-governement (London, 1641 [1642]). The date of writing is indicated by
references to the Irish uprising and the imprisonment of the twelve bishops, and the
absence of reference to the episode of the five members. The publication date indicates
publication sometime before March 25, 1642, when the year changed according to the
Julian Calendar.
68 Certain Briefe Treatises (Oxford, 1641). Extracts from the authors – Richard Hooker,
Launcelot Andrewes, James Ussher, Martin Bucer, John Rainolds, Edward Brerewood,
Francis Mason, and John Dury – are presented in three separate tracts within this collec-
tion, each with its own title page: A Summarie View of the Government Both of the Old and
New Testament (Andrewes and Hooker); The Originall of Bishops and Metropolitans; briefly
laid downe (Bucer, Rainolds, Ussher, Brerewood); The Validity of the Ordination of the
Minis[t]ers of the Reformed Churches Beyond the Seas (Mason and Dury). The collection
was most likely published by Ussher.
69 See CPW I, 748. Thomason obtained some 90 tracts in December, 1641, 200 in Janu-
ary, 1642, and 160 in February. In The Humble Petition of Many Thousand Poor People “of
the meanest rank and quality” (January 31, 1642) the signatories lament their economic
woes and blame them on the bishops and the Catholic lords of the Privy Council. On
the same day The Humble Petition of 15000 Poore Labouring Men, Known by the Name of
Porters, and the Lowest Members of the Citie of London decry the decline of trade and warn
that they would soon be forced to extremities if not relieved. February 4, 1642, brought
two petitions from women: one of them, The Humble Petition of Many Hundreds of
Distressed Women, Trades-mens Wives, and Widdowes, complained mainly of the bishops,
the Catholic lords, and the abuses of religion.
70 Stephen Marshall, Meroz Cursed or, A Sermon preached to the honourable Houses of Com-
mons... February 23, 1641 (London, 1641 [1642]). The text is Judges 5:23, “ ‘Curse ye
Meroz,’ said the angel of the Lord, ‘curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because
Notes to Chapter 5