Notes to Chapter 182 For his “noble” schools, the Hartlib circle member John Dury proposed a similar pro-
gression of subjects and books. His treatise The Reformed School (London, 1650) seems to
have adopted several features from Milton’s treatise in a gesture of accommodation,
especially the study of poetics.
83 Martin Bucer, De Regno Christi ad Edw. VI (Basel, 1577).
84 The Judgement of Martin Bucer, concerning Divorce, Writt’n to Edward the sixt, in his second
Book of the Kingdom of Christ. And now Englist. Wherin a late Book restoring the Doctrine
and Discipline of Divorce, is heer confirm’d and justify’d by the authoritie of Martin Bucer
(London: Matthew Simmons, 1644). Milton translates chapters 15–47 of the second
book, and argues from Bucer’s dedication that he meant his treatise especially for
England.
85 Page 479. He rather overstates Erasmus’s freedom to publish; his Institution of Christian
Marriage was placed on the Index in 1559 and later expurgated.
86 He also translated sections describing early Christian emperors who recognized several
causes for divorce, and on Roman law which allowed divorce by mutual consent with-
out stated cause.
87 Classic statements of the secularist position are Henry Robinson, Liberty of Conscience: or
the Sole Means to Obtaine Peace and Truth (London, 1644) published around March 24,
and William Walwyn’s Compassionate Samaritane (London, 1644), published anony-
mously in June or July. Both also argue briefly for a free press.
88 John Goodwin’s Theomachia (London, 1644, c. October 4) argues for very broad tolera-
tion, but excludes things “certainly known” to be not from God. Henry Burton’s A
Vindication of Churches, Commonly Called Independent (London, 1644, c. November 14)
denies the magistrate any power over conscience but gives him the duty of protecting
and defending religion, so that he need not tolerate the open practice of popery or
extreme heterodoxy.
89 Williams published anonymously his Queries of Highest Consideration (London, 1644, c.
February 9) which defends absolute religious liberty as the only means to safeguard the
true spiritual church from the world. That argument is developed at greater length in
his most famous tolerationist plea, The Bloudy Tenent, of Persecution, for the Cause of
Conscience Discussed (London, 1644, c. July 15).
90 Mans Mortalitie was published anonymously in London, c. January 19, 1644, but with
false publication data (Amsterdam, 1643) to deflect the censors. The second edition
appeared a few months later. Milton was probably not yet a Mortalist but would be-
come one.
91 Palmer, Glasse of Gods Providence (London, 1644), title page and page 57. On August 14
the Commons thanked Palmer for his sermon and ordered it printed.
92 Journal of the House of Commons, III, 606. The Westminster Assembly also urged parlia-
ment to suppress several offenders: Anabaptists, Antinomians, Seekers, the Independent
tolerationist John Goodwin, the Mortalist Overton and the Divorcer Milton.
93 Oliver Cromwell, Writings and Speeches, 4 vols, ed. W. C. Abbott (Cambridge, 1937), I,
- The reputation of parliament’s top generals was in decline. Essex’s defeat in Corn-
wall by the king’s armies freed the king to march back to Oxford, threatening a new
attack on London. In the very fierce Battle of Newbury (October 27) the king probably
had the worst of it, but many thought that Generals Waller and Manchester had not
pressed their advantage.
Notes to Chapter 6