''Defension Secunda'' was a 1654 political tract by
John Milton
John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet and intellectual. His 1667 epic poem '' Paradise Lost'', written in blank verse and including over ten chapters, was written in a time of immense religious flux and political ...
, a sequel to his ''
Defensio pro Populo Anglicano
''Defensio pro Populo Anglicano'' is a Latin polemic by John Milton, published in 1651. The full title in English is ''John Milton an Englishman His Defence of the People of England.'' It was a piece of propaganda, and made political argument i ...
''. It is a defence of the Parliamentary regime, by then controlled by
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
; and also defense of his own reputation against a royalist tract published under the name
Salmasius
Claude Saumaise (15 April 1588 – 3 September 1653), also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar.
Life
Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy. His father, a counsellor of the parlement of Dijon, se ...
in 1652, and others criticism lodged against him.
Background
Only a few months after Cromwell was made
Lord Protector
Lord Protector (plural: ''Lords Protector'') was a title that has been used in British constitutional law for the head of state. It was also a particular title for the British heads of state in respect to the established church. It was sometimes ...
over England, Milton published a tract titled ''Pro Populo Anglicano Defensio Secunda''. The work was one of the last times that Milton discussed Cromwell's character.
[Keeble 2003 p. 134] It is a defence of the Parliamentary regime, controlled by Cromwell, and sought the support of a European audience. In addition to this purpose, the work serves a reply to the attacks on his ''Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce'' by
Herbert Palmer Herbert Palmer may refer to:
*Herbert Palmer (Puritan) (1601–1647), Puritan writer
* Herbert James Palmer (1851–1939), Canadian politician, Premier of Prince Edward Island
*Herbert Richmond Palmer (1877–1958), British colonial governor
*Herb ...
[Wheeler 2003 p. 134] and attacks on his ''Defensio pro Populo Anglicano'' by Salmasius. A further anonymous pamphlet attack from the royalist side, ''Regii sanguinis clamor ad coelum'', he rebutted with an ''ad hominem'' attack on
Alexander Morus
Alexander Morus (or Moir or More) (25 September 1616, Castres – 28 September 1670, Paris) was a Franco-Scottish Protestant preacher.
Biography
More's father, born in Scotland, was a rector at a Huguenot college in the town of Castres in Langue ...
, whom Milton wrongly took to be the actual author (who was in fact
Pierre Du Moulin
Pierre Du Moulin ( Latinized as Petrus Molinaeus; 16 October 1568 – 10 March 1658) was a Huguenot minister in France who also resided in England for some years.
Life
Born in Buhy in 1568, he was the son of Joachim Du Moulin, a Protestant minis ...
). Milton used scurrilous gossip against Morus; scholars have decided that his sources of scandal were at least reasonably accurate.
However, the act of writing further strained his failing eyes, to the extent that he could no longer rely on his sight.
[Rumrich 2003 p. 154]
Tract
Milton begins his work by addressing claiming to fight for truth and freedom who will help reform Europe:
:"I have in the ''First Defence'' spoken out and shall in the ''Second'' speak again to the entire assembly and council of all the most influential men, cities, and nations everywhere".
[Milton 1966 p. 554]
He continues by discussing parts of his life, and explains why he writes instead of fighting as a soldier:
:"I did not avoid the toils and dangers of military service without rendering to my fellow citizens another kind of service that was much more useful and no less perilous".
After defending why he writes, Milton explains his purpose in writing:
It is the renewed cultivation of freedom and civic life that I disseminate throughout cities, kingdoms, and nations. But not entirely unknown, nor perhaps unwelcome, shall I return if I am he who disposed of the contentious satellite of tyrants, hitherto deemed unconquerable, both in the view of most men and in his own opinion. When he with insults was attacking us and our battle array, and our leaders looked first of all to me, I met him in single combat and plunged into his reviling throat this pen, the weapon of his choice.
After Milton was accused of being a worse person than Cromwell, he wrote in the work
that it was "the highest praise you could bestow on me". Later in the tract, Milton discusses his ''
Areopagitica
''Areopagitica; A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parlament of England'' is a 1644 prose polemic by the English poet, scholar, and polemical author John Milton opposing licensing and censorship. ''Areop ...
'' and argues that in the work, he warns against the idea of truth being determined by a limited few.
Milton also discusses his early
divorce tracts, claiming that they were a discussion of religious freedom, domestic freedom, and civil freedom, the "three varieties of liberty without which civilized life is scarcely possible".
Themes
Milton, through the work, becomes a defender of the individual against the control of a government or religious authority.
He also attacks the concept of titles and other forms of pomp, a theme that reoccurs later in the figure of Satan from his ''
Paradise Lost
''Paradise Lost'' is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse (poetry), verse. A second edition fo ...
''. Besides discussing his views on politics, Milton dwells on parts of his biography, including a description of his early years with education and literature.
[Lares 2001 p. 23]
Notes
References
* Keeble, N. H. "Milton and Puritanism" in ''A Companion to Milton''. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
* Lares, Jameela. ''Milton and the Preaching Arts''. Pittsburg: Duquesne University Press, 2001.
* Loewenstein, David. "The Radical Religious Politics of ''Paradise Lost''" in ''A Companion to Milton''. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
* Milton, John. ''Complete Prose Works of John Milton'' Vol IV Ed. Don Wolfe. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966.
* Patterson, Annabel. "Milton, Marriage and Divorce" in ''A Companion to Milton''. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
* Rumrich, John. "Radical Heterodoxy and Heresy" in ''A Companion to Milton''. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
* Wheeler, Elizabeth. "Early Political Prose" in ''A Companion to Milton''. Ed. Thomas Corns. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.
* Wootton, David. ''Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649-1776''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994.
{{Authority control
1654 books
Works by John Milton
17th-century Latin books