Notes to Chapter 1were elected and could be freely deposed until the time of Hugh Capet (461). From
Guicciardini, Sesellius, Peter Martyr, and Sleiden, he concludes that the German and
Greek emperors swear to abide by conditions (436); that the king of France submits to
decrees of parliament, which is called “the ‘bridle’ of the king” (458); and that the Holy
Roman Emperor may be forced to abide by his agreements “by arms if it cannot be
done otherwise” (456).
36 Known as the Treaty of Oxford.
37 See Fredrick S. Siebert, Freedom of the Press in England, 1476–1776 (Urbana, Ill., 1952),
165–201. An order of January 29, 1642 provided simply that all publications carry the
name of the author or printer. Two subsequent orders attempted more control, but
were largely ineffectual: that of August 26, 1642 provided that no book or pamphlet
publish anything “false or scandalous, to the proceedings of the Houses of parliament,”
and that of March 9, 1643 extended the scope of the previous Act to all “scandalous and
lying Pamphlets.” In April, 1643 the Stationers had petitioned parliament to reinstate
and strengthen their traditional powers to control publication.
38 The 1637 decree forbade anyone to print, import, or sell “any seditious, schismaticall,
or offensive Bookes or Pamphlets” or any publication not first licensed and entered in
the Stationers Register; the names of author and printer had to be affixed to all texts; the
number of master printers was limited to twenty and the number of presses, journey-
men and apprentices was also fixed; unlicensed presses were forbidden. The Stationers
Company was given powers of search and seizure.
39 Of the 149 members 119 were divines: the rest were parliament members – 10 from the
Lords, 20 from the Commons, among them the Erastian John Selden.
40 Thomas Goodwin, Phillip Nye, William Bridges, Jeremiah Burroughs, and Sidrach
Simpson; all had recently returned from exile in Holland. In An Apologeticall Narration,
published in early January, 1644, addressed to parliament, and signed by the five, they
distinguished their “non-separating” position sharply from that of the separatist sects.
41 Milton declared in Tetrachordon that he “saw, and was partaker, of your Vows and
solemne Cov’nants” (CPW II, 578).
42 A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defense of Religion, the honour and
happiness of the king, and the Peace and Safety of England, Scotland, and Ireland (London,
1643, September 21), 2–3.
43 Phillips indicates (EL 66) that Milton “often visited” Blackborough, who lived in the
nearby lane of St Martins Le Grand. Milton’s sonnet on the death of Catharine Thomason
(1646) suggests a personal and probably long-standing relationship. Alexander Gil, Jr.,
had died in 1642.
44 Patterson, “No Meer Amatorious Novel?” in David Loewenstein and James Grantham
Turner, eds, Politics, Poetics, and Hermeneutics in Milton’s Prose (Cambridge, 1990), 92.
45 The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (London: T. P. and M. S. in Goldsmiths Alley,
1643). T. P. was Thomas Payne; M. S. was Matthew Simmons.
46 The epigraph to the first edition justifies Milton’s engagement with this issue and claims
the status of public benefactor: “Matth. 13.52. Every Scribe instructed to the Kingdome
of Heav’n, is like the Maister of a house which bringeth out of his treasurie things old
and new.”
47 One such myth is a revision of Plato’s allegory on the birth of Love from (male) Plenty
and (female) Penury. Milton turns the gendered couple into abstractions so as to associ-
Notes to Chapter 6