John Milton

John Milton (December 9, 1608 – November 8, 1674) was an English poet, most famous for his blank verse epic Paradise Lost. He is also remembered for authoring the brief epic Paradise Regained, the closet drama Samson Agonistes, the monody Lycidas, and Areopagitica, a prose work that condemns pre-publishing censorship.

Milton, Polemicist against Episcopacy

The next twenty years were devoted almost entirely to prose work in the service of the Puritan and Parliamentary cause, although some of his beliefs were unconventional to the point of heresy. In 1641 and 1642 Milton penned the tractates Of Reformation touching Church Discipline in England, Of Prelatical Episcopacy, the two defenses of Smectymnuus (an organization of protestant divines named after their initials), and The Reason of Church Government Urged against Prelaty. With frequent passages of real eloquence lighting up the rough controversial style of the period, and with a wide knowledge of ecclesiastical antiquity, he vigorously attacked the High-church party of the Church of England.

Related Topics:
Prose - Puritan - 1641 - 1642 - Of Reformation - Smectymnuus - The Reason of Church Government - Church of England

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His discussions with Hartlib and Comenius led him to write in 1644 a short tract (On Education) urging a reform of the national universities; and in the same year appeared the most popular of his prose writings, Areopagitica, a Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing.

Related Topics:
Hartlib - Comenius - 1644 - On Education - Areopagitica

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