INTRODUCTION

I. ENGLAND IN MILTON'S YOUTH

Among English men of letters there is none whose life and work stand in more intimate relation with the history of his times than those of Milton. Not only was he for a long period immersed in political controversy and public business, but there are few of his important works which do not become more significant in the light of contemporary events, and in turn help the understanding of these events themselves. Both by temperament and by circumstances he was destined to be much more than an interested onlooker during the momentous struggles which had begun to trouble the peace of England at the time he reached manhood; and it is by no accident that his most adequate biography is at the same time a history of his country for three-quarters of a century.

At the time of Milton's birth in 1608, England was passing through a period of transition. Much of that remarkable vigor and abundance of life which had characterized the age of Elizabeth still remained; and the drama, the most typical expression of that age in literature, had hardly begun

to decline. Yet, with the change of dynasty at the union of the crowns of England and Scotland in 1603, there had appeared a tendency to depart from the policy of toleration which had made possible the united patriotism of the preceding reign. The new King, James I, had definite preferences in religious matters, and insisted on making them felt. Lines of cleavage, which had before been only vaguely traceable, broadened into dividing gulfs, and the religious world began more and more to break up into sects and parties. The antagonisms between these, already in many cases present during the reign of Elizabeth, were strengthened when, in the time of Charles I, political issues were added to ecclesiastical; and the hostility and intolerance grew more and more acute, until, in 1642, difference of opinion culminated in the horrors of civil war.

Theoretically, all Englishmen were members of the Established Church. But in practice there were two important groups outside the Anglican fold, the Roman Catholics and the Protestant Separatists. Under Elizabeth, the persecution of the Roman Catholics had varied in intensity according to the requirements of the political situation. Thus, when a Catholic power like Spain threatened the national safety, considerable rigor was used to prevent Catholic risings at home. Similarly, in the reign of James, the alarm caused

by the Gunpowder Plot in 1605 led to the exercise of oppressive measures against the same religion. On the other hand, during the negotiations with Spain for a marriage between the Infanta and Prince Charles (1617-1623), these measures were naturally relaxed; and this relaxation continued after 1624, when Charles married Henrietta Maria of France, who was, like the Infanta, a Catholic. Queen Henrietta's influence in this direction remained operative throughout her husband's reign, and had the additional effect of increasing the suspicion with which the Puritans regarded the ecclesiastical policy of the court party.

At the opposite extreme from the Roman Catholic dissenters were the Protestant Separatists, who had left the church of their own accord. Many of them emigrated to Holland, and, later, to America, while others, chiefly Independents and Baptists, attempted, in defiance of the law, to follow their own modes of worship in secret. These last sects were, numerically, unimportant.

Inside the Church there were two great parties, the Prelatists and the Puritans. The Prelatists were those who were on the whole satisfied with the established Episcopacy; and at the accession of James I they probably numbered about ninetenths of the whole Church. The attitude of the Puritans at that time is defined by a petition which they presented to James shortly after his

arrival in England. In this document they objected to certain administrative abuses, such as the inefficiency of some of the clergy and the holding of church livings by absentees, whether clerical or lay, who drew a large part of the tithes and hired a vicar on a small salary to care for the parish. More significant was their request to be relieved from compulsory participation in certain of the ceremonies of the Church, such as the wearing of surplices, the use of the Cross in baptism, the observation of holy days (except Sabbath, which they wished to have observed more strictly), and bowing at the name of Jesus. The doctrinal differences which became so important later were not mentioned.

The Puritans gained less than nothing by their petition. The next Convocation of the Clergy (1603-1604) passed a number of canons reaffirming the necessity of the ritual to which objection had been made, and denying the right to dissent. The laws against Nonconformists were more strictly enforced, and many were imprisoned or banished. The effect on the Puritans was seen in the appearance of numerous pamphlets, printed in Holland or secretly in England, protesting against the action of the Prelatists, and in some cases arguing for Independency or Presbyterianism.

On the appointment of a Low Church Archbishop in 1611, the struggle slackened somewhat;

but about 1619 a new element of great importance was introduced. This was the appearance of what was called Arminianism, a doctrinal opposition to the Calvinistic beliefs that salvation was possible only for those predestined to it, and that those who were so elected by God to be saved were incapable of resisting His grace. The situation was complicated for James, who was himself a Calvinist, by the fact that the men of Arminian tendencies were those who were most zealous in the support of Prelacy and the royal prerogative. He attempted to solve the difficulty by issuing Directions to Preachers, in which he forbade any clergyman below the degree of Dean to preach on the disputed questions at all; but, as might have been expected, this interference with the liberty of discussion on both sides did little to reassure the Puritans, who saw in the Arminianism of the Prelatists only one more indication of their leanings toward Rome. In fact, many who had taken no part with the Puritans in the agitation against ceremonial were forced to join them by the appearance of this new theological issue.

It was at this juncture that there stepped into the front rank among the leaders in church and state, a man who in a few years became, by force of the definiteness of his views and the restlessness of his energy, the chief agent in hurrying the nation toward the terrible conflict that lay before it.